A little help please...

[Inurendo]

It's my old man's birthday coming up and I always remember as a youngster that he loved photography. He had an old SLR 20 odd years ago and I thought it would be nice to get him a nice new digital job.

However, I'm a novice when it comes to this kind of thing.

I've been having a mooch through ebay and have come up with the 2 below.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CANON-EOS-Rebel-XS-1000D-D-S...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NIKON-D60-D-SLR-DIGITAL-CAME...

What I'd like to do is get him most of the kit a beginner will need without him having to go and spend more straight off.

The 2 links have quiet a bit of gear with them but I'm clueless as to whether it's old tat or will suit someone new to the world of digital photography (SLR wise). He won't need state of the art stuff but then again I don't want to give him a load of rubbish.

Any thoughts? Budget around 400 notes.

Thanks all.

Edited by Inurendo on Monday 13th July 21:45

[Simpo Two]

He may have enjoyed a film SLR but how well up is he with tecchy/digital stuff? DSLRs take some knowledge of digital imaging to get best results - would he be better off (ie get quicker out-of-the-box results) with a decent compact?

Of course if he spends all day on a computer playing with Photoshop then ignore me!

[Nolar Dog]

Do you need any new family members to buy things for?

The D60 is a very good piece of kit and would be a very good place for a newbie to DSLR to start.
I imagine the Canon is too but have no experience of them so not qualified to comment.

The "bundle" you have singled out has enough kit for him to get back ino it and learn about DSLR's before he get's bored with the camera or feels the need to upgrade/add new lenses.

If that point arrives he'd probably only need to add a 70-300mm and he's be pretty much covered for most situations, unless he wants to shoot something very specific.

[CVP]

OK, the first one you'd need someone more expert in Canon than me to comment on. I know the Rebel used to be a US market specific model and I don't know if Canon warranties are worldwide or not. A lot of what is being added as the kit is in all honesty complete tat. For instance the flashgun is a no name brand and the camera has a small one built in anyway. Memory card is no-name brand and for the few pounds you'd be better with a Sandisk or Lexar. Overall I'm not sure that's really good value.

The second one, the D60 is OK but again all the kit and caboodle is tat.

Personally I'd aim for someone in the UK like Warehouse Express and go for

Canon http://www.warehouseexpress.com/product/default.as...

Olympus http://www.warehouseexpress.com/product/default.as...

If it goes wrong then at least you have someone who will stand by it.

For Canon also try PH'er Kerson who sells Canon gear at very good prices with warranties. He's given lots of other PH'ers very good service and has a good reputation.

Also consider if he might just want one of the nice sophisticated compacts that have manual mode such as the Canon G10.

Chris

Edited by CVP on Monday 13th July 22:07

[Inurendo]

Thanks for the comments.

He has a compact (a few years old now). He has recently retired and is needing to find stuff to fill his day and I know he would like to get back into photography, he won awards back in the day.

He doesn't have a great deal of knowledge with regards the digital side of things but I'm sure he would like to learn.

It's his 60th so deserves having some £££ spent on him.

Thanks for the links. I thought it may have been tat...you get what you pay for etc.

Edited by Inurendo on Monday 13th July 22:11

[CVP]

Inurendo said:

Thanks for the links. I thought it may have been tat...you get what you pay for etc.

Unfortunately true

Has he got a decent spec computer etc already? There are quite a few image editing programs out there from free to very expensive

Free = GIMP
Expensive = Photoshop CS4

Photoshop is the standard and the cut down version Photoshop Elements will do most things the full version does at a much more reasonable cost and will certainly be enough to learn to edit digitally on.

If going SLR then I would stick with one of the bigger brands such as Canon or Nikon with Olympus being another possible option.

canon and Nikon will give him access to more second hand kit if he gets back into it, Olympus a slightly smaller and lighter but there is less used kit avilable.

For memory cards Sandisk Extreme III or IV are very good and 2Gb cards or more are so cheap nowadays.

I'm sure he will appreciate it, great present.

Chris

[Inurendo]

CVP said:

Inurendo said:

Thanks for the links. I thought it may have been tat...you get what you pay for etc.

Unfortunately true

Has he got a decent spec computer etc already? There are quite a few image editing programs out there from free to very expensive

He's getting a nice new lappy from the family which is what led me to thinking about a DSLR for him.

I'll probably look at getting some decent software for him later in the year to compliment the new camera.

Thanks again.

[RobDickinson]

Canon provide decent software for processing etc , DPP, with all SLRs (nikon not so good)

But then Picasa and gimp and paint.net etc are all free.

IMO the 1000D is more competent than the D60 but see if you can find out what brand he used with his SLR if its one or the other I'd go with that.

[Inurendo]

Thanks all.

I can't remember what he use to have. Always remember I wasn't to touch tho

Does anyone know of any other 'packages' similar to the ebay jobs? Like I say, I want to get him everything he needs without him having to go out and spend more to get the kit.

[miniman]

The Canon ad is just lies, though, isn't it? It says "3 lens kit" - what it means is "one lens and two cheap and nasty screw on adapters". Plus it is reconditioned, and a US import at that. I would definitely be walking away from this one.

[jon-]

This comes up often. How would you feel about buying used kit? 400d's are a total steal now considering the spec, and it gives you a little extra money to spend on either a decent lens or just general bits and bobs.

[Simpo Two]

Inurendo said:

He has a compact (a few years old now). He has recently retired and is needing to find stuff to fill his day and I know he would like to get back into photography, he won awards back in the day.

He doesn't have a great deal of knowledge with regards the digital side of things but I'm sure he would like to learn. It's his 60th so deserves having some £££ spent on him.

In which case I'd suggest you buy him PS Elements to go with the DSLR. It's affordable and PS is insudtry-standard, so most if not all tutorials and features he'll read about will make sense.

[clonmult]

miniman said:

The Canon ad is just lies, though, isn't it? It says "3 lens kit" - what it means is "one lens and two cheap and nasty screw on adapters". Plus it is reconditioned, and a US import at that. I would definitely be walking away from this one.

Very cheap, and very nasty adapters. Read a review on one of those "wide angle" converters, and it was utter ste.

Both the Nikon and EOS1000D are £340 new, so steer well clear from these dubious ebayers. Then your dad can pick and choose lenses as and when he wants/needs them.