More important: Lenses vs. Mp???

[tsaraleksi]

For available light headshot/face portrait work I like a fast 85mm lens, for controlled studio shooting it's hard to beat a 70-200. If you want to do full body and similar shots, you'll need something wider unless you have a lot of shooting space, something like a 24-70 or similar lens.

 

[inTempus]

For available light headshot/face portrait work I like a fast 85mm lens, for controlled studio shooting it's hard to beat a 70-200. If you want to do full body and similar shots, you'll need something wider unless you have a lot of shooting space, something like a 24-70 or similar lens.

Ahh, another insomniac Hoosier.

 

[Lynnzora]

"I would say if you're buying the 5D to avoid buying expensive glass, you're doing things kind of bass ackwards. [/quote]

No I just want the best possible photos because I'll be doing this as a profession eventually. I want photos that models and actors want to use in their portfolios. Nice crisp images...

After reading reviews... A lot of people say that the canon 50d images resolution isn't that good.
Pros: High resolution. Quick handling. VGA screen. HDMI.
Cons: Needs a good lens to exploit resolution. Face Detect mode slow.


I might look at the Pentax 20d too.
Pros: High resolution, weather-proof, built-in anti-shake.
Cons: Basic Live View system, 3fps continuous shooting.

My main concern is the resolution over the continuous shooting.

You know what this weekend I'm going to go to ritz camera or some camera store to check them out in person...

 

[Lynnzora]

For available light headshot/face portrait work I like a fast 85mm lens, for controlled studio shooting it's hard to beat a 70-200. If you want to do full body and similar shots, you'll need something wider unless you have a lot of shooting space, something like a 24-70 or similar lens.

Cool thanks! So the 85mm instead of the 50mm for a prime ok.

 

[tsaraleksi]

Cool thanks! So the 85mm instead of the 50mm for a prime ok.

I think it might not be a bad idea to start out with a 50 and see where that leaves you-- I use an 85 on a full frame body-- the 50 on a crop body will give you a similar perspective.

 

[Village Idiot]

The EOS 5D is still pretty damn pricey. Is there some reason why you are trying to invest in a full frame camera? The 50D or D300 can be had for 1K less, and with the savings can give you a **** load of wiggle room as far as it comes to being able to create a COMPLETE portrait studio environment.

Haven't made it to page three yet, but a used 5D may be an option if she still wants to drop that much money. They're going from 1300-1600 with some including grips, extra batteries, and other accessories. That's still a lot of money for a first camera, but if she has the cash and she's not going to totally discount lighting. Because if she does that, she's going to be quite disappointed at her results...

But what do I know.

 

[Village Idiot]

No I just want the best possible photos because I'll be doing this as a profession eventually. I want photos that models and actors want to use in their portfolios. Nice crisp images...

After reading reviews... A lot of people say that the canon 50d images resolution isn't that good.
Pros: High resolution. Quick handling. VGA screen. HDMI.
Cons: Needs a good lens to exploit resolution. Face Detect mode slow.


I might look at the Pentax 20d too.
Pros: High resolution, weather-proof, built-in anti-shake.
Cons: Basic Live View system, 3fps continuous shooting.

My main concern is the resolution over the continuous shooting.

You know what this weekend I'm going to go to ritz camera or some camera store to check them out in person...

MP almost mean crap. Having a good printer means everything. I use WHCC for most of my stuff so far. I printed a 30"x45" photo for a client of mine using a 1.5mb 8mp file edited to my taste and WHCC's specifications and sent them the file. They upsized it and printed it. It was perfect.

Granted, I had to make sure the photo was perfect on my end before I sent it and if there would have been a 21mp 5D MKII at that time and I would have used that, it would have made editing it easier, but the point is, you don't need a ton of MP for print size or quality.

The 5D is great with only 12mp. It's an amazing camera for it's time and it still holds it's own against more modern cameras. The 5D MKII is great because even at 21mp, it has the pixel density of an 8mp 30D. Yes, the 50D has less total mp, but with the sensor size being that's small, you're looking at tiny tiny pixels which can have negative results.

Just look at Olympus. Their cameras use a 2.0x crop sensor and suffer from noise and noise reduction "problems"

Regardless, the most important thing is going to be lighting. You can spend $3000 on a camera and lens and $500 on a light kit or you can spend $500 on a camera and lens and $3000 on a light kit. I promise you that unless you're doing only natural light and just not using strobes at all, that you'll get better results with a $500 camera kit and a $3000 light kit.

After all, I have some amazing photos from a 30D and an 18-55mm kit lens that were made amazing because of the light.

 

[Village Idiot]

Sorry about three in a row.

How easy a kit can be assembled:
Strobist: Lighting 101

A great lighting blog/resource. If you ever get a chance to take a workshop with this man, he will inspire you and show you great things:
Portable Lighting | LIGHTING ESSENTIALS : For Photographers

200,198 photos with off camera lighting:
Flickr: The Strobist.com Pool

My two favorites taken with a Canon 30D, Sigma 10-20, Canon 580EX II, and White Lighitng strobe.

 

[manaheim]

^^^ I love those pictures. No matter how many times I see 'em, I always click on 'em.

 

[Dao]

^^^ I love those pictures. No matter how many times I see 'em, I always click on 'em.

Same here

 

[Early]

Buy a ff camera or expose correctly or make your own light with lighting equipment.

Are you saying one ff camera wouldn't be superior to another noise wise? Say Nikon's D700 vs Sony's D900?

 

[ksmattfish]

**Remember I mostly do head-shots and modeling portfolios. I might do the occassional event...

With studio lighting any Canon from the 10D on, and similar Nikons will work fine. An 85mm prime and/or f/2.8 70-200mm zoom would be handy.

 

[Village Idiot]

^^^ I love those pictures. No matter how many times I see 'em, I always click on 'em.

Same here

Don Gianatti from Lighting Essentials is coming back to Baltimore & DC in May. Hopefully he brings Briana with him. That man is a genius and she is an amazing model. It's so much easier than working with unexperienced people. You give her and idea and she does it, not: "OK, smile a little bit, not that much, like you know something the camera should but doesn't. Now lean forward a little bit. Pick up that gun. Point at my forehead. Do me a favor, pull the trigger..."

Are you saying one ff camera wouldn't be superior to another noise wise? Say Nikon's D700 vs Sony's D900?

Yes, but generally FF cameras are superior to crop sensor cameras in noise handling.

 

[Lynnzora]

Ok I got a Pentax k20d... It came with a 18-55 lens. I'm doing research to see how much a 85mm or 50mm will cost? Also the 70-200... Thanks everyone for your input.

 

[McQueen278]

If you want the highest enlargement and resolution figures for magazine work then I would use a medium format FILM camera and scan the negatives/slides with the best equipment available to you. You can pick up a Mamiya RB67 and a 90mm lens for less than a Canon Rebel XTi and 18-55mm. The Mamiya will produce an negative 3 times larger than the DSLR and have much more favorable characteristics as far as grain/noise as well as having a higher dynamic range. The RB67 has been a work horse of the studio photographer for decades and is a proven success. They are also cheap now and very durable. For $800-1000 USD you could have a complete kit of the RB 67 Pro SD body, 65mm f/4.5(wide lens), 90mm f/3.8 (normal lens) and a 127mm f/3.8 (telephoto/portrait lens) plus a 120 & 220 back. For studio work, this would be all you would ever need. You will never get the kind of quality these cameras can give out of a APS-C camera like the Nikon D90 or Canon 50D.

This is of course the "thriftiest" solution to get high resolution and not necessarily the the easiest way. You could get a 5D MkII with a 50mm f/1.2L and an 85mm f/1.2L for $6500 give or take and the results will knock your socks off, but you can get similarly stunning photos out of a $1000 medium format film system at a much lower cost.