What camera should i get?

Simenkm · Jul 15, 2015

Hi!

I'm looking for a dslr camera and after a long time looking i'm still not sure what to get. I'm not the most experienced photographer and it's pricey.
The camera will mainly be used traveling, handheld without a tripod and mostly for filming. It will be used for some extreme sports, like kiting, surfing but also portrait and landscape photography. I'm looking for a good camera in the price range 1000-2000$.

You guys have any suggestions?

petrochemist · Jul 15, 2015

The lenses are likely to be the expensive part. With the right lenses any DSLR from the last 5 years should cope fine. I'd suggest spending no more than 1/4 of your budget on a DSLR & standard kit zoom. That will be acceptable for the portraits & landscapes.
Then buy a reasonably long telephoto for the extreme sports something along the lines of a sigma 150-500 in the mount to fit your body (probably blowing ~ half your total budget). Keep the rest for if/when you find limitations in your lens line up (You may want shallower DOF in the portraits requiring a faster lens or wider FOV in the landscapes requiring an UWA...)

The long telephotos are HEAVY, but for such subjects I've often wished for more reach. Something like a 50-300 would be both lighter & cheaper so you may prefer that as an option.

Personally I wouldn't go for a DSLR at all, but instead would go mirrorless (with an electronic viewfinder). Many of these systems are lighter than the DSLR route & the more compact micro 4/3 bodies produce sufficent quality for most people. Even the first generation G1 was perfectly good for A4 prints. These systems keep the lens flexibility of a DSLR (and allow a wider range of adapted lenses if you can cope with MF)

If you can try to get to hold the camera you settle on & check through it's user interface. Ergonomics & menus have a huge part to play in how you get on with a camera. Even though I shoot a lot of motorsport I'm happy to sacrifice a little AF speed for a camera I can adjust quickly & easily.

Designer · Jul 15, 2015

Dang! I answered in the later post! Drat! Now I've got to do some editing! Phooey!

Here is what I wrote in the SECOND post:

"O.K., what I would recommend is going to be far from anyone else's so I'm going in first.
1. A Nikon entry-level DSLR and one extra lens, and a speedlight.
2. A Sony HandyCam for video.
3. A GoPro for the sports action shots.

Three cameras, all fitting comfortably within your budget, and all performing the job that they were intended to do."

soufiej · Jul 15, 2015

Simenkm said:
Hi!

I'm looking for a dslr camera and after a long time looking i'm still not sure what to get. I'm not the most experienced photographer and it's pricey.
The camera will mainly be used traveling, handheld without a tripod and mostly for filming. It will be used for some extreme sports, like kiting, surfing but also portrait and landscape photography. I'm looking for a good camera in the price range 1000-2000$.

You guys have any suggestions?

Filming? With a digital camera? Gonna be tough!

(How'd this forum get all of the Fellini-esque posters? I can see the titles now; "La Dolce Surfboard", "800 1/2 - feet down", "Stronga-cord - and I hopa it holds".)

Surfing with a camera implies - at the least - you are likely to get something wet. There are some waterproof cameras available or some cameras with waterproof cases you can buy. Fuji makes at least one weather-proofed camera and you can buy a case for the Canon S series. The non-interchangeable lens system makes them more weatherproof.
Neither is great for landscape and portrait - which are somewhat counter intuitive for any camera to begin with. These are almost the two extremes of photography and most cameras can't do extremes. Different lenses can do extremes but it's the non-interchangeable lens system that helps make a camera weather-proof.

Cameras are best when you can say you want to have vast landscapes stretching to and beyond the horizon OR nice, in close shots of your current BFF. Doing both with one camera sort of suggests you would want two different lenses - one for vast John Ford-esque vistas ala "The Searchers" and one for angst-ridden faces ala any Scandinavian film from the last half century; 10 Great Modern Scandinavian Films Illusion Magazine

I'd say stick with the Go Pro for all the action movies and a high end pocketable for the rest; High-end pocketable compacts roundup 2014 Digital Photography Review

Don't expect one camera to do all of what you list and don't expect two cameras to do everything you list really, really well.

waday · Jul 15, 2015

If you're serious, and ready to pull the trigger (or shutter, har har), you might want to check out Amazon's Prime Day today... they have a Nikon D3300 kit (body, 18-55, 55-200, 32 gb card, and wifi adapter) all for $647. That's essentially BH's current deal with an added sd card and wifi adapter...

Bryston3bsst · Jul 15, 2015

waday said:
If you're serious, and ready to pull the trigger (or shutter, har har), you might want to check out Amazon's Prime Day today... they have a Nikon D3300 kit (body, 18-55, 55-200, 32 gb card, and wifi adapter) all for $647. That's essentially BH's current deal with an sd card and wifi adapter...

That sounds like a great starter kit.

floatingby · Jul 15, 2015

Filming? Most DSLR are pretty idiotic for filming. In Nikon line up for instance, you have to get to D750 level before you get manual control over aperture while filming, and since speed has to be fixed at twice the frame rate, you get into, yes, idiotic situations.

If video was important to me, the only DSLR shaped camera I would consider is the GH4.

waday · Jul 15, 2015

gk fotografie said:
Best choice is Sony a7s, check: Sony A7S 4K Full Frame Mirrorless DSLR Shipping in July - Video Filmmaker magazineVideo Filmmaker magazine

At $2,500 for the body, that's a little over the OP's limit...

ruifo · Jul 15, 2015

Simenkm said:
Hi!

I'm looking for a dslr camera and after a long time looking i'm still not sure what to get. I'm not the most experienced photographer and it's pricey.
The camera will mainly be used traveling, handheld without a tripod and mostly for filming. It will be used for some extreme sports, like kiting, surfing but also portrait and landscape photography. I'm looking for a good camera in the price range 1000-2000$.

You guys have any suggestions?

Nikon D5200 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm Kit Lens [$500]
Nikon D5200 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm Lens Black 1503 B H Photo

24.1MP DX-Format CMOS Sensor
EXPEED 3 Image Processor
3.0" 921k-Dot Vari-Angle LCD Monitor (flip screen, ideal for video)
Full HD 1080i Video Recording at 60 fps
Multi-CAM 4800DX 39-Point AF System
Native ISO 6400, Extended to ISO 25600
5 fps Shooting at Full Resolution
2016-Pixel RGB Sensor, Active D-Lighting
Compatible with WU-1a Wireless Adapter
Included DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR Lens with Vibration Reduction (VR is good for video)
My sample shots with it

Tamron SP 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di VC USD Lens [$450]
Tamron SP 70-300mm f 4-5.6 Di VC USD Telephoto AFA005NII-700 B H

Telephoto Zoom Lens for Nikon Digital SLRs & 35mm Film Cameras
Up to 4 Stops Vibration Compensation
Ultrasonic Silent Drive (USD)
Fast, Quiet & Accurate Autofocusing
Outstanding Image Resolution
Digitally Integrated (Di)
62mm Filter Size
Full Length of 5.9" (151.1mm)
Weighs 26.98 oz (756 g)

Extra: Nikkor AF-S 35mm f/1.8G DX Lens [$200]
Nikon 35mm f 1.8G AF-S DX Nikkor Lens 2183 B H Photo

F Mount Lens/DX Format
35mm DX normal FoV (52.5mm FoV equivalent on FX)
Aperture Range: f/1.8 to 22 (very fast lens for low light situations)
One Aspherical Element
Super Integrated Coating
Silent Wave Motor AF System
Rear Focusing; Manual Focus Override
Minimum Focus Distance: 11.8"
Filter Diameter: 52mm
Rounded 7-Blade Diaphragm

TCampbell · Jul 15, 2015

Two issues come to mind... (1) durability and (2) sealing.

The Canon 7D II is great for video, supports continuous auto-focus during video, it's a sports-action camera (optimized for high-speed shooting), has a magnesium alloy body (built like a tank) and is weather sealed (note: weather-sealed does NOT mean "water proof". The salts in salt-water are horribly corrosive so you really need to protect any camera from them.) The 7D II has seals and gaskets at all openings, but the seals aren't designed to keep out water under pressure or force. So rain and spray are no big deal. Dropping the camera so that it's submerged completely underwater or getting taken out by a wave... that's probably going to leak water inside and no camera can handle that. With that said... you can find stories of Canon 7D cameras (the original because the "II" hasn't been out that long) that have been submerged ... even in saltwater ... and survived. But it's not guaranteed... it's just that it's a very durable camera and can handle abuse that would ruin a lot of other models. Since it's specifically designed as a sports/action camera and it has Canon's "Dual pixel CMOS AF" (only Canon has this and it's only on a few of their newest models) which allows for continuous auto-focus even during video, the 7D II is possibly a top choice for your needs.

A 7D II is currently about $1500 (on promotion). A 7D II with an 18-135mm STM lens (smooth silent auto-focus... good for video use) is about $1850.

If there's a chance you (more specifically your camera) are going to get crushed by a wave while filming... you probably want a true underwater housing. But underwater housings are VERY expensive (usually nearly as much as the camera.) Also, an underwater housing for a DSLR is usually modular because you have to get a lens port specific to the lenses you intend to use. But the good news is these are designed for scuba diving so being completely underwater at significant pressure is not a problem -- the housing isn't going to leak if you get taken out by a big wave and pulled underwater.

As an alternative, you can get a rain-sleeve. These vary in price and quality (from very cheap single-use plastic baggies that slip over the camera to higher-end more durable waterproof fabrics. But a rain-sleeve provides splash protection and isn't intended to be submerged (think "rain poncho" for your camera... the underside is completely open.) You put your arms through sleeves in the bag so that you can operate the camera controls.

To be fair... on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, you could always get a GoPro cam and an underwater housing for those (which are cheap). It's not a DSLR, but you wouldn't have to worry about it getting submerged (and it wouldn't be a big financial loss even if it did get wet.)

petrochemist · Jul 15, 2015

I assumed the reference to extreme sports was standing back & photographing others doing them (as I do - including kite surfing championships a year or two back). If the OP is intending to do the sports then a DSLR wouldn't be suitable for many of them & I would have expected a much more specific description - few people can manage a wide range to extreme sports there isn't enough time to develop the skills & the cost would probably be excessive too!

Being ashore & photographing kite surfing/power boat racing etc sealing hasn't been an issue for me. My DSLR has good sealing but none of my long lenses have. Getting close enough to the action composition wise that I would need sealing would also need special access privileges (as I'd have been getting in their way!). Otherwise the extra few yards nearer to the spray wouldn't have changed the sort of pictures I could get.

If I was wrong in my assumption, and the OP is intending to do surfing with the camera a GoPro or similar in a submersible housing is the only real choice for that, though there are various waterproof compact cameras that could be used.