Best starter DSLR / Video camera

[georgefreeman918]

Evening All,

I have a recent trip to Scotland coming up and would like to use it as an opportunity to purchase my first decent quality DSLR camera.

Are there any decent bundles / kits out there that people would recommend? Nikon D3300?

I'd like it to take decent stills, and video - large amounts of zoom not required.

Can anyone make any suggestions?

[RobDickinson]

pretty much every entry level camera is going to be decent.

200D/D3300/Sony A whatever/fuji thing.

Some people prefer mirrorless some dont.

An 18-55 kit lens is a good starting point lens wise they are pretty decent these days.

[Fordo]

Good advice above

From my perspective, you might not want to go nikon. With video you tend to do a lot more manual focusing, as often you'll focus from one thing to another mid shot - something not done in photography. (And only the human brain knows when its the right time to do so, so autofocus is not a big help)
And with nikon lenses, the focus ring goes the other way to all other lenses (canon, fujinon, zeiss etc). Fine if you stick just using nikon stuff, but it becomes frustrating if you train the Nikon way, and then have to use any other camera or lens.

Also Canon go into bundling video with their DSLRs before Nikon, so (as long you are fine with HD) there are tonnes of older Canon DSLRs that can do pretty decent HD video.

[alock]

Fordo said:

And with nikon lenses, the focus ring goes the other way to all other lenses (canon, fujinon, zeiss etc). Fine if you stick just using nikon stuff, but it becomes frustrating if you train the Nikon way, and then have to use any other camera or lens.

Third party lenses often go the nikon way though.

I use nikon so my view is obviously biased, but being mechanically minded it just seems right for clockwise to zoom in. It's like turning a screw. Clockwise for screwing/zooming in.

[singlecoil]

alock said:

Fordo said:

And with nikon lenses, the focus ring goes the other way to all other lenses (canon, fujinon, zeiss etc). Fine if you stick just using nikon stuff, but it becomes frustrating if you train the Nikon way, and then have to use any other camera or lens.

Third party lenses often go the nikon way though.

I use nikon so my view is obviously biased, but being mechanically minded it just seems right for clockwise to zoom in. It's like turning a screw. Clockwise for screwing/zooming in.

Errm, he's talking about focussing, not zooming

[andy97]

I have a similar question although i dont think i am bothered by video and i want ti take stills of motorsport and on a forthcoming safari holiday.

Im a realtive novice. Used to take a lot of print photos years ago but nothing for many years so starting again.

Must admit that the ability to upload to social media is essential; its the modern way, i suppose. Any advice for an entry level DSLR with wi-fi please?

[GrantD5]

andy97 said:

I have a similar question although i dont think i am bothered by video and i want ti take stills of motorsport and on a forthcoming safari holiday.

Im a realtive novice. Used to take a lot of print photos years ago but nothing for many years so starting again.

Must admit that the ability to upload to social media is essential; its the modern way, i suppose. Any advice for an entry level DSLR with wi-fi please?

You want a crop sensor camera with a zoom lens I would imagine, something 200mm+, the crop sensor with 'increase' the focal length too

[GroundEffect]

GrantD5 said:

You want a crop sensor camera with a zoom lens I would imagine, something 200mm+, the crop sensor with 'increase' the focal length too

No you don't. I see this whole crop sensors give you more reach argument everywhere, and it is fundamentally wrong.

Having a small sensor doesn't give you more "zoom", it just cuts out the outer portions of the image:





Why it appears longer is that you're zooming in on that central part of the image, making it full size. You aren't actually gaining anything, you're losing part of the image.

So you can easily repeat that exercise on a Full Frame camera but simply cropping by the crop-factor (why it's called that!) - better obviously the more pixels you have available to you in the full frame camera.

Sorry for going off-topic, but this isn't an advantage of a APS-C camera. Go full frame if you can, and don't mind carrying around the bulk

For a motorsport camera you want two things:

1) A good internal auto-focus system (the smaller Canon & Nikons - e.g. D3400, 750D - aren't the best but they'll get the job done for a newbie)
2) A long lens (300mm+) that has Vibration Reduction/Image Stabilisation and fast focusing...and is as fast as possible (by fast, I mean largest aperture at full zoom end of range)

I was at the Austrian Grand Prix this year, and took these with my D3200 + Tamron SP 70-300mm VC:

DSC_0355 by Scott Thomson, on Flickr

Fernando Alonso - #14 by Scott Thomson, on Flickr

DSC_0416 by Scott Thomson, on Flickr

I will be upgrading to a Nikon D7500 in the next 6 months or so - I want more FPS (8 ilo 4) and a more capable auto focus system, but I have been shooting for 6 years, so you don't need to spend £1000 on a camera to start out and take some great shots!

[jonm01]

A nikon 3300 would be a good start. A nice prime lens will make all the difference, a 35 or 50mm

[andy97]

Thanks for the replies, that is very helpful

[georgefreeman918]

Thanks for the responses. In the end I opted for a Sony A5000 after looking at a number of reviews - still not sure if this was the right decision but I had to weigh up the pros and cons.

In the end, I opted for something more compact that could be used to point and shoot with basic setting changes. Lens is changeable if I decide to upgrade in the future.

Took it for a trial run with the girlfriend and her horse at the local cross country course and seem to have got some decent results.

Can anyone point me in the direction of a youtube channel / website that would help me learn / understand how to use it correctly?

[GroundEffect]

Asking that is asking for a drink from a fire hydrant

There's so much content out there for tips and tutorials.

I enjoy Tony & Chelsea Northrup's channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/VistaClues

There's a lot on there for tutorials. Have a browse.

Congrats on the camera - make sure you look at your post processing options. See if your camera came with an editing suite, as trust me, youll need it. People like to believe in the idea that if you're doing it right you won't need to edit your photos and its "cheating" but ever since photography became a thing people were manipulating their photos during development. So get your pictures and then have a play with the software. And shoot in raw if you can - can really help save any whoopsies

[Simpo Two]

RAW is best saved for another day; he has enough fish on his plate for starters.

(There is probably a sushi joke there but it's too late)

[GrantD5]

GroundEffect said:

No you don't. I see this whole crop sensors give you more reach argument everywhere, and it is fundamentally wrong.

Having a small sensor doesn't give you more "zoom", it just cuts out the outer portions of the image:

Learn something new every day, thanks

[RobDickinson]

GrantD5 said:

Learn something new every day, thanks

Crops almost always have higher pixel density so get more pixels per duck when you are focal length limited