A Good Camera To Start With

[Edd]

Hi All,

Well the wife and I are setting out to buy our first DSLR to do amature/hobby photography with a view to trying to make a small amount of money on the side from it.

I have been looking at DSLR's and I must admit my head is spinning.

Do you guys have any advice or opinions on the better options out there ????

I must admit I do find myself drawn to the Canon EOS 450D, but is this a good entry level camera. We currently have a Canon EOS 500 that I bought for my wife some years ago and we have a Canon EF 75 - 300mm and a Tameron 28 - 80mm lenses which I hope to use on our DSLR.

I have spoken to someone I know of who runs a photographic processing shop and she said the 450D would be fine. She also enquired about budget, and my wife and I have a spilt opinion on this. I say go for the 450D and later move up to something else if required, however my wife believes in making that better purchase now.

The lady from the shop suggested that I'd be better to compromise on the body but not to cut corners on the lenses - what do you guys think????

Thanks in advance for any help or advice that you offer.

[hw771230]

I know little about Canon equipment. However, my opinion is that bodies(especially digital) age quickly, but a good lens will always be a good lens. My advise would be to get a suitable camera, and spend the money on glass. You will keep the great lens much longer than the great camera body.

Caleb

[Edd]

Thanks for that Caleb.

That seems to be a common view I'm finding now.

[Southern Wolf]

something else to consider... make sure the autofocus motor is in the camera body. Lens are cheaper if you dont have to buy one with an autofocus motor built in. Plus there are more choices.

[hw771230]

If you are going to get a Canon, don't worry about the AF motor in the body. They do not make one. All their equipment has AF motors in the lens. That is only a concern with Nikon cameras (which is what Southern Wolf and I shoot).

Caleb

[Edd]

Thanks guys, that is one aspect I hadn't even considered.

I'm assuming that all lenses have a "Standard Fit" connection so that I can use any DSLR with any lense ????

If the auto focus motor is in the body then can I still use my Canon EF 75-300mm lense on that body ????

Is there much of a price difference between lense with or without auto focus ????

Sorry for so many questions, I'm sure we all go through these stages.

But thanks once again.

[hw771230]

Each camera manufacturer has their own lens mount (Canon, Nikon, etc). All Canon EF lenses will fit on their DSLRs. Also the EF-S lenses will fit their camera bodies with the 1.6 crop factor, but not the full frame top of the line bodies. All Nikon F mount lenses will fit all their DSLRs. The problem is that the low end Nikon bodies (D40 and D60) must have lenses with the auto focus motor (AF-s or HSM lenses), otherwise there will be no autofocus.

There are also third party lens companies (Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, etc) who make lenses to fit all these cameras. You just have to match up the lens to the camera's lens mount.

Good Luck. It can take a while to get it all sorted out.

Caleb

[Photography~girl~]

well, I don't have my GOOD camera yet. But we've got an AWESOME camera shop down the raod and the guy there is very honest with cameras. He recomended the Canon Rebel. [I know there is a few diff kind of them....]
buuut when my mom asked "if money is not an issue, which would you recomend?"
he then said, if money was not an issue, to get the Canon 5D. Go big.
anyway, I really know nothing about cameras, this is just what I've been recomended.

[Edd]

Thanks once again guys,

My wife discovered this weekend that Canon are about to launch the 50D, so may just hang fire. Not that I will be buying a 50D but its the impact it has on the prices of the other cameras below it.

Celab, sorry are you saying that the lower end Canon DSLR bodies will receive all Canon lense but cropped by a factor of 1.6, high end bodies have no crop.

How much of the image is lost by the crop of 1.6 ?????

[bob_r]

Ed,

Looks like your wife was correct about Canon launching the 50D. Apparently a site in China released info before the scheduled lauch date. Here's some info about it, although the accuracy may be suspect.

http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/di ... eview.html

I shoot with a 30D and couldn't see enough improvements in the 40D to consider upgrading, but if the specs stated in this review are accurate, I will probably upgrade to the 50D. Some improvements that I'd really welcome are the improved sensor cleaning, the improvement to high ISO settings and the ability to dial in the AF for a particular lens. The AF correction is currently available only on the 1D series of cameras. According to the site above, the release date is expected to be some time in September and the official release info may be available as early as tomorrow.

Bob R

BTW Ed, you don't lose any of the image because of the crop. Whatever you see in the viewfinder will be captured. To get an understanding of the crop factors, just think of it as magnifying your lens' focal length by that factor. Example: If your camera has a 1.6 crop factor, a 300mm lens will give about the same results as a 480mm lens would on a full frame camera. Full frame cameras will normally give you more megapixels and work great for producing wider angle shots, whereas the crop cameras have an advantage when using telephoto lenses.

[Edd]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the info, when I "Googled" it on Saturday one site suggested that there is a large camera exhibition coming up in Germany soon and that could very well be used as the launch for the 50D, as many large manufactures have launched new models at this show in the past.

I went and tried a friends 350D today and it seemed a nice enough camera, however on one shot that I took of a bird feeder hanging off a shed did disappoint me. The camera was set to ISO 200 and the dark eves of the shed were contrasted by the bright but overcast sky (unfortunately I don't have the image). When I looked at this image on their computer, noise was clearly evident in the dark area of the eves without any magnification. Is this normal for DSLR's ???? Some photos I've seen on other peoples websites linked from here clearly don't have this problem. Photo was taken as a Jpeg and not in RAW incase that makes any difference.

Would a higher spec camera remove this "Noise" problem, or am I just being unrealistic ????

She also gave me the same explaination as yourself Bob for the 1.6 crop thingy, thanks once again for that.

Cheers

Ed

[bob_r]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the info, when I "Googled" it on Saturday one site suggested that there is a large camera exhibition coming up in Germany soon and that could very well be used as the launch for the 50D, as many large manufactures have launched new models at this show in the past.

I went and tried a friends 350D today and it seemed a nice enough camera, however on one shot that I took of a bird feeder hanging off a shed did disappoint me. The camera was set to ISO 200 and the dark eves of the shed were contrasted by the bright but overcast sky (unfortunately I don't have the image). When I looked at this image on their computer, noise was clearly evident in the dark area of the eves without any magnification. Is this normal for DSLR's ???? Some photos I've seen on other peoples websites linked from here clearly don't have this problem. Photo was taken as a Jpeg and not in RAW incase that makes any difference.

Would a higher spec camera remove this "Noise" problem, or am I just being unrealistic ????

She also gave me the same explaination as yourself Bob for the 1.6 crop thingy, thanks once again for that.

Cheers

Ed

Ed,

The newer cameras handle noise much better than the older ones and that's supposed to be a strong point of the new 50D. It will allow ISO settings up to 12,800. Even the 40D has much better noise reduction than the 30D. I usually don't have noise problems on the 30D when I keep the ISO settings to 400 or less.

Here's a shot with ISO set to 500


and here's one I shot at night at ISO 1000


Bob R

[Edd]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the demo photo's, certainly the darker areas look a lot cleaner than the photo I took yesterday.

It does restore my faith somewhat !!!!

Looked at the prices last night for the 40D and quite surprised to see there's not too much difference £££ wise between the 450D and the 40D

Cheers

Ed

[bob_r]

Ed,

The 50D info was released today and it will be available next month. If you don't need all the features on the 50D, I'll bet the 40Ds will be available for a bargain price and prices for used ones should really be attractive. Of course, the 50D has some very impressive features. Here's a link to a review in case anyone is interested.

http://www.dpreview.com/previews/canoneos50d/

Bob R

[Edd]

Hi Bob,

Have a look here, http://www.warehouseexpress.com you can pre-order now if you want too

Ed