Cameras

[tmac450]

Some camera shops have good 2nd handies for sale too, they take em as trade-ins in some places.

If you're looking 2nd hand, you may even be able to step up a couple of levels to a 20/30 or 40D.

[Mat]

Check out Performance Forums and the photography section. Few come up occasionally! I know there was a bloke selling a 350 with lenses etc etc for about $600 recently

[mattyb]

Awesome , cheers guys.

[Pete A]

I'm an amature photographer and subscribe a number of OS specialist mags. I follow the optical and camera technology quite closely. It depends on what you are after. If I could summarise IMO very briefly the top pick have been and probably always been Nikon and Canon. The others more focus on gimics than quality and usually faal short of the big 2. A couple of fairly basic observations over say the last couple years. The Canons and Nikon are always close. However Nikon has just about always been superior in high ISO performance, and once again generally, the Nikkor lenses have overall had better performance. Look! most cases it's splitting hairs - and both products will give you great results. But that what it's all about. I'm a Nikon man right now because I had a great chance to buy an outstanding D90. But since then I've actually bought specialist lenses even though I have the lenses I bought with the camera. I use Sigma lenses for wide angle/close up and Tamron for telphoto. Both these out perform the Nikkor lenses I already have. Decisions made by reading all the stuff in these magazines and independant user reports. Maybe it's the best deal on the day that might swing you, but if you are serious and if you like a camera for whatever reason, even if it's a bit more expensive. Go for what rings your bells. You won't be disappointed with any decision between those two manufacturers. You will also see many pro photographers have both cameras. They both have their advantages in certain situations.

Cheers.

[John_K]

Here's some shots I did on the Mrs. Canon 40D - A slight bit more $ than the 1000D though.

Using a Canon 50mm lens and a Sigma 17070mm lens.

I've got barely any idea of what I'm doing, but here's how they came out.

The only editing I did on these is re-sizing and blurring the number plate.

Edited 07/08/09 09:52 AM by John_K

[mattyb]

My dad has a Nikkon D40, and I find it great, although it doesn't support bracketed photo's. Any idea what Nikkon do as the next available one in their range that has a AEB feature?

[Pete A]

Good shots - bit of creativity there mate!

My first camera was a D40X - which was the 10Mpixel version of the D40. Outstanding entry level DSLR camera and gives fantastic results. Bracketing is one of those things that's it's nice to have but its uses are limited and only some people use it. For stills with difficult lighting it can be useful and depending on the frame rate of the shots. The D40 series you can use the thumbwheel to dial in positive and negative exposure for sequential shots pretty quickly, but it's more cumbersome than automatic and just means you have to think about it. To be honest, I've never used it much. The higher the level you go in DSLR the more precise the metering gets, so it becomes less of an issue. For action it's pretty useless as your more worried about getting the best framed shots more than exposure. Very clever feature for sure but probably everyone has a view on how or if they use it.

[seventytwo]

I have used many high end cameras and the one thing I never used was auto bracket, that being said if you get into HDR photography it makes it so much easier; as you only have to push the button once to get all the required shots.

[mattyb]

Well Fathers Day is just around the corner, and my wife let slip last night that I'm getting a Nikkon D90. Can't be happier, will be awesome to step up and start taking more photo's and experimenting with HDR. The big selling point for my wife to choose it was that it was also capeable of taking HD Video, that means only 1 camera for video, and photo's with the kids.

Any advice for someone with their first Digital SLR?

[smicky]

Matt - best advise is take lots and lots and lots of random shots!

the more you take the better chance you have of getting as close to perfection as possible..

when I was rolling off 5-10 rolls a week years ago - sometimes I would just run a whole roll off on one image/subject - this will allow you to review all the shots, check lighting, shutter speed blah blah and see what the best result was.

Can't remember if the D90 stores the shot settings (shutter, app, white bal etc) - but if not make sure on the days when you can you record the settings you use and the image number... this will let you see what difference shutter speeds, app, white bal etc makes to a shot...

Best way to learn photography is..... MAKE MISTAKES!

My fav shot I every took (so far) was heading down the hume hwy about 6 yrs ago - grabbed the camera out and at 120km/h hung it out the window - and well one shot I took have been reprocessed god knows how many times for friends and family!

Very simple shot of a hill and a dead tree with a grey/pink cloud sky at around sunset - and to think I was hanging out the window when it was taken!

Beauty of a digital slr like the D90 is you can see the shot on the review slide and decide if u like it or not - if you dont, its not a bad thing to keep it just to look at where you went wrong... so do just simple delete the ones you dont like on the stop!