polymoog
No longer a newbie, moving up!
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I have a Pentax *ist DL which I bought in June 2006. It is currently in for repair (new shutter release button), and during that time (a week) I have tested a couple of Nikons.
I mostly take pics of motorsport, ie cars, bikes, snowmobiles. Every time I've asked at a camera shop what they would recommend for this type of photography they always say Nikon D100/D200/D300 (depending on the year it was when I asked ...)
I use Sigma glass - a 17-70 2.3-4.5 and 70-300 4-5.6.
My main concerns when photographing motorsport with this setup are, as I expect you can guess, speed and accuracy of autofocus, and pics per second (a humble 2.7 at the moment).
After having read some reviews, there is nothing that would encourage me to buy a newer Pentax, based on those requirements. The "Flagship" K20D still only offers 3 fps for example. And Pentaxs own lenses usually do poorly in reviews, with the conclusion being that unlike other own brand makes, they are not worth the extra money.
So the point is this. Am I misinformed/miseducated and/or not getting the most out of my current setup, should I buy a faster lens, be it Sigma, Pentax or someone else, when I get the *ist DL back?
Or should I save up and buy a mid range Nikon eg D90 or second hand D80 (or maybe Canon, but have no experience of those at all. Nearly all my photo friends use Nikon, incl all the motorsports ones) and some fast glass for that instead?
I tested a D40x a week ago and found it to be quite fast but the lens was a Tamron 50-200 and it had some colour issues such as chromatic abberation. That can be fixed in PP but it would be nice to get a lens that doesn't have that prob to start with ...
This weekend I have been testing a D80 and same thing there, a Tamrom lens, this time 28-200. The camera could take up to 6 pics in a row but since I had no indication from the camera where the focus point was each time (and that's hard to see when you are panning) the pics were mostly unusable. Of course I am not used to this with my own setup anyway, so is that just my lack of pratice? Usually I just prefocus or manage to get the focus on the object so I can get one shot, I rarely use burst mode on my camera.
I have tested a D90 in a shop, with a Nikon 18-105, but to be honest I felt a bit limited in what I could test in there, esp with an expectant sales person in attendance ...
At least if I buy mid-range Nikon it'll be the same type of mem card, not looking forward to everything else having to be bought again ...
BTW, I bought the Pentax because it was the cheapest DSLR available at the time, and I didn't know I was going to get into motorsports in quite the way I have ...
I just feel a bit frustrated when I see what everyone else can do with their Nikons, I appreciate it's their skill as well but I do sometimes wonder what it would be like. I wasn't happy with my work from either Nikon test, I know it was the first couple of times using Nikons but only a bad workman blames their tools and after 2.5 years of digital photography I don't think I can blame the results purely on a different menu system ;-)
Sorry for the long ramble but any advice would be much appreciated.
I mostly take pics of motorsport, ie cars, bikes, snowmobiles. Every time I've asked at a camera shop what they would recommend for this type of photography they always say Nikon D100/D200/D300 (depending on the year it was when I asked ...)
I use Sigma glass - a 17-70 2.3-4.5 and 70-300 4-5.6.
My main concerns when photographing motorsport with this setup are, as I expect you can guess, speed and accuracy of autofocus, and pics per second (a humble 2.7 at the moment).
After having read some reviews, there is nothing that would encourage me to buy a newer Pentax, based on those requirements. The "Flagship" K20D still only offers 3 fps for example. And Pentaxs own lenses usually do poorly in reviews, with the conclusion being that unlike other own brand makes, they are not worth the extra money.
So the point is this. Am I misinformed/miseducated and/or not getting the most out of my current setup, should I buy a faster lens, be it Sigma, Pentax or someone else, when I get the *ist DL back?
Or should I save up and buy a mid range Nikon eg D90 or second hand D80 (or maybe Canon, but have no experience of those at all. Nearly all my photo friends use Nikon, incl all the motorsports ones) and some fast glass for that instead?
I tested a D40x a week ago and found it to be quite fast but the lens was a Tamron 50-200 and it had some colour issues such as chromatic abberation. That can be fixed in PP but it would be nice to get a lens that doesn't have that prob to start with ...
This weekend I have been testing a D80 and same thing there, a Tamrom lens, this time 28-200. The camera could take up to 6 pics in a row but since I had no indication from the camera where the focus point was each time (and that's hard to see when you are panning) the pics were mostly unusable. Of course I am not used to this with my own setup anyway, so is that just my lack of pratice? Usually I just prefocus or manage to get the focus on the object so I can get one shot, I rarely use burst mode on my camera.
I have tested a D90 in a shop, with a Nikon 18-105, but to be honest I felt a bit limited in what I could test in there, esp with an expectant sales person in attendance ...
At least if I buy mid-range Nikon it'll be the same type of mem card, not looking forward to everything else having to be bought again ...
BTW, I bought the Pentax because it was the cheapest DSLR available at the time, and I didn't know I was going to get into motorsports in quite the way I have ...
I just feel a bit frustrated when I see what everyone else can do with their Nikons, I appreciate it's their skill as well but I do sometimes wonder what it would be like. I wasn't happy with my work from either Nikon test, I know it was the first couple of times using Nikons but only a bad workman blames their tools and after 2.5 years of digital photography I don't think I can blame the results purely on a different menu system ;-)
Sorry for the long ramble but any advice would be much appreciated.