Which SLR/package?
Discussion
Morning all 
I know there is a huge wealth of photographic knowledge on PH. I wonder if people could give me some thoughts on an affordable SLR.
I enjoy playing around with cameras, but I am not a photographer and I've never had a serious camera before. I'm looking for a relatively low cost SLR, but it must be capable of producing shots good enough to publish in a magazine. Strictly speaking my budget is flexible, but as an aspiring journalist rather than a photographer I don't want overkill and I get the impression £500 should be more than addequate for the basic camera. Ideally it should be fairly intuitive to use and capable of covering a wide range of subjects from indoor close-ups of stationary vehicles to fast moving objects outside and the occasional low-light shot. In case I'm not demanding enough already, something comparitively tough and portable would be good too!
The camera that seems to come up most often in response to all of this is the Canon 400D. First result from Google is a company called Park Cameras who have them at £365.
http://www.parkcameras.com/ProductDetails/mcs/refe...
What do people think?
The next thing is what - if anything - I need to buy with it. I realise that if I get into it I may discover a need for specialist lenses to cater for particular types of shot, but as a general use device, what accesories am I likely to need? Is it usual for the cameras to be sold with batteries and some memory? Is a lens typically included? Should I think about getting a flash?
Very keen to hear your thoughts.
Cheers,
Chris.
I know there is a huge wealth of photographic knowledge on PH. I wonder if people could give me some thoughts on an affordable SLR.
I enjoy playing around with cameras, but I am not a photographer and I've never had a serious camera before. I'm looking for a relatively low cost SLR, but it must be capable of producing shots good enough to publish in a magazine. Strictly speaking my budget is flexible, but as an aspiring journalist rather than a photographer I don't want overkill and I get the impression £500 should be more than addequate for the basic camera. Ideally it should be fairly intuitive to use and capable of covering a wide range of subjects from indoor close-ups of stationary vehicles to fast moving objects outside and the occasional low-light shot. In case I'm not demanding enough already, something comparitively tough and portable would be good too!
The camera that seems to come up most often in response to all of this is the Canon 400D. First result from Google is a company called Park Cameras who have them at £365.
http://www.parkcameras.com/ProductDetails/mcs/refe...
What do people think?
The next thing is what - if anything - I need to buy with it. I realise that if I get into it I may discover a need for specialist lenses to cater for particular types of shot, but as a general use device, what accesories am I likely to need? Is it usual for the cameras to be sold with batteries and some memory? Is a lens typically included? Should I think about getting a flash?
Very keen to hear your thoughts.
Cheers,
Chris.
Edited by Chris71 on Monday 19th November 19:47
First of all, regarding 'it must be capable of producing shots good enough to publish in a magazine'.... ANY recent DSLR are capable of this but it's usually the photographer that can cause a problem.
400D should be fine for your needs in terms of the camera (unless you'll be using it in the rain and I'm not sure what your requirement of 'tough' is), but it looks like lenses could be the key to your needs. You might need a good fast AF lenses for fast moving objects and you might also need a wide aperture lens for low light shooting.
Cameras do come with batteries but it's always best to get enough spares, as well as plenty of memory cards too. A kit lens (18-55) that comes with the camera will be enough for general use but, as you said (and as I mentioned earlier), you will probably need lenses for specific use, otherwise the image may not be good enough for magazines, etc. If you are a journalist, I think a flash would definitely be a good idea too (well..... it depends what kind of journalist you are, I guess).
Hope this helps.
400D should be fine for your needs in terms of the camera (unless you'll be using it in the rain and I'm not sure what your requirement of 'tough' is), but it looks like lenses could be the key to your needs. You might need a good fast AF lenses for fast moving objects and you might also need a wide aperture lens for low light shooting.
Cameras do come with batteries but it's always best to get enough spares, as well as plenty of memory cards too. A kit lens (18-55) that comes with the camera will be enough for general use but, as you said (and as I mentioned earlier), you will probably need lenses for specific use, otherwise the image may not be good enough for magazines, etc. If you are a journalist, I think a flash would definitely be a good idea too (well..... it depends what kind of journalist you are, I guess).
Hope this helps.
Edited by Gemm on Monday 19th November 12:53
I've had my 400D for a year and been very happy with it so far. If you buy it as a kit, then it comes with an 18-55mm lens, a battery, CDs with software, neck strap etc.
http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.100-5353.aspx has this kit for under £360 at the moment which is a bit of a bargain, though I'd also look at the equivalent Nikon kits as well. There are other options as well, but they aren't as well supported with add-on kit, available lenses etc. I'd recommend trying them in-store first and handling them.
Some people with big hands don't get on with the small size of some of these, and prefer the feel/handling of the bigger Canon 30D/40D or Nikon D80. These are about twice the price though!
I took the decision to go with the 400D as my sister has the earlier 305D, and I could borrow some of her lenses from time to time. I've been happy wityh my decision.
It won't come with a memory card as standard, and I would recommend a couple of 2Gb cards at £17 each (http://www.memorymegastore.com/moreInfo.asp?code=SANCF2GBE3), rather than one bigger card.
Over the past year, I discovered the limitations of the standard lens, and bought a few more, mostly 2nd hand, along with a tripod and external flash unit and a bag to keep it all in. I also bought a 77mm circular polarising filter that fits most of the lenses I now own.
Over the past year, I've done quite a bit of family snapshots, motorsport, some landscape shots and discovered the joy of post processing. Photos straight out of the camera tend to need a little help with contrast, sharpness & saturation to get the best out of them and for the best results you do this in your PC/Mac with a suitable package (I'm using Adobe Lightroom at the moment - can't justify the more expensive Photoshop CS3 which has hundreds of features I don't even know I'm missing!).
Since then, I've had to swap my 6 year old PC for a newer one with more memory and a faster processor (now a 2.8Ghz Pentium 4 with 1Gb RAM), and a bigger hard disk to store all the photos.
I now mostly shoot in RAW now instead of JPG (unless I'm taking 1,000+ photos at a motorsport event where memory card space is a limiting factor), as you have more control over the final results in terms of white balance, exposure etc.
All the photos I have on my flickr account have been taken with the 400D. A small sample are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnsidc/sets/7215760...
John
http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.100-5353.aspx has this kit for under £360 at the moment which is a bit of a bargain, though I'd also look at the equivalent Nikon kits as well. There are other options as well, but they aren't as well supported with add-on kit, available lenses etc. I'd recommend trying them in-store first and handling them.
Some people with big hands don't get on with the small size of some of these, and prefer the feel/handling of the bigger Canon 30D/40D or Nikon D80. These are about twice the price though!
I took the decision to go with the 400D as my sister has the earlier 305D, and I could borrow some of her lenses from time to time. I've been happy wityh my decision.
It won't come with a memory card as standard, and I would recommend a couple of 2Gb cards at £17 each (http://www.memorymegastore.com/moreInfo.asp?code=SANCF2GBE3), rather than one bigger card.
Over the past year, I discovered the limitations of the standard lens, and bought a few more, mostly 2nd hand, along with a tripod and external flash unit and a bag to keep it all in. I also bought a 77mm circular polarising filter that fits most of the lenses I now own.
Over the past year, I've done quite a bit of family snapshots, motorsport, some landscape shots and discovered the joy of post processing. Photos straight out of the camera tend to need a little help with contrast, sharpness & saturation to get the best out of them and for the best results you do this in your PC/Mac with a suitable package (I'm using Adobe Lightroom at the moment - can't justify the more expensive Photoshop CS3 which has hundreds of features I don't even know I'm missing!).
Since then, I've had to swap my 6 year old PC for a newer one with more memory and a faster processor (now a 2.8Ghz Pentium 4 with 1Gb RAM), and a bigger hard disk to store all the photos.
I now mostly shoot in RAW now instead of JPG (unless I'm taking 1,000+ photos at a motorsport event where memory card space is a limiting factor), as you have more control over the final results in terms of white balance, exposure etc.
All the photos I have on my flickr account have been taken with the 400D. A small sample are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnsidc/sets/7215760...
John
I've had the 400d for about the last year, it takes some cracking pics, as someone said earlier bad pics are usually down to operator error. I know this from experience
The one thing I would recommend buying, when you start to purchase lenses, is a filter for each lense. For no other reason than to protect the lense from scratches etc.
The other advice I was given was to buy the best lenses I could afford/justify
Gemm said:
First of all, regarding 'it must be capable of producing shots good enough to publish in a magazine'.... ANY recent DSLR are capable of this but it's usually the photographer that can cause a problem.
That's what I'd been told before, but just wanted to double check. When I first looked into DSLRs a few years ago that wasn't quite the case, but it seems they're all good enough now. I, on the other hand am a complete amateur so it'll be a long time before I'm up to that standard, but I'd like to think I could invest in the same camera for when that comes around.As a basic package I've gone for the following:
Canon EOS 400D
Kingston 1Gb CF card
Spare 630 mAh lithium-ion battery
58 mm UV and circular polarising filter set
Microfibre cloth
Camera bag
All for a grand total of £425 (inlcuding £50 cash back offer from Canon)
This is my first 'proper' camera, so I think the above is quite addequate for the time being. Once I discover it's limitations I'll look into getting additional lenses, more memory etc. as required.
Black5 said:
Good choice Chris.
Thanks, but it's never going to be a substitute for having a proper photographer around Lens wise, I have the standard Canon 18-55mm kit. I suspect I'll want a bit more range at some point, but given the frankly scary price of lenses I'll leave that until I know exactly what I want.
Although as I said I enjoy mucking around with cameras I know absoluetly, catergorically nothing about the techniques used with them, so I suspect I'll be getting quite well aquainted with the photography forum.
Looking forward to it being delivered - definitely a spot of 'new toy syndrome' coming on.
Edited by Chris71 on Monday 19th November 19:47
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