An Amateur's Quest

[usayit]

Another option that I've seen used is to rig the camera via supports to the car itself. If the rig is stable enough the car will be sharp. A simple photoshop job can easily remove the rig supports captured in the frame.

 

[Mav]

Those words + the samples the OP posted lead me to believe that a FULL FRAME camera would best serve him/her. What camera is one of the most AFFORDABLE full frame cameras on the market?. why yes.. the CANON 5D....

Except that a crop body is perfectly capable of taking any of those photos, especially when Nikon makes a fisheye for their crop bodies, and...

I have considered getting the Nikon D80 but I still have not figured out which lens I should get. I didn't choose the EOS 5D because that is out of my price range.

:mrgreen:

As you said... all the more power to them... (5D isn't all that out of reach of reach for many consumers).

Many consumers want to stay well below $1000 for everything, which is why the D40 is such a popular camera right now. The majority of people buying DSLRs will still balk at paying >$2000 just for a body alone, no matter what it does for them. People on forums aren't representative of the typical DSLR buyer.

 

[Mav]

I know I want fisheye lens for sure and people have recommended me this one:
Nikkor 10.55mm Fisheye

I still don't know what lens I need for basic point and shoot pictures and a lens for wide angles.

If you know you definitely want a fisheye lens, be sure to budget in money for some of the converters out there, like DxO, or Image Trends Hemi so that it makes it a lot more versatile. As for what starter lens to go with, if it's in the budget I'd go for the 18-135. If not, just start with the cheaper but still good 18-55. 18mm on a DSLR is much much wider than the widest setting on most P&S's and you might find that to be enough for you. If not though, and you constantly find yourself at the 18mm end of that lens and wanting to go wider, start looking for an ultra-wide angle like the Tokina 12-24, or the Sigma 10-20, both of which are reasonably priced.

 

[usayit]

People on forums aren't representative of the typical DSLR buyer.

And I guess the OP is not a member of "People on forums"?

For me.. "high-end" and wide-angle has more to do with full frame than cropped bodies... In other words, the OP didn't quite understand what they meant by "high-end".

(IMO, cropped sensor bodies simply suck when wide focal lengths are considered)

 

[tooomahs]

What exactly are crop sensor bodies and a full frame camera? D:


By the way, are the 10.55 mm Fisheye-Nikkor, the Sigma 10-20mm Wide angle lens compatible with the Nikon D40 and the D200?

 

[Mav]

Google for "DSLR Crop Factor" and you'll find a bunch of different articles explaining it.

The D40 needs lenses with focusing motors built into the lenses for autofocusing, since the body itself doesn't have a focusing motor. Nikon calls these lenses AF-S and Sigma calls them HSM. The Sigma 10-20mm is HSM so it'll work fine. The Nikon 10.5mm fisheye is just regular AF and not AF-S so you'd have to manually focus on the D40. I shoot with my fisheye and the D40 all the time and manually focusing is no big deal at all because pretty much everything is always in focus with that particular lens. The Nikon D50 and above all have focusing motors in the body, so they'll autofocus regular "AF" lenses which don't have the motors in them and don't need AF-S. The D200 will work with just about everything, including old AI and AI-s manual focus lenses with full metering support. The D100 on down won't give you exposure metering with these old lenses so you'd either need an external meter to use them, or you can just guess at the exposure. This probably won't matter unless you know somebody with a bunch of old Nikon lenses that you can use.

Read through the big debate thread on the D40 and then decide for yourself whether it's enough for you or if you'd rather spend a little more on the body.

 

[tooomahs]

So if I go with the D80, this is what my friend told me:
If you go with the D80, I'd get the D80 Kit ($1,045), the 10.5mm Fisheye-Nikkor ($599). For an ultrawide, the Sigma 10-20mm ($499) is my personal favorite because of the extra 2mm on the wide end, compared to the Tokina 12-24mm ($499). The Tokina isn't quite as wide as the Sigma, but is built better and has a slightly faster aperture. It has many fans, as does the Sigma.

What are your guys opinions? And also, is the D200 and D40 compatible with the lens mentioned above?

 

[tooomahs]

Hello?

 

[Mav]

Sounds good to me.