Basic camera lens bundle suggestions

[im1dermike]

Good afternoon experts. I have a 15 month old and she now moves too quickly for me to be able to take pictures of her that aren't blurry with my Canon G10. I don't really have any photography skills, but would ultimately like to be serviceable. I think I would be more inclined to further my abilities if I had better equipment.

A photographer friend of a friend suggested to get a Canon Rebel T3i or a new model and get a bundle that includes multiple lenses. She suggested a 55-135 and 75-255, but another friend said to just get an 18-55 and a 300+.

What lens bundle would people here suggest? Thanks in advance

 

[DB_Cro]

All of those lenses are "slow" (let in rather low amount of light) and you'll end up pushing the ISO capabilites of
your T5i to the max all the time. It would be only marginally better then what you already have, and if you don't
know how to do fully manual exposure (or mostly manual) to get enough light in and freeze motion of the moving subject, you might
end up looking at the same exact images as from your G10.

Also, low light performance is what the Canon doesn't do as well as Nikon right now (past 5 years or so..) and since
you're buying new, a nikon d3300 would be a better choice then a canon t5i (already replaced by t6i, btw).

Blurry images happen when the shutter speed goes too low (slow), which can't happen if you're manually setting it.
Doing that, opening up the aperture as much as you can and bumping the ISO up will get you what you need.

If the images are too dark (but they should be sharp), turn the lights on.
Still too dark? Turn more lights on. You can also add a flash to your G10.
You'll still probably need one on your new dSLR too.

This stuff is a LOT more complex then it seems.

How about a G1X?
Doing a quick google, the G10 returns usable images up to ISO400 or so.
G1X seems usable at ISO1600 (which is the same usable ISO IMHO for the T5i).
In practice, that would enable you to bump up your shutter speed from 1/60s (which can return blurry subjects) to 1/250s which
will free anything that moves inside your room, AT THE SAME image brightness level you have now at ISO400.

 

[cherylynne1]

I'm not a Canon shooter, so someone correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the G10 a pretty powerful point and shoot? It looks to me like it has manual mode, ability to shoot in Raw, and even a hotshoe for an external flash.

Are you using it in auto mode? If you are, and intend to use a DSLR in auto, I doubt you'll see much difference. I think your time would be better spent learning to use the Shutter Priority mode to stop getting blurry pictures. And if you can attach a flash, I think that would be a much better purchase if your biggest problem is photographing in low light.

If you do both those things, and you still aren't happy with your pictures, you can always upgrade at that point, and if you upgrade to another Canon like the Rebel, you'll be able to use the same flash.

And if you want to look at other systems, the Nikon entry level camera is the D3300, which gets great reviews. I personally use the Sony a6000 for my two toddlers, and it's great because it has a really high burst rate (11 frames per second.) And since it's mirrorless, it's smaller and lighter than the DSLRs, so i can usually carry it in my purse (depending on which lens I have on it.) I find I take it more places than my friends that have DSLRs. There are also good mirrorless systems from Olympus, Panosonic, and Fuji.

 

[DB_Cro]

Ha, we wrote (and thought) basically the same thing. Fuji system is a good idea/direction.
So would a RX100 mk4 compact be.

The G10 WAS very advanced, and all the G series stuff still is, but the G10 is now almost 10 years
old and basically starts falling apart at anything above ISO400.

Bottom line, using auto, or mostly auto settings, a G1x would do better then the T5i.

 

[Dao]

If most of the shots are indoor photos (lack of light), adding a flash that allow you to bounce the light off a white color ceiling can yield a good result.

 

[DB_Cro]

If most of the shots are indoor photos (lack of light), adding a flash that allow you to bounce the light off a white color ceiling can yield a good result.

+1 and to put things into perspective, this is a $60 thing that can (and will be needed) be used on a Canon DSLR later on too.

 

[im1dermike]

If most of the shots are indoor photos (lack of light), adding a flash that allow you to bounce the light off a white color ceiling can yield a good result.

Thanks for the input. Can you point me to a good flash for my G10 in case I go that route?

 

[DB_Cro]

Check out Yongnuo stuff.

They're cheap Chinese flashes that work (while they do) virtually as good as 'brand name' stuff
for 2-3x more money. Cheapest TTL (auto mode) that's great is the YN468II ($60+).
Their top of the line stuff until recently was the YN568II ($100).

I own both and both work great.

 

[Dao]

Canon make a small 270EXII flash (Guide# 89)that should works with the Powershot G series. When one of the camera chain stores close out, I bought a Quantaray QDC 900WA flash that works with my G11 (with E-TTL). But that looks kind of big in the G11.
I think you can go to amazon.com and search for "canon g10 flash" and see which flashes are compatible with the G10.
And with that search, I saw this flash there seems to have not bad review (I do not own that flash). But again, do some research and find one that works best with your budget.

 

[Solarflare]

I'm not surprised a really old compact camera like the Canon G10 cant handle movement. AFAICS not even the NEW compact cameras from Canon can handle that.

To my best knowledge (though I'm not following that market particularily closely) only compact cameras from Sony (the RX100 line, RX10) and Panasonic (LX100, FZ1000) offer fast Autofocus. Sony started this trend, Panasonic managed to follow because they came up with a new variant of advanced autofocus.

But those cameras are of course a more expensive solution than getting an entry level DSLR from Canon (or Nikon), so the tip with the Canon camera was spot on.

 

[im1dermike]

Thanks TPF community! I played around with my G10 in shutter priority mode with a ton of indoor light and there was vast improvement in moving target photos. I think a flash will be a game changer and should allow me to use my current camera at least for the time being.

@Dao: that flash looks great. Thanks!

 

[Dao]

Thanks TPF community! I played around with my G10 in shutter priority mode with a ton of indoor light and there was vast improvement in moving target photos. I think a flash will be a game changer and should allow me to use my current camera at least for the time being.

@Dao: that flash looks great. Thanks!

I did a quick search at flickr.com "canon g10 bounce flash"

And found this
Mr Ben

That should give you an idea what you can do with your G10 and a bounce flash.


And this
Harry!

Based on the catch light on the hamster, I assume the flash is also bounce off the ceiling. So with added diffused light, you should be able to increase the shutter speed. On top of that, the flash exposure alone should also be able to freeze the motion.

 

[im1dermike]

Thanks TPF community! I played around with my G10 in shutter priority mode with a ton of indoor light and there was vast improvement in moving target photos. I think a flash will be a game changer and should allow me to use my current camera at least for the time being.

@Dao: that flash looks great. Thanks!

I did a quick search at flickr.com "canon g10 bounce flash"

And found this
Mr Ben

That should give you an idea what you can do with your G10 and a bounce flash.


And this
Harry!

Based on the catch light on the hamster, I assume the flash is also bounce off the ceiling. So with added diffused light, you should be able to increase the shutter speed. On top of that, the flash exposure alone should also be able to freeze the motion.

Cool.

Quick question: is there a lens that I could get for my G10 that would be valuable? I know you can add on some lenses but not sure the limit.

 

[Dao]

I know you can buy an adapter and then screw on some lens. I think Canon make a wide angle and a telephoto one. But I think focal length range (28mm - 140mm, 35mm equivalent) of the G10 should be fine already.

 

[im1dermike]

I was thinking more about this topic last night and I'm feeling like adding a flash to my G10 is more of a partial solution. It seems like it would mostly solve my problem with low light indoor photos, but once my little one is playing sports in a few years, I'm wondering if I wouldn't be wanting a different camera with a suitable lens at that time. If that is the case, I might as well bite the bullet now on a camera upgrade as I think I can get $150 or so for the G10.

If I were to go that direction, what camera and lens(es) would people suggest for mainly low light indoor and outdoor (on the playing field) pictures of a moving kid? The Nikon D3300 was suggested previously.

Thanks again.