Need help deciding: Canon Xs or Nikon D60...probably been asked alot. First DSLR

[kennyboater]

forgot one more question. whether i go nikon or canon, should i stick with nikon or canon len's. i have heard (probably not from very reputable sources) that sigma len's are not very good and kind of make having a better camera useless. any truth to that? what about Tamaron? same thing?

 

[Tolyk]

that is kind of what im thinking. xti body within a few weeks has got to drop in price as the xs comes out this week in the states.
3 more questions:

1. what lens would you suggest? 18-55, 55-200, 70-300. or two of the above?

2. does IS make much of a difference? as I said, i am completely new to this. like i said, wife is going to be using this as a hobby. Im assuming that the IS cost more than non IS?

3. supposedly, the XS has some new processor (like the XSI), do you think that it is really better than the XTI?

thanks so much for helping me, i cannot find anyone local that knows that diff between a DSLR and a fart

1: Depends what your primary type of photography will be, buy the best lens you can afford for that first. Landscapes? Buy a Tokina 11-16. Wildlife, but the canon 70-300.

2. I've never used IS, so I don't personally know. I know I can hand hold my 75-300 as slow as 1/25th of a second at full zoom, but subjects are usually moving so that doesn't help, as that's too slow to stop motion. IS just allows you to hand hold at slower shutter speeds with no camera shake, if your subject is moving, it's not much help.

3. I don't know about the processor without researching it, which I've not bothered to yet, or the XSi for that matter as I don't give a whoop about Live View and to me that's their only selling feature. Something I would NEVER use personally.


I'm quite shocked the XS was released in canada before the US... that never happens, you sure it's not out yet down there?

 

[Tolyk]

forgot one more question. whether i go nikon or canon, should i stick with nikon or canon len's. i have heard (probably not from very reputable sources) that sigma len's are not very good and kind of make having a better camera useless. any truth to that? what about Tamaron? same thing?

It's all on a lens to lens basis. There are some Sigma lenses that are just as good, if not sometimes better, than one in a similar range by Nikon or Canon. But, there are a lot of lenses by Sigma or Tamron that are more for the budget photographer.

I've never heard anyone complain about the Sigma 150-500, or the 300-800 mm, but they also aren't ranges readily available by other companies.

You don't _need_ to stick to Nikon if you've got a nikon body.

There's Tokina for third party companies as well, and I've yet to hear a single bad review of their lenses. I've used only their 80-400 myself, but it was super sharp and just a fantastic lens (albeit a bit heavy for hand-held shooting, and closest focusing distance is 8 feet ) and I will be using their 11-16 in a couple weeks (I hope we have one in stock by then for me to pilfer, I'm going into the mountains. If not, I'll be using Sigma's 12-14 or Canon's 10-22, depends what's available)

 

[kennyboater]

positive, everywhere is preorder. supposed release date is aug 4th. so i guess just a few days.

im confused by this statement "Landscapes? Buy a Tokina 11-16. Wildlife, but the canon 70-300."

 

[prodigy2k7]

XS has CMOS sensor and live view, D60 has no live view and CCD sensor.

D60 cant use auto focus on all lenses. Only "AF-S" or "AF-I"

XS has better auto focus. 7 area TTL compared to 3 area TTL

D60 has better exposure comp, 5 stops instead of 2. I don't use more than @ on my XTi but I suppose 5 would be better in some situations...

D60 has no mirror lock up as XS does have it. Helpful when using a tripod at night and dont want any shake!

Some people say the XS is pretty tiny for a body, lots of people including me (XTi) use the vertical battery grip for a bigger body. It is easier to hold especially with telephoto lenses... The D60 has no vertical grip.

Both are about the same in weight

 

[kennyboater]

thanks for all your help. its 1am here so ill be back on tomorrow.

seriously, thanks for all your help and hope to hear some more advice tomorrow

 

[Tolyk]

What type of photography do you think you'll be doing? Scenery shots, wildlife, sports/action, etc. That is what you base your lens purchases on. If you will be shooting scenery/landscape shots, get a wide angle lens, if you're shooting wildlife for instance you need telephoto, so you can catch them without having to sneak right up to them. (anything under 50mm is wide angle, anything over is telephoto)

 

[kennyboater]

to be honost, im not exactly sure what she (wife) is going to be using this for... thats why i was thinking the 18-55 IS lens that comes on xs or D60 would be great with maybe a 55-200. Between those 2 lens's, would that cover the general range of indoor and outdoor?

has anyone tried the XS yet? i know there will still be a couple of days before it comes out in the US..,
anyone?

 

[Tolyk]

to be honost, im not exactly sure what she (wife) is going to be using this for... thats why i was thinking the 18-55 IS lens that comes on xs or D60 would be great with maybe a 55-200. Between those 2 lens's, would that cover the general range of indoor and outdoor?

has anyone tried the XS yet? i know there will still be a couple of days before it comes out in the US..,
anyone?

Yes, I've tried the XS, I get to play with all the cameras at work. I already gave my opinion of it though, it's an XTi with live view, a useless feature. *shrug*

 

[manaheim]

I wouldn't put live view very high on the rating scale for important things to judge a camera on. It's totally the kind of thing you have in a P&S, but I always thought it was weird even when I used a P&S... when I got my first DSLR I think I missed it for all of a week. Now my D300 has it and I used it once just to try it and said "jeez, this is silly..." and haven't used it since.

Just my opinion, of course...

 

[Tolyk]

And like I had said, I wouldn't get the D60 if you plan on keeping with this hobby for anything longer than a month or two. You'll quickly outgrow it when you want to start buying Prime lenses, which it can't auto-focus with. Manual focus can be fun, but, not all the time

 

[kennyboater]

And like I had said, I wouldn't get the D60 if you plan on keeping with this hobby for anything longer than a month or two. You'll quickly outgrow it when you want to start buying Prime lenses, which it can't auto-focus with. Manual focus can be fun, but, not all the time

tolyk,
Wow, i guess i missed that earlier, can you please expound on the fact that the d60 cant use other lens's? im kinda confused. and canon can use others?

again, seriously, thanks so much!

 

[kennyboater]

mana, i think you are right, i wont base my decision (or hers) on live view. thanks

 

[manaheim]

mana, i think you are right, i wont base my decision (or hers) on live view. thanks

I is here to help!

 

[dhilberg]

The D40 and D60 only autofocus with AF-S and AF-I lenses, which have an autofocus motor built into the lens. You can still use non AF-S/AF-I lenses with them, but they won't autofocus.

If this is your first Nikon SLR then don't worry about it as most of the new lenses are AF-S/AF-I. If you have a bunch of older Nikkor lenses then you'll want the D80 at least.