Right then, another "which SLR?" question...

[Louisa911]

Okay, just done a photography workshop with an old, incredibly basic film slr, in my foundation course and really enjoyed it. My stepdad also does a lot of photography, he has a Canon 400D I believe.... anyway I'm looking to buy my own DSLR, either new or second hand, so long as the budget (with an additional 200mm lens plus the kit lens perhaps) isn't much over £400 ish.

Any suggestions? I guess something that was compatible with my stepdads equipment/lenses would be good. I've briefly looked at the 40D and the Nikon D40 so far.

As I said, I'm a beginner, but I may be specialising in photography later on in my foundation course, so something with the ability to let me learn more with more scope would also be good.

Suggestions much appreciated! Thanks

[RobDickinson]

Well 1st they all take good pics, even back tot he 300D etc.


2nd they often differ in specs & abilities, some are better for low light, sport or landscape.

IMO the D40 is quite a limited tool, only 3 AF points, no MLU no DoF preview, no bracketing , stuff I use all the time, slow shooting rate, and to a lesser extent no body motor so old lenses and some new/primes dont AF.

[Coq au Vin]

RobDickinson said:

IMO the D40 is quite a limited tool, only 3 AF points, no MLU no DoF preview, no bracketing , stuff I use all the time, slow shooting rate, and to a lesser extent no body motor so old lenses and some new/primes dont AF.

The limitations of the D40 depend a lot on your outlook and what you want the camera for. I came from a MF Olympus OM2, so I don't find it limiting at all: I have complete control over the aperture, shutter speed, ISO and white balance, and I don't know why I would want more than 3 focus points. It shoots at 3.5 frames per second (which is a fair bit faster than I could manage hand-cranking the OM2) and I had no existing Nikon lenses to not AF on it (bought an 18-70 which has done everything I want it for so far).

Then again, If I'd came from a modern Nikon AF SLR, I would quite possibly have found the D40 frustratingly limited: ignorance is bliss I suppose. What's MLU btw?

Having said that, I would probaby suggest the OP looks at one of the Canon offerings (400D or similar). By all accounts, it's more capable and better for someone who intends to get more serious later on.

[RobDickinson]

MLU = mirror lockup. Handy for removing mirror slap vibration. Its bad as its only software that is stopping you - it already does the hardware... (my 350d has it but infuriatingly burried in to menu's)


More focus points help with sports when framing and also with shallow DoF shots where you want focus away from the center and focus/recompose screws up.

[Coq au Vin]

RobDickinson said:

MLU = mirror lockup. Handy for removing mirror slap vibration. Its bad as its only software that is stopping you - it already does the hardware... (my 350d has it but infuriatingly burried in to menu's)


More focus points help with sports when framing and also with shallow DoF shots where you want focus away from the center and focus/recompose screws up.

Ah yes - mirror lock up is one thing I would like. The OM2 used to lock the mirror up at the start of the self-timer period, which gave pretty much the same result.

As for the AF - I see where you are coming from. I really don't think it would have killed Nikon to put a few more AF points in the D40!

[GravelBen]

Though for the price of a new D40 you could easily get a good second-hand D80 with 9-point AF, mirror lockup, etc...

[Coq au Vin]

GravelBen said:

Though for the price of a new D40 you could easily get a good second-hand D80 with 9-point AF, mirror lockup, etc...

...which is a much better idea

[flat-planedCrank]

Louisa911 said:

Okay, just done a photography workshop with an old, incredibly basic film slr, in my foundation course and really enjoyed it. My stepdad also does a lot of photography, he has a Canon 400D I believe.... anyway I'm looking to buy my own DSLR, either new or second hand, so long as the budget (with an additional 200mm lens plus the kit lens perhaps) isn't much over £400 ish.

Any suggestions? I guess something that was compatible with my stepdads equipment/lenses would be good. I've briefly looked at the 40D and the Nikon D40 so far.

As I said, I'm a beginner, but I may be specialising in photography later on in my foundation course, so something with the ability to let me learn more with more scope would also be good.

Suggestions much appreciated! Thanks

Getting a solid knowledge from a film slr is a great way to learn photography Sometimes easy to get hung-up on new technology and feature lists..

....but saying that...
From the choice of 400D or D40 i'd take the 400D every time, mainly for the reasons RobDickinson has mentioned (plus you get to use your stepdads' gear )


I'd take some time at a local camera store to familiarise yourself with both Nikon / Canon offerings, some people just seem to 'click' with particular brands. Plus you can get an idea of how easy it is to access common settings like iso, metering, etc...



One point to mention if you are arriving via a 35mm film slr :
Normal consumer-level dslr's generally use a 'cropped sensor' - a sensor smaller than a traditional 35mm piece of film.
The effect of this is that most dslr's have a 'crop factor' that you multiply to the lens focal length to determine its equivalent range.
For the 400D (and 40D) the crop factor is 1.6x (APS-C size sensor) - so a 160mm lens on an 'old' film slr gives the same view as a 100mm lens on a 400D.
(Its not quite this simple but thats the main point )
Sorry if you know all this stuff, thought it was good to mention

The upshot is that you may not need to quite buy a 200mm lens to get a similar 'reach' on a 400D...a lens of around 125mm would provide a similar view.


Cheers.

[Colin RedGriff]

flat-planedCrank said:

The upshot is that you may not need to quite buy a 200mm lens to get a similar 'reach' on a 400D...a lens of around 125mm would provide a similar view.


Cheers.

The flip side is that if you want a wide angle you have to go for a really wide angle. An 18mm lens on a 1.6 crop camera will give the same field of view as a 28mm. Having said that the ultra wide angle lenses are very good these days.

[VxDuncan]

Louisa911 said:

Okay, just done a photography workshop with an old, incredibly basic film slr, in my foundation course and really enjoyed it. My stepdad also does a lot of photography, he has a Canon 400D I believe.... anyway I'm looking to buy my own DSLR, either new or second hand, so long as the budget (with an additional 200mm lens plus the kit lens perhaps) isn't much over £400 ish.

Any suggestions? I guess something that was compatible with my stepdads equipment/lenses would be good. I've briefly looked at the 40D and the Nikon D40 so far.

As I said, I'm a beginner, but I may be specialising in photography later on in my foundation course, so something with the ability to let me learn more with more scope would also be good.

Suggestions much appreciated! Thanks

In that case a Canon 400D/450D or 40D would make perfect sense (and this from a nikonite). In terms of value for money the 40D is probably the best thing going, though probably best to go for a 400D/450D and spend any extra on lenses. 400D with good lenses = better results and more flexibility than 40D with kit lens.

If it helps I have an old fully manual film SLR you can have if you wnat to get going with the basics? Not doing anything in the loft and it was perfect when I was learning (a-level art about a decade ago!).

[Simpo Two]

On the subject of MLU - I was doing some photography for a building company and needed to wring the pips out of my 10Mp D200 for resolution, as some of the prints were going to be A2 - I wanted every pixel as perfect as possible. Hence I used a tripod and MLU. I found that the difference bewteen using MLU and not using it was virtually indistinguishable - so don't get too hung up about it just yet! Similarly I find that 3fps is fine. This all just proves that 'your mileage may vary' so you have to think about YOUR needs and not somebody else's.

[RobDickinson]

The difference depends on the shutter speed I think, tho it should only be a minor differnce I find MLU + 2second timer or cable release to give me better results.