discussion camera options

[Dzzope]

My 5 c's.

SLR or not should be decided by 2 things..

1) How much control you want over the settings and therefore the picture produced.

2) How portable you want it to be.

The biggest problem I have with my Nikon is simply it's weight. Since moving to Kiev I've barely used it apart from a few occasions. This is because I used to leave it in my car and getting it around or putting it away after I'd used it was a non-issue. Now I'm on foot I have to lug it around. For Nikon vs cannon I tend to find Nikon is much better quality (build quality). It feels solid in my hands and the lens action is always smooth not to mention some great optics.

(Please note I'm talking entry DSLR not pro, thats a whole other ball game.)

Canon has always felt cheap plastic and flimsy to me. The action on the lense isn't near as smooth and Ive seen multiple cameras where the kit 18-55mm or 18 - 105 mm lenses start sticking a bit after a few months. That said they do tend to be MUCH lighter and slightly more compact than the nikons.

If you do go Dslr, I would go second-hand (I did on my first 3 cameras and no issues, make sure you get a shutter actuation count though as they are limited before failure). Get the best of the smaller ones you can get your hands on.. Or maybe just something pretty good and an extra lens or 2 and some uv filters (helps keep the lens clean too)

As for ultima's camera. it's a very good one (actually I still have my d90) more than enough for a beginner and the 18 - 105 lens is very welcome over the 55.. Basically the same camera as the (I think) 5200 (correct me if I'm wrong here guys but I know the 90 was refreshed into the new line). Not sure I would pay that much but then I've been out of the used camera loop for a while now and no idea how much they go for.

Last thing I'll say is to get someone to go through a few cameras with you in a store, find a feel for the camera and judge which will be best for your needs.

With DSLR, feel in the hand is important, take some pics, get a good feel for it and get the basics explained to you (Aperture, shutter speed and ISO for a start)
If you do go DSLR, make sure there is easy ways to change all 3 of these without diving into menu's, you will be changing them allot in changing light and pressing a button while rolling a dial while you take test pics is much better than fumbling through menu's.

First DSLR I used was a D60 and cannon eos equivelant... never liked the cannon. But I would get a second-hand bottom of the range (or close) smaller - lighter, simpler and cheaper one to start.
Remembering that if you get into it the lenses should fit the big brothers(do be careful of the mounts if you get into more lenses).

Great site for camrea reviews:
Digital Photography Review

 

[enaberif]

Zope you said one thing perfectly. A DSLR is MUCH larger and for those instant moments that you just want to take pictures a point and shoot is the better route. If your willing to setup the camera and such a DSLR is so much better but it is heavier and more cumbersome for those out and about pictures.

 

[Dzzope]

Yea, I use my phone when not needing the dslr. to be honest it's fine for point and click stuffs.

If you can see them... the first few (sunsets) were taken on a Nikon D60 with the kit 18-55mm and the others were on my d90 with the 18-105 mm.. obviously reduced allot in size.
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/members/dzzope-albums-photography.html

If you want low light shooting (without flash, I hate using the flash) then you'll want to look into a faster lense (meaning the f stop (f 1.4 etc) which is the aperture size)

Allows much more light in without having to reduce the shutter speed or up the ISO (meaning less blur and better quality) though with a much reduced depth of field (less will be in focus)

 

[WolfBane]

i have been running a nikon D50 for years now with many diff lens and love it !
Now i know it is a very old DSLR but with the right glass and settings it still takes fantastic pics..

 

[KaptCrunch]

Canon Rebel T3 $520 a good starter and does video can find cheaper for the rebel4's are out or wait for boxing day

 

[fortkentdad]

You had also asked about software in your original post, I'd made a few comments about that earlier but want to point you to a great forum for Adobe Elements users. Elements Village.

Elements is like Photoshop-lite - it probably does about 80+ % of what the full blown program does. Once you have mastered Elements you would then know if you want to move to the full Photoshop program which is now sold as a monthly subscription. (Adobe is getting lots of flak for that and competitors like Corel are making the most of this restriction - really sucks for those of us in rural areas where high speed internet ain't happening for a long long time).

 

[lowfat]

I honestly only ever use Lightroom for editing. Photoshop just takes too much time if you are doing a ton of pictures. Lightroom is also considerably cheaper.

 

[moocow]

At a novice level, Lightroom is good enough. Personally, it's more important to set up the shutter speed and aperture properly, isn't this the whole point of learning how to shoot?

 

[lowfat]

Lighting is more important than anything. Doesn't matter what kind of camera you have.

Lightroom is plenty powerful. I wouldn't say it is just for novices.

 

[moocow]

I didn't mean Pros shouldn't use Lightroom, I'm saying there's no need to move up the Photoshop. Lighting is another thing to learn, especially if you're doing indoor shooting like weddings. Took me 3 weddings to produce something reasonable. Shutter speed matters if you're shooting moving objects. Aperture matters when you're dealing with Field of Depth. All 3 + ISO setting will play into Exposure levels. While in Lightroom, you can can fix Exposure (to a point), you can't fix object sharpness and DOF.