Looking To Buy DSLR...

[TheNickster]

I'm sure you all get this question a MILLION times.

I am in the market for a DSLR. I don't need a $1,500 camera...yet. I am still pretty green when it comes to photography so an entry level DSLR is all I really need. I am interested in shooting mostly nature photography. I also like doing a lot of macro shots and might even dabble in doing some friends engagement pictures.

The two cameras I've been looking at are a Nikon 12.3 Megapixel D5000 and a Canon EOS Digital Rebel T1i 15.1-Megapixel.

Trying not to go over $850.

Any information/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

P.S: Sorry if this thread is in the wrong section!!

 

[MohaimenK]

both good cameras. Go with canon and you'll hae the choice of video. Not that it matters but I noticed goverment uses Canons. They gave every one of their photographers a 5D to shoot the Marine Corp marathon when I was there yesterday

 

[sobolik]

both good cameras. Go with canon and you'll hae the choice of video. Not that it matters but I noticed goverment uses Canons. They gave every one of their photographers a 5D to shoot the Marine Corp marathon when I was there yesterday

The government does not prefer Canon. They go with the lowest bidder for each buy. I work for the gov. and know the game. They may have even rented those cameras for the event.

Any way I would go with Nikon. Nikon glass is famous and is even used on Canons.

"Canon designed their AF system from scratch, and used a completely new and incompatible lens mount. The lenses each had their own motors inside them. If you shot Canon you had to throw away all your lenses and bodies and start from scratch. Not good! To go to Canon AF you had to rebuy your entire system with new AF gear.

1990​

Pros eventually started using the AF cameras around 1990 and liked them. One teensy-weensy problem around was that Nikon AF cameras couldn't focus fast enough for sports. The Canon cameras worked great. Pros who shot sports dumped their Nikon gear and moved to Canon in droves. Sports shooters still predominantly use Canon for this reason. I was kidding about slow AF being a teeny problem: it's why Nikon lost it's twenty-year lock on the pro journalism market and has never won it back!​

Unlike 1980, in the 1990s Canon cameras evolved to be as professional as Nikon. They have competed neck and neck for the same customers ever since.​

Nikon's AF speed is as good as Canon today, but no one is going to sell everything and start from scratch without a very good reason.​

As a pro you own a lot of gear, all bought at different times. It all needs to work together as a system. Amateurs buy bodies and lenses together, while pros add and delete each body and lens from their systems as it makes sense. Except in the case of total theft, you never get the chance to start over from scratch.​

Better AF performance was why sports pros left Nikon in the 1990s. There's never been anything compelling enough since then to get them all to switch back. That's why you see all the white lenses at sports events."

Nikon vs. Canon

 

[Overread35]

Honestly whilst I respect that if you go nikon you do have access to the older gear through their mount system I think for anyone new who is going to invest only in the new gear its a fairly redundent argument - the older pro nikon glass will still command a fairly high price even in todays market.

Furthermore the only ways to choose between the camera brands is to first define what your needs are. What subjects you intend to work with; an idea of how far you might take the hobby (ie costs) and what kind of style of shooting you want to take part in. Once you start to put specific criteria on the table you can objectively compare the offerings even with limited actual experience. Remember that in this you won't be choosing which system can support your needs but rather which system will better (on paper) support your needs. There is nothing that canon can do that nikon can't and vis versa and between the lens ranges there is only one lens that is in production that only one company has sole exclusivity over - that is the Canon MPE 65mm* - which is one of the most specialist lenses in their line up. Further like I said even though only canon make this lens there are options nikon users can use to get just as good a quality shot as with that lens.

So that you have it - give yourself some direct criteria - thereafter its a case of trying them out and seeing if one feels better in your hand/makes more sense interface and control wise. Approaching things like this also keep your eyes on other lines such as Olympus as keeping an open mind is the best approach.



* its a high magnification macro only lens that works from life size (where all other macro lenses work at their greatest level of magnification) through to five times life size. Even within the macro shooting community its a rarer lens and one of the hardest to use (let alone use well). For many its just not a deciding factor unless springtails or other very tiny subjects are your intent