Suggest New Camera

[gaurav1993]

Hello Everyone,
My Name is Gaurav and i have been using Sony Camera Model DSC H7 which i bought in year 2007. Now it has become outdated and i have also developed some more interest in skilled Photography. My area of interest is in Portfolio shoots and i am very much interested to develop mentioned skill. I want to buy a new camera for myself and have finalized NIKON D3200 and Canon EOS 600D. Price wise both are on same platform but since i am beginner in photography i m not able to finalize my decision.
Please help me out and let me know which camera should i go for.

Regards,
Gaurav

 

[Solarflare]

Those are both good cameras.

Standard procedure for cases like this:
1. Get into a good camera shop.
2. Pick both cameras up and check them out.
3. Whichever you like better from its ergonomics - take it.
4. Just a reminder - of course also get a kitlens for the camera.

Remember:
- The most important thing about cameras is ergonomics.
- Second most important thing about cameras is lenses. You wont know which lenses you need unless you experiment, though.

 

[gaurav1993]

Thanks for the quick response.... The main drawback in Indian shops is they do not show you camera , what you can do is just have a look outside the box and imagine the ergonomics of camera. Secondly they use to say 18-55 mm lens is very much precise and good for learning photography and can be used multipurpose. My objective is very clear that i want to learn portfolio photoshoots , so could you please suggest kitlens for same.

 

[joethephotographer]

The main drawback in Indian shops is they do not show you camera , what you can do is just have a look outside the box and imagine the ergonomics of camera.

That is strange, I've been to quite a few stores and almost all of them have a demo model available which prospective customers can play with. Try going to a big store, in a mall perhaps, and you should be able to play around with the cameras.

 

[toughsamurai]

Hello Everyone,
My Name is Gaurav and i have been using Sony Camera Model DSC H7 which i bought in year 2007. Now it has become outdated and i have also developed some more interest in skilled Photography. My area of interest is in Portfolio shoots and i am very much interested to develop mentioned skill. I want to buy a new camera for myself and have finalized NIKON D3200 and Canon EOS 600D. Price wise both are on same platform but since i am beginner in photography i m not able to finalize my decision.
Please help me out and let me know which camera should i go for.

Regards,
Gaurav

A warm welcome to the SLR family!
The below link will help you to get a clear idea, which cameras to go with.
Canon 600D vs Nikon D3200 - Our Analysis
I have a 600D (t3i) for years and I am fully satisfied with it and I also have a 18-55mm lens with is not at all bad.
As you mentioned if you are interested in Portfolio shoots and it will be your profession then my suggestion is to go with the full frame body and prime lenses with low f stops (50mm f1.4).

 

[gaurav1993]

Thanks a lot for such a wonderful advise....made my job much easier....so final verdict goes to Nikon D3200. now coming to second step of " Photography" . Where in Delhi i can get good tutorial. I don't want to persuade as profession but as passion . why i am more focus to portfolio shoot...because anybody feels very good when they see themselves good looking in portfolio pics. So if i can bring happiness to people by clicking their good shots then why not? isn't it a social service.
Please suggest me lens which is required for portfolio shoots so that i can buy it in combo with camera. Also technical terms like "EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II | EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II | EF 50mm f/1.4 USM |
EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM | Speedlite 430 EX II |" is quite complicated to me as i have only operated point and shoot for pics.

 

[goodguy]

so final verdict goes to Nikon D3200.

Enjoy your new camera, I think you made the right choice!
As for the lenses my advise is first get the 18-105mm VR kit lens then add the Nikon 70-300mm VR and Nikon 50mm 1.8G

 

[gaurav1993]

First Step for selection of Camera Done. Any video tutorial link to develop portfolio shoots?.....It will be a great help to me

 

[centauro74]

YouTube is a great resource, there's a lot of good beginners videos in there. Also I like to listen to podcast for example "improve photography" and "froknownsphoto" . You also can find those two in YouTube.

 

[lonewolfsx]

]..so could you please suggest kit lens for same.[/COLOR]

Now that you're on the Nikon team, I'll suggest a few for you.
If you are wanting to do Portraits, you generally want something with a shallow depth of field in the length of say, 85mm (classic, everybody looks good) to 135mm (compressed, makes people with long noses look good). 50mm is sometimes useful for groups of people but faces can sometimes appear slightly less than optimal alone.

Since the D3200 is a "crop body," take whatever lens you buy and multiply by 1.5x for the equivalent lens. So for example, a 50mm lens on your camera will really be similar to a 75mm in real world usage.

Here's my recommendations then:
Nikon 50mm f/1.8G -> This will give you a happy medium for portraiture to use for various subjects, and it will autofocus on your camera unlike the 50mm f/1.8D. Lens sharpness is extremely good.
Nikon 85mm f/1.8G -> Also a fantastic lens, will autofocus, equates to 128mm or so which will give images a slightly more compressed feel, very flattering to some and the lens itself is sharp out to the borders.
Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 -> this would allow you to zoom in and out to frame your portraits.. it's not quite as sharp as the primes above but would give you more breathing room to experiment with different lengths and their effects on the images. f/2.8 is slower but perfectly acceptable for this type of photography.

If you can spend the cash, obviously the 58mm f/1.4G, 85mm f/1.4G, and 50mm f/1.4G are all very nice and offer shallower depth of field, which is sometimes nice and other times useless. One other note, the 50mm f/1.8G is probably better than the 50mm f/1.4G... some will disagree with me there though.

Then if you're feeling really crazy the usual suspects come to mind, 24-70mm f/2.8's and 70-200mm f/2.8's are popular for general portraiture but run in the $2000 USD range sometimes. Sigma and Tamron both make variants of these with varying quality but generally less than Nikon's, but at much lower pricing. The new Sigma 24-70mm HSM is average at best, but the older "macro" model (I have one) is very good except maybe wide open it loses some contrast.

 

[ronlane]

I owe the 600D/T3i and knowing what I do now about it and the D3200, I think you made a good choice.

As far as tutorials go, I would also recommend youtube, there is a lot of great free videos out there to help you. Some other places would be kelbytraining.com, creativelive.com. Also Adorama has videos that are helpful and bhvideo has videos as well.

Enjoy the journey.

 

[toughsamurai]

First Step for selection of Camera Done. Any video tutorial link to develop portfolio shoots?.....It will be a great help to me

Start from here

There are plenty of episode's to learn.

 

[gaurav1993]

I thank you all for all the valuable advise for my post.

 

[gaurav1993]

Could any one please let me know what is focus motor all about. It is the technology which is available in Canon EOS 600 D and its lacks in Nikon D3200. Does it make any difference in photography...

 

[SCraig]

Could any one please let me know what is focus motor all about. It is the technology which is available in Canon EOS 600 D and its lacks in Nikon D3200. Does it make any difference in photography...

Entry-level Nikon cameras do not have a focus motor in the camera body. This means that you have two choices when looking for additional lenses:
1) Buy lenses with the focus motor in the lens.
2) Forget about autofocus and use manual focus.