A good Canon for every day use?

LilFish · May 6, 2012

Hi,

I don't know much about Canon products because we have a Nikon but I'm interested in what the Canon might have to offer. I'm hoping to find a good camera for every day use for kids, etc but one that doesn't weigh a ton or cost an arm and a leg. Any suggestions? Also, why do you prefer Canon over Nikon?

Mostly, I'm looking for picture quality and speed so I do want a DSLR.

o hey tyler · May 6, 2012

How much are you looking to spend?

Buckster · May 6, 2012

What model of Nikon do you have? Are we talking about point and shoot cameras, or are we talking about DSLRs that will allow the lenses to be changed?

illumiNation · May 6, 2012

I love my canon 60d!

JSER · May 6, 2012

LilFish said:
Hi,

I don't know much about Canon products because we have a Nikon but I'm interested in what the Canon might have to offer. I'm hoping to find a good camera for every day use for kids, etc but one that doesn't weigh a ton or cost an arm and a leg. Any suggestions? Also, why do you prefer Canon over Nikon?

Mostly, I'm looking for picture quality and speed so I do want a DSLR.

Again a half question, what is the budget, also what does "daily use for "youngsters/children" mean, that youngsters want to use it or you want to photographs youngsters.

jaomul · May 6, 2012

A well treated secondhand 40d. Fast and cheap and great

LilFish · May 7, 2012

I'd like to spend less than $700 and am looking at DSLR. We currently have the Nikon D300 but it's heavy for every day use or quick trips out. We have a toddler so that's the main reason for wanting something 'smaller'. I want to capture every day moments at home, on walks, zoo trips, etc as well as important portraits. Point & shoot cameras just don't seem to have the speed or image quality that I want.

brian_f2.8 · May 7, 2012

Stick with Nikon, then you can change lens. Get a d3200

belial · May 7, 2012

brian_f2.8 said:
Stick with Nikon, then you can change lens. Get a d3200

You don't know that they have enough lenses to make sticking with Nikon matter

jrizal · May 12, 2012

The Nikon D3100 kit sells for $699 at Costco with an additional 55-200mm zoom lens plus bag. The Canon T2i with kit lens, bag and 55-250mm lens sells for $779 at Costco. Got the D3100 but still wondering if I should have gotten the T2i. (Not that the D3100 is a bad camera, the T2i is simply a notch above the D3100.)

maaatter · May 12, 2012

What type of everyday shots are you shooting? Right now your 55-250 is a pretty long range for a daily walk around.

like jaomul said, you can get a nice second hand Canon 40D ($375ish) and add a 50mm 1.8 ($120) and you have a good walk around combo. Plus, with the 40D you get a little bit more bang for your buck.

Derrel · May 12, 2012

jaomul said:
A well treated secondhand 40d. Fast and cheap and great

Pretty good idea there....the 40D is very affordable, and was a huge seller for Canon. Plenty of good,clean ones on the market used. The newer Canon 60D is pretty nice too. The Nikon D7000 is a nice camera, but the Canon 60D has a better viewfinder and is a bit higher-end. The Nikon D90 WAS a higher-end enthusiast's camera that is now selling pretty cheaply,and despite its modest specifications it's a fine picture taker, readily available on the used market for very fair prices. For a "family" d-slkr for kid pics, off-duty time, get-togethers, etc, I honestly think the newer Nikons have better FLASH and light metering than the "older" Canon cameras like the 40D, and Nikon has more models of affordable and GOOD flashes than Canon does. Nikon has the SB 600,SB700, and the SB 800, SB 900 and SB 910 available, still, somewhere. I think the NIkon SB 600 or 700 is a better made, better designed flash than anything Canon has ever made, until you get to the 580 EX-II; Nikon has a 15 year headstart on color-aware TTL flash metering....Canon had a decade's worth of crappy flash metering technology that never was master-able by anybody but dedicated,serious shooters until the 580 hit the EX-Mark II version, and even then, with a color-blind, dumb in-camera meter, flash exposures on Canons can be all over the place unless you are a really astute, capable user (who has done quite a few tests, and KNOWS the range of the flash, and how it reacts to the AF point in use, etc,etc,etc,etc,etc. (six etc's!!!).

Canon has always made decent cameras. But their light-metering metering in auto-exposure modes and TTL flash metering and flash control that has always been second rate. Stating it that way pisses off a lot of Canon users, but hey...if the exposure's chit, wear it... ( a pun there....)

bratkinson · May 12, 2012

I moved from P&S to DSLR a bit over a year ago with a used 30D and a new EF-S 18-135. I thought it was a fantastic combo. Decent glass, too. It's only shortcoming was low-light indoors. The f3.5-5.6 was just too slow indoors, and, like all popups, the flash was useless past 10 feet or so. So I added an external flash for indoor work. I sold it in December to the teenage daughter of a friend of mine, just starting out in photography, when I upgraded to a 60D and better glass.

If I wanted to get a 'knock around' camera today (I just might, too!), I'd probably do the same thing...with a 40D and a used 430EX flash. Save some $, get a used lens, too. But, since you have Nikon equipment, I'd find something similar in the Nikon line. That way, as mentioned previously, you can swap lenses with what you already have, and use it as a second camera if needed.