Dynax / Maxxum 5D

[andythebrave]

Greetings all.

The saga of the replacement for the SP500UZ continues.

The story so far:

Wife throws SP500 at ground in a vicious attempt to smash it and totally succeeds (warning - this element of the story has been embellished for artistic impact)

Put upon husband secures agreement that a replacement can be sought and spends his total waking hours researching what's around.

Finally settles (sort of) on Canon's Powershot S3 IS as it seems at least as good as the old Olympus.

BUT

I happened to have a spare hour last weekend despite the demands of 3 daughters (and the aforementioned wife) and found myself in one of the local electrical superstores and saw this:

K-M Dynax (Maxxum) 5D + 17-70 kit for £200 (or around $400) marked as discontinued line.

This seems to be a fantastic bargain - I used to run a number of SLR cameras so the prospect of another wouldn't faze me and I know that I'd need to invest in a longer lens to maintain the range that I've become accustomed to.

Does anyone have any comments either for or against a purchase?

 

[Mike_E]

Keep your wife awaaay from it! LOL

Set your price point and explore the full range of possibilities. as far as the K-M goes The only negatives I've heard from anyone in person are that is is slow and that it is in fact discontinued. You might also check if some of the older lenses by Minolta will fit on it. Some of them were great lenses!

mike

P.S. I may have heard somewhere that you can take IR pictures with this camera with no modification. You would have to research that but if true, it would be worth the price just for the IR alone.

 

[Don Simon]

A new 5D with lens for £200 is fantastic value. Yes it is discontinued, but Sony have taken over the KM line and will support it. Any lenses for the 5D will be compatible with Sony's dSLR system. As for the camera itself, it may not have all the latest features, but the sensor is the same one that's still being used by a couple of companies today; the technology is essentially the same as you'd find in a new Nikon D40.

As usual do look at the alternatives, but £200 really is great - normally you'd be lucky to find a refurbished body without lens for that money.

 

[andythebrave]

Thanks for the replies folks.

I went back to the store and, you've guessed it, they only had one and it had been sold an hour before I got there.

Rats phooey.

So, I'm all over the place now with what to go for.

It's probably best that I say what I want and then what I think might do it for me so here goes.

I want something with full manual control options, that will cope with indoor groups and portraits, landscapes, and railways, that doesn't have any (or minimal) purple fringing, that although mostly printing no larger than 8 x 10 will stand the occasional 11 x 14 or 11 x 16 with no noticeable loss of quality and that will, ideally, not require a bagful of lenses because I don't trust myself to make lens changes without getting muck on the sensor.

I'm not blinkered so will actively consider alternatives to an SLR even though my previous experience has been with a succession of SLRS culminating in a T90 (with a bagful of lenses).

I reckon the barest minimum that I could get away with is a Canon S3 or Panasonic FZ8 or FZ50. Budget constraints indicate that for an SLR it would have to be nothing more than a Nikon D50 plus, possibly the 18-70 or 18-135 Nikkor (I don't want a Canon because I tried the EOS system with two bodies and various lenses and it proved incredibly unreliable). I've also read good things about the Sony DSC-R1 which almost seems too good to be true.

Any comments for or against any of these, or putting forward anything else, would be greatly appreciated. I'm not really in a hurry to purchase - sometime within the next 3 months is the most likely timescale and with a budget of up to £500/$1000 ish but spending less than that would help keep me in ale for a few weeks!

Thanks in advance.

 

[shorty6049]

well... the sony alpha is always worth checking out and it falls below your price range and its basically the same camera as the maxxum 5D but with better stuff in it. You can take IR photos with a LOT of digital cameras without modification (other than an IR filter such as the hoya r72) some are just more sensitive to IR than others. the sony alpha works with an IR filter (granted the exposure times are usually several seconds long in daylight) its a good camera though if you're looking for something thats not a canon!

 

[Mike_E]

Hi again, you are going to get more lenses with a DSLR so you might check what Sony wants for theirs.

As far as NIkon goes, The D50 with 2 lenses would I think be your best bet. The 18-55 and an older copy of the 70-210 AF (the older version is tack sharp as well as the D -which is much more expensive and only a little faster on auto-focus). You should get both lenses for $200 (together if you shop around) or so. I realize that you would have to make some lens changes but really it isn't that big a deal. I don't know that I would get the 18-135 after having read the reports. All of them are reported to be distorted at the long end and unless you are going to get the NIkon 18-200, I would steer clear of any others in that range.

Be aware that you -if you get a DSLR- should get a tripod for any shots taken at or above 105mm or so. You can see the camera shake due to the quality of the photos and it will drive you nuts!

Good luck,

mike

 

[andythebrave]

Thanks for the input everyone.

Would I be right in saying that a 70-210 on a D50 is effectively a 105-315 at 35mm equivalent?

I see what is meant about the Nikon 18-200 - it costs around what my total maximum budget is.

I'm not too sure about the Alpha as good lenses for it seem to cost a bob or two.

Does anyone have any comments to make about the DSC-R1 which seems to have an SLR type sensor with a somewhat decent lens?