advertisement


Digital SLR around £500?

Go down to the camera shop and get the shopkeeper to run up and down outside. Then when he drops dead of a heart attack, you can help yourself to the most expensive camera in the shop:D

I only ever buy from the Internet if I know exactly what I'm getting or it's stuff like records, CDs or DVDs where it doesn't matter. I've made too many expensive mistakes.

Have you tried any of the camera mags? They probably have ratings for suitability for different purposes.
 
Seems like the usual story of I'll get what I end paying for. I have no doubt a £600 SLR will give me better results than the Sony DSC-H1 for £240, all I'm now curious about is, will the Sony give me reasonable results? I might get my lad to switch sports to hockey, now I know so much about it:p
 
matty_marie said:
I might get my lad to switch sports to hockey, now I know so much about it:p
Click to expand...

Get him to switch to cricket. You could use any camera to capture the action then.
 
Without knowing your background, it is difficult to know if a DSLR is the right choice for you. All the DSLRs are good quality. They take fantastic pictures, and are a joy to use. If I were to recommend, i'd suggest Canon or Nikon, as between them they have the majority of the market. Which is better? There's little to choose between them. I'm a canon person myself, but this really is a personal choice, there is no right or wrong between these.

So i'd recommend a Canon 350D if you go the DSLR route. This is a very serious camera for little money. Get one with the kit lens, and maybe a 50/1.8 prime for portraits. An external flash (430EX) will work wonders if you want to do flash photography (the built in flashes on all DSLRs are weak, can't be bounced, and don't support hi-speed sync for fill work in bright conditions). You would then have to find the limitations of the equipment before you knew where you wanted to go next (if anywhere). I think the camera kit is within your budget, but the external flash would blow it.

I think you should know whether you want to take photography seriously or not. If you do, the DSLR is the right thing. If you don't, go with a compact and enjoy taking fantastic snaps. Again, in the world of compats i'd suggest nikon or canon. The Canon IXUS range of very small compacts is pretty good for the money. The image quality is a compromise with these small camera though.

One other thing to remember if you go the DSLR route. The cameras are the cheap bits, the lenses are the expensive items.

Cesare
 
Thanks for the advice. Having given it a bit more thought, I don't think I will ever become a 'keen' photographer but who knows? I'm leaning towards a Sony DSC-H2 (£310ish) or if I could get hold of one of the previous 'H1' models I'll save around £80 off that. These seem to offer a nice compromise between the luxuries of a DSLR and a point and shoot.
Thanks for the time with the reply.
 
Cesare said:
All the DSLRs are good quality. They take fantastic pictures, and are a joy to use. If I were to recommend, i'd suggest Canon or Nikon, as between them they have the majority of the market.
Click to expand...

this advice is complete rubbish. first off, the almost all of the entry level DSLRs are fairly shoddy in construction and their puny viewfinders make them anything but a joy to use. next, to suggest that someone should buy something on the basis of the manufacturer having a majority of the market when the product in question can be evaluated on its own merits sounds like persuasion from the marketing deparment as opposed to friendly advice on a forum. i actually tried out the competitors on multiple occasions and discovered that nikon and canon actually make the most annoying of the DSLRs available at entry level. pentax, minolta and even olympus were preferable.

btw--the lens one uses to shoot a portrait all depends on one's style and the particualr circumstances of the scenario/setting. there is no such thing as a lens or focal length for portraits. that said, it seems that many people who like to talk about cameras say they prefer something in the 75mm to 120mm (based on a full-frame camera).

vuk.
 
vuk, your arrogance and patronising on matters relating to photography are now getting rather tedious. First you pan Gary's photos and start getting him needlessly concerned with bokeh and wasting his time with a light meter and now you're suggesting that a photography newbie buy anything other than Canon or Nikon. There's a reason that 90% of the worlds pro photographers use either Canon or Nikon kit and it's not because they have the biggest consumer market share.

matty_marie, you'd do well to ignore anything that vuk has to say on photography. Even better, don't ignore it and do the opposite of what he suggests.

The advice that Cesare and others have given here is excellent.
 
Arggh! The last thing I wanted to do here is light the blue touch paper and stand well back. I appreciate all the replies, and realise there are a lot of people as pasionate about their photography as they are with their hifi. It's a personal choice at the end of the day and what suits one etc etc

I intend to go to a couple of shops over the weekend and will go for the one I think suits me personally (probably the one with any freebies!)

Mod - lock the thread before I cause any more arguments
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top