Please help with purchase decision

[DrCrook]

Hi All,

So I am pretty much settled on a Nikon d7000, because it just sounds frickin awesome, and the photos I've seen look good. However if this is not going to be the best for what I want to do, feel free to let me know.

The budget: $1800-$2000 or less.

The Goal: (pretty much in priority order)
-Shoot photos at car race events, and car shows
-Shoot photos of landscapes and out door places I visit as well as wild life.
-Shoot down town city scapes at night
-Wedding Pictures (my wedding, so gotta be damn good, lol.)
-Portraits (just a few of these, most pictures of people will include a background that is important).
-Mostly out door shots.

So I was thinking that I would do the Nikon d7000 and a wide angle lens, a telephoto lens with a good range, and a UV filter. The problem is all the lens's have these really crazy names that are a paragraph long and mean nothing to me. Im an absolute beginner, though I am very dangerous with a complicated and powerful toy. Give me a Corvette, and I'll be setting lap records in a week.

I am not opposed to used gear. I prefer robust and durable parts, water resistance is nice.

One other important note is: Though I can do photo editing with gimp (I don't own a lisence to photoshop), I really suck at it, so I would like pictures I take to look really good with very minor editing, like a simple filter put on it.

Thanks for any help,
~David

 

[2WheelPhoto]

Hi All,

So I am pretty much settled on a Nikon d7000, because it just sounds frickin awesome, and the photos I've seen look good. However if this is not going to be the best for what I want to do, feel free to let me know.

The budget: $1800-$2000 or less.

The Goal: (pretty much in priority order)
-Shoot photos at car race events, and car shows
-Shoot photos of landscapes and out door places I visit as well as wild life.
-Shoot down town city scapes at night
-Wedding Pictures (my wedding, so gotta be damn good, lol.)
-Portraits (just a few of these, most pictures of people will include a background that is important).
-Mostly out door shots.

So I was thinking that I would do the Nikon d7000 and a wide angle lens, a telephoto lens with a good range, and a UV filter. The problem is all the lens's have these really crazy names that are a paragraph long and mean nothing to me. Im an absolute beginner, though I am very dangerous with a complicated and powerful toy. Give me a Corvette, and I'll be setting lap records in a week.

I am not opposed to used gear. I prefer robust and durable parts, water resistance is nice.

One other important note is: Though I can do photo editing with gimp (I don't own a lisence to photoshop), I really suck at it, so I would like pictures I take to look really good with very minor editing, like a simple filter put on it.

Thanks for any help,
~David

 

[djacobox372]

my lens recommendations:tamron 17-50mm f2.8 af ($325 used, dont pay more for the vc version)nikon 80-200mm f2.8 ($400-900 used, the only difference between versions, single ring/dual ring/af-s is focus speed, buy the best you can afford)these two lenses will cover just about every situation with pro-level results.

 

[chaosrealm93]

24-70 or 70-200? nikon of course!

 

[BJF]

D7000 is definitely a wise choice. Recommend D7000 + 18-200mm VRII. That's best kit for beginners.

Nikon D7000 + market price

Nikkor 18-200mm VR + market price

Nikkor 18-200mm VRII + market price

 

[Kerbouchard]

D7000 is definitely a wise choice. Recommend D7000 + 18-200mm VRII. That's best kit for beginners.

Nikon D7000 + market price

Nikkor 18-200mm VR + market price

Nikkor 18-200mm VRII + market price

According to who? The 18-200 is overpriced for what it is, which is a do a lot of things okay and nothing well, and while the D7000 is a great camera, it is not a great value based on it's current price.

Currently, I think the best value beginners kit to learn on would be a D90, an 18-105, a 50mm 1.8 and an SB600. Since the OP wants to do car races, he should consider the 70-300 VR as well. That would be a much more complete kit at around the same price and would give any beginner most of the tools they would need to learn most facets of photography including off camera flash, bounce flash, natural light, low light, and action.

It's basically the difference between giving the beginner the ability to capture most of the scenes he is presented with and giving him the ability to create the types of scenes he wants to photograph.

 

[BJF]

D7000 is definitely a wise choice. Recommend D7000 + 18-200mm VRII. That's best kit for beginners.

Nikon D7000 + market price

Nikkor 18-200mm VR + market price

Nikkor 18-200mm VRII + market price

According to who? The 18-200 is overpriced for what it is, which is a do a lot of things okay and nothing well, and while the D7000 is a great camera, it is not a great value based on it's current price.

Currently, I think the best value beginners kit to learn on would be a D90, an 18-105, a 50mm 1.8 and an SB600. Since the OP wants to do car races, he should consider the 70-300 VR as well. That would be a much more complete kit at around the same price and would give any beginner most of the tools they would need to learn most facets of photography including off camera flash, bounce flash, natural light, low light, and action.

It's basically the difference between giving the beginner the ability to capture most of the scenes he is presented with and giving him the ability to create the types of scenes he wants to photograph.

D7000 + 18-200mm is good enough for beginners, not for you. I have similar kit as you mentioned here. I really hate to change lenses at lifetime once moment. So I bought another body.

 

[Kerbouchard]

So, is it best or good enough? And is good enough ever good enough?

If for the same price you can get a kit that will make you the limiting factor rather than the camera gear, wouldn't that be the better option?

In any case, I agree the D7000 is a better camera. I am not sold on the 18-200, but to each his own. I just hope anybody looking to move into a DSLR for better portraits/wedding photography/etc will at least save some room in their budget for a flash and dedicate some time to learning how to use it.

 

[BJF]

So, is it best or good enough? And is good enough ever good enough?

If for the same price you can get a kit that will make you the limiting factor rather than the camera gear, wouldn't that be the better option?

In any case, I agree the D7000 is a better camera. I am not sold on the 18-200, but to each his own. I just hope anybody looking to move into a DSLR for better portraits/wedding photography/etc will at least save some room in their budget for a flash and dedicate some time to learning how to use it.

Are you a lawyer fighting on any key words? It's simply a public forum. take it easy.

 

[behanana]

Don't plan on being your own photographer at your wedding. Ask anyone who has been through a wedding as either the bride or groom, you will have little to no time to take pictures. If I had a camera at my wedding all the pictures would have been really tilted, I was drinking rum and coke from a 22oz beer mug GOOD TIMES!

 

[ElanImages]

My advice... get yourself a 50mm f1.4, and learn to use it to the max. The once you've mastered it and your camera, you'll have developed a 'need' for the lenses you'll go on to buy. I'm a professional wedding photographer and have, on occassion, shot entire weddings using just this lens (...it was 'the look' the client wanted!). It'll handle the low light at you wedding and is fast enough to catch action such as race events.

 

[Nikon_Josh]

Ah another tip to get an 18-200. Steer clear of this AVERAGE lens for a high price!

You clearly have sense if you are looking for a wide angle lens and a telephoto lens seperately. They are both different purposes and from what I've seen a wide angle to telephoto zoom is always a compromise! Wide and telephoto are two completely different functions. Thats why I have a 10-20 Sigma that is a good value for money wide angle lens and I have a 70-300 VR as it's a great Value for money telephoto, these are the only zooms you will need. You don't need to cover the 20-70 range with a zoom, this is why I don't agree with any suggestions you should spend decent money on a Tamron 17-50 as you would be much better off with a quality prime.

If you bought a prime lens, 35mm or 50mm you simply have to step forward or step backwards to compose the photograph, I prefer doing this to having a lazy man's zoom like the 18-200! Kerbouchard is correct.

 

[Nikon_Josh]

My advice... get yourself a 50mm f1.4, and learn to use it to the max. The once you've mastered it and your camera, you'll have developed a 'need' for the lenses you'll go on to buy. I'm a professional wedding photographer and have, on occassion, shot entire weddings using just this lens (...it was 'the look' the client wanted!). It'll handle the low light at you wedding and is fast enough to catch action such as race events.

Beautiful work Elan! Alot of your work is done simply with the 50mm 1.4G is it? Very inspiring, I want to upgrade my 1.8 to the 1.4G soon.

 

[penfolderoldo]

Couldn't agree with ElanImages more - this way you will get to appreciate and understand light, composition, etc etc without fretting about all the variable possibilities (and at this stage in your photography i'd call them distractions more than possibilities) that comes with multiple focal lengths.