Photography: What camera to buy

[Starvekos]

The small Fuji Finepix point and shoot camera that has served me well over the last 2 - 3 years is a bit long in the tooth and I need to start considering an upgrade.

I spoke to Woodie last weekend and he gave me sound advice on DSLRs. Now I am interested to hear from guys that have experience in photography beyond capturing cell phones for network operators, white cars and caravans.

Use
Taking pictures at family gatherings, vacations but mostly taking pictures of my detailing process. In general, I think I take about 30 pictures per week if I am detailing or down to 10 pics a week where there is no detailing.

Price
Maximum R5,000

Consideration
I've seen a few a few retailers selling the Nikon D40 DSLR (body, standard lense, carry case, memory card, free photography course). I am told that this is the bare bones entry level DSLR. I've held the camera and it feels comfortable. However, I wonder whether a DSLR might be overkill for me. My wife may be reluctant to carry this camera over and above her hand bag and I've never aspired to carry moon bags ala 1990's trends.

Below that, there are a number of options but I don't trust the sales people I've spoken to. I get the feeling that they are pushing old stock or products that are about to be replaced or they are slow moving products. Even with my best attempts to throw in terms that make me sound like an informed brother (optical zoom, aperture, sensors...).

Comments would be highly appreciated.

[freerider]

I have heard only good things about the Nikon D40, and I think the ONLY way to go now is DSLR as I have seen the clarity and amazing pics you can capture with a DSLR cam

[whattingh]

I don't know much about camera's but have found a method that help with most electronics.
Use a site like http://www.pricecheck.co.za/ and use their filters top get some ideas off camera's that fall in budget. Then make a shortlist and find and read reviews on the net. Yes one can not always trust what other people on the internet say but you could form your own ideas from what they are complaining/raving about.

These days it is getting harder and harder to pick out what to buy.

Good luck

[MeTsU]

Siya, the Nikon D40 is a great piece of kit. Yea, it's an entry level DSLR, but it's a good bang for buck camera.

I'm definitely pro DSLR and feel it's the way to go. I am more of a Canon man to be honest. Canon have recently released it's 1000D, which has shaken things up a little - unforuntately, it's in the R6500 price bracket, thus out of your budget. Canon's 350D is more in your budget range - some can be found for just over R5k.

It's a hard choice. It's also hard to say why choose this over that. The best thing to do, (seems like you've already done this) is to go and hold each of the bodys, see which feels best to you and take it from there. The kit lense will be good for the basic stuff, but as you progress and want more, you can look at getting another piece of glass.

[Carn]

Siya I am in a similar predicament, I need/want a replacement for my aging Sony DSC-P32 and considered a SLR but think I will stick with a P&S for the time being. I found an interesting thread over on DW regarding the very same question the other day, you can view it here.

One of the most pertinent posts from the thread, and the one that has helped me decide to stick with a P&S for the time being is this one :

"Everyone always shouts 'buy a DSLR' but that ISNT ALWAYS THE BEST SOLUTION!

If you are not going to invest the time in learning how to make the most of the manual control offered by a DSLR, then its a waste of time and money. DSLR's are bigger, heavier, dont fit in a pocket, take more skill to get good results from and need more kit and £ to get the same range of options offered by a quality compact.

I have both - DSLRs AND several compacts, and wouldnt be without either. My decent compacts offer image quality that is comparable to my Canon 5D unless you want to blow up pictures to A3 or bigger, or shoot in extremely low light. They offer almost the same degree of manual control (Ricoh GR-D) and I even get great wide angle from them - my Ricoh has a 28mm equivalent lens. The compacts drop in my pocket and travel everywhere with me. To get the same flexibility from my DSLR I need to pack a bag with quite some kit...

I'm packing right now for 4 days in the Swiss Alps tomorrow. I am VERY much torn between what to carry - a big bag that covers 17-200mm with batteries & cards, hoods etc, or my small compacts that will fit in a shirt pocket.

With practice and some skill you can get the results from a quality compact that most people cant achieve from a 'must have' DSLR - trust me"

Also Siya if you are wanting anything from the Canon range let me know, I have a friend who works there and I can get stuff from him at cost

I am more than likely going to get myself the Canon S5 IS

It is an 8.0mp with 12X zoom, macro mode (for taking cool close ups of bugs and flowers and stuffs) and also has a swivel mounted screen so you can take pics from all kinds of crazy angles without having to roll around in the dirt

There is an indepth full review on the S5 IS here .

The RRP on them is R4499 but they often on special for around R3999. I can pick one up for R3160excl from Canon. There is also the SX10 IS which is the S5 IS's 10mp replacement that will be here shortly as well (end of the month they say) but will be retailing at around R4999 so cost would probably be around R4400 or thereabouts

At the end of the day I think you need to decide how far you wanting to go and how much $$$$ you wanting to spend. A DSLR is really only as good as the lens attached to it, I'm not sure on the Nikon's but the Canon L series lenses are the big daddy's as far as IQ is concerned....be prepared to bend over without lube when buying one though

[Woodie]

+1 on Carn's post

Check out my post on the Megs forum and you'll see I recommended that you look at the S5 IS and the G9 IS.

Carn - one day when I've managed to save up enough I might ask you to get the best price on a lens for me. I'd really like to get a 70-200 F4 L and a 24-105 L, but they don't come cheap.

[Starvekos]

Gentlemen, many thanks for your views and comments. This is the kind of feedback I needed.

Carn, I may need to call on your contacts to cut out the middleman. Still need to ponder a few other things.

[Carn]

No problem Woodie and Siya, just shout when you ready...every penny helps these days

[08micsta]

Hopefully you have not bought the camera yet. IF you are looking for a decent camera I just bought this on SAturday and it is brilliant. R2100 in total including bag, 1 gig card, UV filter and rechargeable batteries. It takes very clear pictures and is full of useful features. The camera is a Fuji Pinepix S700.

Also take into consideration that DSLR and SLR camera have huge file sizes and you need hardrive space for that. Here are a few pics I took with it yesterday: (Random pics taken)











Expensive does not always mean better.

Mike

[springbok]

Please excuse this question but I am a complete noob when it comes to photograpy.

Can one of you fundi's please give me a condensed and precise description of the difference between a DSLR and a SLR camera.

Thanks

[Carn]

DSLR is a Digital SLR and a SLR is simply that, a SLR. Both are Singe-Lens Reflex type camera's

Lots more info here Springbok

[MeTsU]

08micsta, good deal there on the Fuji Pinepix S700. I've seen some great results from that cam. Nice shots by the way.

[springbok]

So the only difference between the two is the DSLR is "Digital"? A SLR uses film? I thought all cameras these days were digital. Why would anybody want to buy a "film" camera?

Sorry I'm still confused

[calypso]

Artsy fartsy people still like film

[MeTsU]

(26-10-2008 04:49 PM)calypso Wrote:  Artsy fartsy

I guess that's the correct terminology... HAHA!

[Graham Savage]

I have a Fujifilm - I love it toooo bits and I think they are getting cheap cheap now!

[calypso]

Fuji is great, except for their frikken stupid XD cards

[Graham Savage]

Whas wong with the XD cards? I have a 1Gb Fuji Xd in it and a 512Mb Olympoes as back up...

See I have a compact olympoes, BUT the biggest gripe I have with them IS, Baatweees, if the fuji runs out of juice I pull in a shop and hook up 4 AA's or swap with the other set of rechargables I have... the olympoes, eish, you gotta find the charger, the adaptor pull the battree out and wait a couple of hours to charge....

Then, picture this, excuse the pun, you're sitting at the track and you see this ford starting to lose it coming down the mineshaft.... a) you whip out your olympoes, hit the tiny power buttom 3 or 4 times, it switches on SHHHHHWWWWEEEE, askes you, What pics are we taking with a couple of options, then asks what the lighting is like, whats your age, credit card number, ID, street address, height, weight and moms maiden name sweet takle picture, click, no flash FOOKKKK flattery... or b) swing out the fuji, flick the rotary power switch, pull the dust cap off deetdeet take pic click click, high speed, multiple clickclickclickclick gotcha!

Na, fuji follws me wherever I go, Vidoe is good, pics are awesome, it's light, easy easy to use reliable, fast, HARDCORE! and doesn't chow battrees :-)

[calypso]

I dont line it becauise i have so many SD Cards lying around. I hate it when companies make propriety technologies, so they can profit on accesories, when there are decent existing technologies around.
I would think the whole world could run on 4 memory card formats, but there liks nearly 100 now.

[Carn]

(29-10-2008 07:43 AM)calypso Wrote:  I dont line it becauise i have so many SD Cards lying around. I hate it when companies make propriety technologies, so they can profit on accesories, when there are decent existing technologies around.
I would think the whole world could run on 4 memory card formats, but there liks nearly 100 now.

+1 Don't re-invent the wheel