Digital SLR advice

Linzi Zeb · Post by **Linzi Zeb** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 3:51 pm

Hi everyone,

I have been taking some pics of my zebs and other fish with a panasonic lumix TZ5 compact camera but I am hoping to branch out and buy a digital SLR. (The lack of manual focus is killing me!)

I've been thinking of a Canon EOS 1000D which I believe is the newer version of the 400D and I was just hoping for some advice/suggestions...

What are the most important qualities in a digital SLR for fish photography and does anyone have any suggestions in terms of makes/models of cameras?

Thanks in advance for any help, I'm new to this manual photography lark and I'm looking forward to combining hobbies.

Thanks,

Linzi

vanillarum · Post by **vanillarum** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 5:03 pm

Well, I can tell you the # 1 thing I look for is how the camera feels in my hand. I have small hands for a guy, so I didn't want a big, honkin' camera. The second thing I found, and this was pointed out to me by some photography friends, was quite often you can get great deals on cameras other than canon and nikon. I'm not sayin there is anything wrong with either one of these, but all you ever see advertised are these 2. I tried, and fell in love with an Olympus E 510, and the first thing that caught my eye was the smaller size. And then the smaller (by a lot) price tag. It has all the bells and whistles of canon (which I also own), and nikon, but for less $. Good luck.

GrubbyGirl · Post by **GrubbyGirl** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 5:48 pm

Canon and Nikon are clearly the market leaders without doubt and are predominantly what the professionals use. I personally started with Canon and have stuck with them. One of the reasons is that both canon and nikon ensure all their lenses fit all past and future cameras so when you want to upgrade you only ever have to upgrade the body.

My current model is the 300D but I am seriously considering upgrading to the 500D but I am so happy with my 300D, I'm not sure I can see the point. I would strongly recommend the canon range and you will find that Nikon owners are equally enthusiastic and I really don't think there is anything in it. I personally wouldn't go for one of the cheaper brands but that's just me.

If you haven't owned an SLR before a good thing to do is buy an older model (like my 300D) secondhand with a lens or two included. You'll get a bargain as there have been a couple of models released since that one. You only need the higher megapixels if you plan on blowing up your pictures to huge sizes. Even then I have blown mine up to 30" x 20" and produces a great quality picture. Buying secondhand means you'll get to try it without too much outlay but you also get the lenses you can keep and use when you decide to upgrade.

The other big temptation is to buy a range of lenses which trust me you wont use! I have 3 main lenses (out of the 7 I own), that I use all the time the other 4 have rarely come out of the bag. They are a 100mm macro. a 100-400 IS and a 28-135 IS, the last one being the one I use for 90% of the time.

Go for the canon I say.....but I'm sure someone else will come along to disagree, we amateur photographers are very loyal to our brands - probably because we have invested so much in them over the years!!

Angela

GrubbyGirl · Post by **GrubbyGirl** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 6:00 pm

Just doing a quick look at Ebay there are a few Canons for sale like this one whihc was this guy's backup camera so has hardly been used. It looks like they go for around the £150 mark which is a good price to start with an SLR. Good luck!

Angela

Linzi Zeb · Post by **Linzi Zeb** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 9:06 pm

Hey,

Thank you all for your advice, I think I'll end up becoming a Canon fan. I'm going to look into the main feature differences between the 1000D and the 300D and see if it's worth that bit extra for the 1000D. I've been reading that the 1000D is a fair good value camera but I will probably wait until after christmas and hope for some January sales. I've come across a canon refurbished goods seller on ebay but they've just sold all of their 1000D models (they were going for £270 so i'm not surprised!) so I'll probably hold out and hope they sell more.

Thanks again,

Linzi

drd · Post by **drd** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 10:07 am

Why don´t you go for a even better camera like the eos 30 D or 40 D ?

GrubbyGirl · Post by **GrubbyGirl** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 10:21 am

drd wrote:Why don´t you go for a even better camera like the eos 30 D or 40 D ?

Nice camera for sure but as a first SLR it's probably more than she would want to pay

Linzi Zeb · Post by **Linzi Zeb** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 2:28 pm

Exactly right, I'd love to have an even better spec camera but given that I'm new to this they're just out of my price range...I quite like the idea of HD video recording on some of the new DSLRs but they're also well out of my price range.

Thanks for the advice though, it's always something to aim for as an upgrade!

Thanks,

Linzi