Sorry if asked too much.. Which DSLR?

[jimbop1]

To cut it short... I've never done photography before but I capture everything on my iPhone. I want a DSLR for around December time but haven't a clue where to start.

Here are my wants:

Under £400

Easy to use

Can work with something Apple i.e. An app

Good picture quality

Editable.. Preferably by something apple


As you can see, I haven't a clue what I'm on about. I'm probably asking what is the best DSLR camera for under £400... And new out.

Thanks in advance

[dojo]

I'd look at a second hand camera with light room as post production editing software.
Although not strictly DSLR you could get a fuji XE-1 with the xf 18-55 (if the xc 16-50)for that price and the quality is outstanding, up there with top level DSLR plus the layout forces you to learn about f-stops, shutter speed and ISO..

[Simpo Two]

jimbop1 said:

Can work with something Apple i.e. An app

Does this mean 'software on a Mac?'

[Gad-Westy]

jimbop1 said:

To cut it short... I've never done photography before but I capture everything on my iPhone. I want a DSLR for around December time but haven't a clue where to start.

Here are my wants:

Under £400

Easy to use

Can work with something Apple i.e. An app

Good picture quality

Editable.. Preferably by something apple


As you can see, I haven't a clue what I'm on about. I'm probably asking what is the best DSLR camera for under £400... And new out.

Thanks in advance

Any idea what you're going to be shooting? It's an important question because arguably the lens or lenses you'll purchase are more important than the camera you attach them to. If you want to shoot things that are very far away, lenses can get pricey and if you want to shoot things that are very close, lenses can get pricey. Somewhere in the middle isn't so bad but it's important to factor it into your budget.

[V8Wagon]

If you want to buy new then for £400 the Nikon D3300 seems to be the obvious choice. You can buy an additional wifi module for around £40 to connect it to your phone/tablet.

[dele]

I had to sell all my gear a year ago to pay off some bills, replaced it recently with a D3300 and a Kit Lens and i'm really happy with it, I think its a cracking bit of kit

[photosnob]

If you don't have a budget for lenses you will need to make a sacrifice. Personally if I were you I'd get a second hand 7d and a second hand 50mm 1.8. But then I like Canon, and don't mind second hand.

If you want new there is lots to chose from. Sony are making some great stuff atm (there sensors beat anything Canon offer, and are used in Nikon). Have a look on Amazon and then order from eBay from a Hong Kong seller.

Work out what you actually want to take photo's off and people will help more.

As a basic set up I'd be getting a cheapish tripod (don't go for a branded one if you want to save money), any modernish camera they are all good, and a reasonable prime lens. With that you should be able to do lots off stuff. However I would be looking at second hand - came bodies which are considered old now were used by pro's to take fantastic images just a year or two ago.

Virtually all cameras work with Macs. iPhoto will do a lot - most cameras come with software. If you are naughty then you can get virtually any software for free. Not that I'm suggesting you should do that. As a beginner - the new iPhoto is pretty good.

[jimbop1]

Thanks for all the replies and advise.

I do like the sound of the Nikon D3300. How easy will this be for an absolute beginner? Am I able to upgrade the lens's once I've got the hang of everything?

Just to clarify.. When I said to use with apple, I meant on my ipad as I don't currently use a laptop. Which would the best app be? Someone mentioned iPhoto, but what would I be able to do on this?

Appologies for all the questions.

Cheers.

[jimbop1]

Oh and I don't really know what I would be taking pictures of probably just boring things to start.. Like car, bike, dog, family etc until I learn how to do it properly, then move on to more adventurous things.. I really like the very close up ones.

[dojo]

You might be able to find a 5200 out there in your price range.

The 3000/5000 series and the later models (5100, 5200, 5300 etc) can be super easy to use... just stick it on auto and shoot away, you can then move on to aperture priority or shutter priority and build up from there. To be honest if you're going to content with Auto you'd be better off with a decent compact.

My GF's 5000 is pretty good at focusing on moving things (like a dog) if you want to shoot close up you need a macro lens, you could prob find an old manual focus lens secondhand for a good price with decent glass in it.

Things to note about the 3000/5000

It is in the DX range (slightly smaller sensor - not a problem). If you buy additional lens make sure it is a DX and not a FX
The 3000/5000's don't have an autofocus motor in them this means if you want to have autofocus you need to buy a AF-S lens not a AF as you would need to manually focus (not bad for up close shots but trickier for an erratic dog)

[Colin RedGriff]

jimbop1 said:

Thanks for all the replies and advise.

I do like the sound of the Nikon D3300. How easy will this be for an absolute beginner? Am I able to upgrade the lens's once I've got the hang of everything?

Just to clarify.. When I said to use with apple, I meant on my ipad as I don't currently use a laptop. Which would the best app be? Someone mentioned iPhoto, but what would I be able to do on this?

Appologies for all the questions.

Cheers.

It depends what you want to do with the photos. Editing is going to be quite limited, your not going to get full blown photoshop capabilities on an iPad. You also have to consider the processing and storage capabilities of the iPad. The D3300 has a 24 mp sensor - raw images from that are going to be around 20mb each. How do you intend to transfer the photo's from the camera to your iPad? Lightroom is available as an app but needs an adobe cloud subscription I think; it doesn't have the full range of editing options that are available in the desktop/laptop version.

[The_Jackal]

Just to start off with just get a basic camera and kit lens and just get out there and use it and learn what it does. You won't know what other bits you need until you decide what type of photos you want to take.
If you only have an iPad you will struggle to upload and edit all the photos you take, a laptop will be invaluable for that. Eventually you could upload your photos to something like google drive and then access them from your iPad.
But to learn post processing properly you will be severely limiting yourself as a beginner on an iPad and a finger.
As has been mentioned 1000's of times before type in "photography tutorial" or "photoshop/lightroom tutorial" in YouTube and you will have practically every piece of info at your fingertips.

[budfox]

2nd hand Nikon D3100 with the 18-55 kit lens.

Absolutely all of the camera you need to learn with, and quite possibly all of the camera you'll ever need.

To get the best out of this (and any other DSLR) you'll need to shoot RAW files. Sounds complicated, it isn't.

With the remaining £200 you could probably buy a used PC and a copy of Adobe Lightroom.

The above, combined with a good few hours learning, will give you the ability to churn out images of an extremely high quality.

You absolutely do not need to spend big money to produce great photos. You just need to invest some time in learning and a few quid on kit.

[photosnob]

budfox said:

2nd hand Nikon D3100 with the 18-55 kit lens.

Absolutely all of the camera you need to learn with, and quite possibly all of the camera you'll ever need.

To get the best out of this (and any other DSLR) you'll need to shoot RAW files. Sounds complicated, it isn't.

With the remaining £200 you could probably buy a used PC and a copy of Adobe Lightroom.

The above, combined with a good few hours learning, will give you the ability to churn out images of an extremely high quality.

You absolutely do not need to spend big money to produce great photos. You just need to invest some time in learning and a few quid on kit.

I agree with your sentiment. But for completeness - much of what you are saying isn't right.

You do not need to shoot raw. Perhaps you can explain to me the advantages to it, for say a sports photographer? The vast majority of images to not need to be shot in raw. If jpeg was not useful then it would not be included in high end cameras. At this point the OP should not be shooting in raw - especially as he is planning on editing on an iPad!

A entry level camera with a kit lens and a "few hours" learning will not "churn out" extremely high quality images. I've got many £k's of kit, many years leaning and some professional work behind me and I can't churn out those sort of images. The equipment is not as important as the knowledge - but the idea that you can quickly start producing amazing stuff is wrong unless you are amazingly gifted.

[budfox]

photosnob said:

I agree with your sentiment. But for completeness - much of what you are saying isn't right.

You do not need to shoot raw. Perhaps you can explain to me the advantages to it, for say a sports photographer? The vast majority of images to not need to be shot in raw. If jpeg was not useful then it would not be included in high end cameras. At this point the OP should not be shooting in raw - especially as he is planning on editing on an iPad!

A entry level camera with a kit lens and a "few hours" learning will not "churn out" extremely high quality images. I've got many £k's of kit, many years leaning and some professional work behind me and I can't churn out those sort of images. The equipment is not as important as the knowledge - but the idea that you can quickly start producing amazing stuff is wrong unless you are amazingly gifted.

All images should be shot in RAW. Every single one. Anything else is an instant compromise in quality.

Of course not every image will be shot this way, many people won't care or can't be bothered to learn why. Some might be interested though if they knew that they're throwing away quality each and every time they hit the shutter.

Even for a sports photographer the ability to recover highlights that would be blown on a jpg is a big plus, but the massive advantage for me is the ability to set white balance afterwards. You simply cannot correct a .jpeg with incorrect white balance in the same way that can be done in RAW. Nobody wants to change white balance all day long, especially a sports photographer working in varying conditions.

.jpg is included in high end cameras for when speed is of the essence, or for when no RAW editing is available. For what it's worth, there are iPad apps that will edit RAW. I've only ever used one and it was excellent.

With regard to the 'churn out' reference, I want referring to technical, not artistic quality. The point being that the equipment is not in any way the limiting factor in relation to what can be achieved..

Edited by budfox on Sunday 2nd November 13:18

[rich85uk]

im going to be different and suggest a Pentax K50 i was in the same situation as you and im very happy i went with that choice, i did a fair amount of research and it became pretty clear that any of the entry level DSLR's would produce similar image quality but the Pentax did have a few stand out features that its rivals didnt such as:
Weather sealed
impressive low light performance
100% viewfinder
2 control wheels so you easily change your ISO and DOF at the same time

If you want the above features on a Canon or Nikon you have to pay a fair bit more, although the Pentax does not have the best video recording. Also worth mentioning that the Pentax can take AA batteries if your worried about the camera battery running out and the fact it can take any Pentax K mount lens which can be picked up very cheaply (the shake reduction is actually in the camera and not the lens so no need to worry about that)

[The_Jackal]

To be fair he hasnt even used a dslr yet, he can worry about raw once he works out what aperture, shutter speed and iso do.
Just using an ipad will be his biggest problem.

[Simpo Two]

The_Jackal said:

To be fair he hasnt even used a dslr yet, he can worry about raw once he works out what aperture, shutter speed and iso do. Just using an ipad will be his biggest problem.

This. Learn with JPG while you figure out actual photography (which is independent of the recording medium), then learn digital imaging. You can't climb a cliff without steps. Right now the OP has plenty of steps to climb before he gets to the one with RAW written on it.

There are two half-baked adages that crop up time and again from people who fail to grasp the starting position (in this case 'I've never done photography before... I haven't a clue what I'm on about'.) One is 'Shoot RAW'. The other is 'Shoot manual'. It's like taking a passenger into the cockpit of a 747 and saying 'Right, land it'.

There is of course a time to do both, but not yet.

Edited by Simpo Two on Sunday 2nd November 20:24

[Ballistic]

budfox said:

2nd hand Nikon D3100 with the 18-55 kit lens.

Absolutely all of the camera you need to learn with, and quite possibly all of the camera you'll ever need.

To get the best out of this (and any other DSLR) you'll need to shoot RAW files. Sounds complicated, it isn't.

With the remaining £200 you could probably buy a used PC and a copy of Adobe Lightroom.

The above, combined with a good few hours learning, will give you the ability to churn out images of an extremely high quality.

You absolutely do not need to spend big money to produce great photos. You just need to invest some time in learning and a few quid on kit.

You can still pick these up for £240 brand new as I've just ordered one.

[gangzoom]

You don't need to spend mega £££ on lens or camera body when your starting up…

Some of my favourite pictures were taken using my old 450D and kit lens years and years ago, and though they aren’t 100% sharp and ’noisy’ items of ISO performance compared to newer kit they still look fab printed out and hanging on the walls in our house.

Don’t be afraid to get second hand kit, my DSLR kit is quite old now, and everything is second hand, from the camera body (Cannon 550D) to the Lens.

Most important thing is to get a camera you can used, and than get out and starting taking shots …..but am afraid to say your not going to get far using a iPad for image processing, it’s ok for viewing images, but like other have said, grad a cheap used DSLR from any of the major manufactures and use the rest of the cash to get some software for your computer/laptop. Don't get too distracted by marketing jargon.

Here’s some of the shots I got using my first DSLR (450D), and some cheap lens years ago….Again they aren't the sharpest, or that great technically, but print out fine, and looks nice to me, which at the end of the day is what accounts (unless your a pro, and you make a living selling photos).