DSLR Shopping

[Geezir]

First I would just like to introduce myself, my name is Shane (but all my friends just call me Geezir) and I'm 20 years old from good ol' Ontario, Canada. Been into photography for about 6 years now and love it.

Anyways, currently I'm shooting with an old Olympus OM-1. Great camera, but I'm wanting to start going digital. Definatly not going to retire the OM, but living an hour away from anything, it becomes a hassle when I want film developed, and then to get them into the digital format there is so much quality lost it's not even worth it (I've actually stopped taking pictures as of lately because of those two situations combines).

SO I'm just looking into suggestions for cameras to look into, what features I want, what features are a waste of money. Those kinds of things. Incase it helps, I mainly do sports photography, occassionaly scenery photography, and some abstract. Also, my price range is at around $1000CDN (give or take couple hundred).

Open to any suggestions and thanks in advance for the replies,

Geezir

 

[Mike_E]

Hi Geezir, first you need to hold them. If you don't like the way if feels then you are not as likely to pick it up- bad thing.

Second, what is the feature set are you looking for? Are you wanting to shoot at ISO 3200, That would be canon to hear most. How often do you shoot at 3200 with film? Do you shoot fast moving people or objects? Will 3 fps be enough? Will you be out in the weather? How do you meter? Do you use center weighted only or would you like to have spot meter? (Nikon here) Do you use flash? On camera or off? Want to get into studio work? (if you are way far up north most likely right?) Built in vibration reduction? (Pentax)

As you can see there is a lot to consider but once you know what need then finding it is a breeze.

mike

 

[cy88]

I am a very beginner in terms of photographer, so I can't really help on giving advice on selection on camera.

However if it helps, or if you end up choosing the Canon Rebel XTi, I just picked one up off a guy from craiglists (toronto) for $850CAD with a 2GB Sandisk Extreme CF. That's a saving of around $490 off from retail ($1099 XTI, $79 2GB CF - without discounts). I refunded the XTi and the memory i bought 2 days ago from Blacks and bought one from him tonight.

I am not sure how many extra he had on hand, but as of tonight I met with him, he said he has 1 left. Not sure where his stocks came from, but I've been playing around with it for the whole night, and it's working flawless!

PM me if you need his information.

 

[Geezir]

Mike E,

Lets go through the list here. I've never shot at ISO 3200 with film, so it's not a big concern to me for DSLR. I will be shooting fast moving objects (especially at the sporting events that I shoot for) but 3 fps will be plenty as right now I'm shooting at 1 frame and then manual advance. I will be out in the weather, sometimes it starts raining at these events, or just when it's miserable weather out and I'm outside taking shots. For metering, I'd prefer center weighted (it's what I'm shooting with now and much prefer it). I do occassionally use flash, but never a remote flash. I only ever use a flash on the camera. I'm not really looking into getting into any studio work though. And vibration reduction would be a nice feature.

 

[sabbath999]

Geezir, any of the major DLSR's would work for you then...

Personally, I think the Nikon & Canon choices are the best simply because they both have excellent (and huge) lens systems behind them. The others are great cameras too, but the selection of lenses are not up to the same level and Canon and Nikon...

 

[Mike_E]

I was near to where you are now, Geezer. I wanted a robust camera with enough features that if I missed a shot it was going to be my fault. I had a couple of lenses that I had bought used so that wasn't an issue (if I get painted into a corner then that just means that you can see where I walked out.)

I Splurged and got the Nikon D200 (a true joy to shoot with!) because I knew that I would have the camera body for a long while (you hear that they go obsolete every 3 years but I don't know anybody that can buy a top DSLR every 3 years that isn't a pro) and wanted one that I would be happy with for quite a while. You will also hear people say lenses first but that just means that you will have to buy the camera body twice should you really want a certain feature set and don't get it the first time around.

So look for a camera body with weather sealeing and a good lens selection. All the other things should fall into place when you start looking for one with the gaskets.

mike

 

[Mad_Gnome]

If you're looking for a camera with vibration reduction, your best bets are either the Sony Alpha or the Pentax K100D. Both cameras come with anti-shake features built into the camera body, but the Pentax is a bit less expensive, if I remember correctly. Both great cameras.

 

[usayit]

Pretty much any of the offerings in the market are going to work for you... Nikon and Canon are leaders in the market and have something to offer. I like Pentax for their high "bang for the buck" offerings and backward compatibility with manual K-mounts.