Digital SLR

[TGChilds]

My advice would be (having bought a 'starter' DSLR 18 months ago) to spend your money on glass rather than body. Whilst the body may do all sorts of fancy things (video - pah! I'm a purist...), the lens (ignoring the nut behind the wheel of course) is what makes the picture.

I think it's true that many compact cameras (Panasonic Lumix are incredible for the size / money) will take a better picture if left in the default auto setting than a DSLR in auto, but once you get used to the feel of it (and crucially start telling the camera what to do) you will leave all the compact users for dust.

For £800 you could get a nice kit with something like a Canon 500D body and a Sigma 17-70 f/2.8-4 (the best third party lens supplier in my opinion, if you can ignore the weird alcantara inspired finish), which would last you a long time without any extra purchases. Avoid the Canon 18-55 kit lens like the plague - pay the man in Jessops not to have it.

As a quick side note, for anyone wanting a good wide-angle constant aperture zoom: I have a Tokina 12-24 f/4. I had to import it from Hong Kong, but the results - oh my!

Good luck.

As another quick side note, with regards to the micro DSLRs try before you buy! Not that that doesn't go for every camera at this level, but the electronic viewfinders are not to everyone's tastes. I, for one, think they are the scurge of the earth.

 

[gIzzE]

I would buy a viewfinder, after using a rangefinder that would be fine.

 

[whizzkid11]

+ 1 for Nikon D90.

Personally, I would recommend this from experience, has all the features of the D80 + HD and MPEG.

The Canon EOS550D is another one to look at but if possible increase budget slightly and go for the D90.

 

[219]

For £800 or so , the Pentax K7 is hard to beat .

 

[robpow]

Would agree with above camera - but would recommend getting the 18-200 over the 18-105 ...

Funnily I am considering if I should trade in my 18-105 for the 18-200 or to complement it with the 70-300. I think for the OP to get a D90 with the 18-200 would blow his budget.

 

[Dand]

At the risk of gettin lots of people shouting at me, if you getting started you dont have to go mad at first, i bought a Tamron 18-200 to see how i get on, and for the price of it im pretty happy with the results (i took these using an EOS 350D body) If you get into it more you can always trade up to a Canon,Nikon, or Sigma lens at a later date.

 

[A140driver]

I would recommend starting with a basic DSLR until you've got the hang of it. There's always a market for DSLRs, and it would certainly be easy to sell on. I've been using a Canon EOS 1000D, although it's not the best SLR around, it gives very good results considering the cost, relative to many other SLRs.

 

[Parrotman]

Funnily I am considering if I should trade in my 18-105 for the 18-200 or to complement it with the 70-300. I think for the OP to get a D90 with the 18-200 would blow his budget.

Compliment with the 70-300 and you'll have a darned good combo bearing in mind the majority of your shots will be up to 100mm anyway, especially if they're walkabouts. The 70-300 will give you that bit extra reach when needed and blow the 18-200 away on the longer focal distance, plus enable better portrait shots.

I was'nt impressed with the 18-200 so sold it and bought the 16-85 instead. For anything longer I use my 70-200 f2.8 ( replaced my 70-300 ) as I wanted faster glass.That's not to say the 18-200 is'nt any good but it did'nt cut it for me and guess it's when of those that one either likes or dislikes.

 

[finisterre]

canon 50mm f1.4
no flash or anything fancy
1/45 second

 

[gIzzE]

That is my kind of pic, love scenes like that, just regular street scenes.

I took this one night and got loads of comments on it.....

 

[finisterre]

canon 28-135is @130mm 6/1000sec f6.3

 

[gIzzE]

Lens is everything, this was taken on a fairly basic body but with a nice Leica Lens, it was just testing the Lens, it was an f/1.4 and the room was in near total darkness with just a street light from outside coming through our shop window...

 

[finisterre]

that one with the disabled motif is pretty good, it deserves positive comment.

I was pleased with this one.

Aberystwyth seafront.

 

[finisterre]

it looks a bit washed out compared to the one above.

I also have a very basic canon, a 350d
(looks a bit like a very fast BMW now I think about it)

 

[hi_flyer437]

You could do a lot worse than this!
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/classifieds-general-sale/103655-nikon-d5000.html
Sounds like a good deal to me.

Not especially (IMHO) given this from Jessops

Nikon D5000 Starter Bundle - Jessops

 

[finisterre]

while we are at it, exactly the same lens and settings as aber war memorial

 

[Ade B]

+1 for D90. It feels a lot nicer in the hand (to me) than the equivalent Canon..

I've the 18-105mm kit lens which is a good general purpose start - its got VR and the zoom is good for framing fast moving things (like 3 year old Junior B). A 35mm prime gives sharp images with a nice shallow depth of field (albeit with a bit of distortion and a sometimes iffy autofocus) and a cheapo old 70-300mm is fun on a sunny day. Ideally I'd like a super wide and a macro to cover every possibility - but not enough to actually fork out for them as the current lenses seem to cover the kind of pics I take at the mo and lugging any more around would be prohibitive.

Post processing is a consideration - not much point in getting a whizzy DSLR if your monitor is rubbish (as are most of mine) and some like getting involved with Photoshop and the like but I never find the time to get through a weekend's images with more than a cursory tickle in Picasa.. I actually bought a photography magazine recently and its full of PS Elements tutorials on how to make various pictures look really nasty (cut and paste skies, still life images which look like whisky adverts etc.)

Get the pics on the snaps thread guys



Ade

 

[gIzzE]

that one with the disabled motif is pretty good, it deserves positive comment.

I was pleased with this one.

Aberystwyth seafront.

It is funny, the two things that actually get me out and walking are my dog, and my camera.

I would never just walk along the sea front on my own, but with camera in hand it seems the most natural thing to do in the world.

Also, walking round the back streets of the city at night, on your own your some weirdo, with a camera your just someone into Photography.

 

[gIzzE]

I disappeared for a while as I was looking at the micro four thirds cameras.


Buy the way, additionsdirect.com are not the cheapest, but not far off the price of the big boys on some cameras and you get 14 months to pay, might mean you get a better unit that doesn't need upgrading anytime soon.

 

[312 Sprinter]

The D90 is nice, it is damn near as good as the D300 which is almost twice the price. The D300 is metal bodied, the D90 plastic, I don't think it is an issue. If you want a really versatile lens to go with it have a look at the 18-200mm VR lens or its replacement the VR II

I love that lens.

Having said that a lot of the time I use a Nikon D70S, mainly because I abuse my camera a lot of the time by using it in the workshop and if I wrecked the D300 I'd cry.

The D90 is what is known as a Gen 2 camera, these started coming out in 2007 with the D3 and D300. They are vastly superior to the Gen 1 cameras. Whatever you do it isn't worth buying an expensive Gen 1 camera like a D200 or D2, either buy something fairly cheap like a D50 or D70S to get you started or get a gen 2 like a D300, D90 or D5000