Need help choosing a Digital SLR!!! Please!!!

[jsrj21]

Hello everyone-

I am sick and tired of ruining night-time pictures and indoor shots with my point and shoot digital camera. I am looking to upgrade to a digital slr but I am unsure where to start. I've done research and it seems as if I can't go wrong with Nikon or Canon but I have read a lot about the Sony SLR's as well.

Can anyone help me with this? I love taking pictures; of all things i.e. nature, sporting events, WDW, etc. However, I have a nice Sony digital camera that works great in daylight hours but I have ruined many a picture at night and/or indoors---starting with my own graduation pictures when I graduated from college!!

Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Want to have it for my trip later in August.

Thanks.

Jose

 

[ssanders79]

If your goal is to get better low/avaliable light photographs you will need to get some fast glass to go with your dslr.

 

[ukcatfan]

You cannot go wrong with any brand DSLR (Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sony, Olympus, Panasonic, Samsung, etc.) The important thing is that you find a system that works for YOU! Also, it should feel nice in your hands. I was all set on a Canon Rebel when I went out to buy and then floated towards the Nikon, but ended up with a Pentax. You MUST go out and actually handle your options before you buy or you might be kicking yourself in a few months. I have been happy with my decision and have never looked back even though people on here who I consider friends made completely different decisions.

 

[jsrj21]

You cannot go wrong with any brand DSLR (Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sony, Olympus, Panasonic, Samsung, etc.) The important thing is that you find a system that works for YOU! Also, it should feel nice in your hands. I was all set on a Canon Rebel when I went out to buy and then floated towards the Nikon, but ended up with a Pentax. You MUST go out and actually handle your options before you buy or you might be kicking yourself in a few months. I have been happy with my decision and have never looked back even though people on here who I consider friends made completely different decisions.

You are so right about this. I was all set on a Bose surround sound system and then I heard the Polk system at the store and I was literally blown away. Spent less and have been extremely happy. Bose is awesome but the system I bought just sounded more to my liking. I've read things [pro's and con's]about all of these cameras but at the end of the day, I need to touch, play, and fell it before I buy.

Thanks so much!

Jose

 

[Frantasmic]

Ritz/Wolf camera had a good deal on the Nikon D60 and a Sony camera, both with an extra lens deal, in this past Sunday's circular.

 

[bob100]

Hello everyone-

I am sick and tired of ruining night-time pictures and indoor shots with my point and shoot digital camera. I am looking to upgrade to a digital slr but I am unsure where to start. I've done research and it seems as if I can't go wrong with Nikon or Canon but I have read a lot about the Sony SLR's as well.

I don't think you can go wrong with any of the brands - Canon, Nikon, Pentax, etc. Some of the models offer video and different features but the beginning packages will get you started with plenty of room to grow (I went with Canon) One caveat - It helps if you learn the basics of aperture, shutter speed, etc. because you can still "ruin" pictures even with the most expensive camera if you don't know the basics!

 

[pjacobi]

I am sick and tired of ruining night-time pictures and indoor shots with my point and shoot digital camera.

Even a $10,000 Pro camera, can take crappy photos!

Protography is 10% equipment, 90% skills.

Buying a new camera is the easy part. You will need to spend time improving your photography skills for best results. Do you have the time and effort to acquire those skills?


-Paul

 

[Steve's Girl]

For night time and indoor photos, even a DSLR in auto mode will outperform a point and shoot camera. This is an area where equipment does matter. For night photography at WDW, as ukcatfan said, you will need a fast lens. Most brands have a rather inexpensive 50mm 1.8 lens that will serve this function quite well for a very reasonable price.

 

[jsrj21]

Even a $10,000 Pro camera, can take crappy photos!

Protography is 10% equipment, 90% skills.

Buying a new camera is the easy part. You will need to spend time improving your photography skills for best results. Do you have the time and effort to acquire those skills?


-Paul

Paul- I realize that it's the case with most things. However, I consider myself a pretty savvy person and I am confident that I will not ruin the shots with a camera that's more fit for the job. Point and shoot slr's have their purpose. I like to shoot pictures at all hours. I have a son that plays the saxophone etc and when he has a concert, I never get the shots I want. It's long overdue and I will put the time in once I get one.

Thanks.

Jose

 

[jsrj21]

If your goal is to get better low/avaliable light photographs you will need to get some fast glass to go with your dslr.

Thanks for the tip. You like the Nikon D40?

I am trying to buy a kit with extra lenses etc. Once I narrow this down, that's what I'll look for. I will also visit a store or two to actually touch and feel the camera.

Jose

 

[Frantasmic]

Most of the lens deals I've seen advertised have a basic lens and a zoom lens as the "deal."

there was an article in Popular Photography in this month's issue that discussed "deals" on the internet. Now, the gist of the article was that yes you could find a cheap price (not that that is your goal or that you would do that) but they actually said something I've been meaning to put in my signature about buying quality equipment for a quality camera, which seems to be your goal.

Anyway, the deal he found at Adorama or B&H was a Nikon D90, two decent lens' and something else, a good starter kit in anyone's estimate, for around $1300. I'll look at the article and try to follow up.

You can spend a lot of money for the f2.8 lens' that are advertised for just about all cameras. For my own story, I bought a Canon XSi and the 85mm f1.8 lens that has made me indoor photography much better (choir concerts, graduations, etc.) And that lens was much less expensive many of the others that are no doubt great lens' but just not in my budget right now (maybe ever if my wife had her way).

 

[ilovehuhu]

Personally i think the Nikon D40 Digital SLR is a GOOD one to try.

A decent deal i find for it is only $410. You can have a look at it.

 

[YesDear]

Go to your local camera store and play. Try them all. Figure out the one or ones feel comfortable in your hand. Then the one you seem to understand. Then settle on price range and you are done!

 

[YEKCIM]

Personally i think the Nikon D40 Digital SLR is a GOOD one to try.

A decent deal i find for it is only $410. You can have a look at it.

From all I have heard and read, the D40 is a fine entry-level camera. One thing to be aware of, however, is that it lacks an in-body focus motor, which can be a limitation, lens-wise. The D40 will only autofocus with AF-S lense (or 3rd party equivalents) which have the focus motor in the lens. The very good and very inexpensive 50mm f/1.8D Nikkor, for example, will *not* autofocus on the D40 (it will focus manually, however). Nikon makes several fast primes with AF-S, but they are more expensive. A good alternative is the $200 35mm f/1.8, which is AF-S.

Not a huge deal, IMO, but something you need to be aware of.

~Ed

 

[pjacobi]

For night time and indoor photos, even a DSLR in auto mode will outperform a point and shoot camera.

In some cases a DSLR will perform better than a P/S camera.

In other cases, especially in unskilled hands, a DSLR will perform *worse* than a P/S camera!

For example, a DSLR in auto mode might select f/1.4 with extremely small depth-of-field. In untrained hands, the camera would likely select the wrong focus point, producing a blurry picture. That's why so many people complain about focusing problems.

In the same lighting conditions, a P/S camera would select 1/125 at f/8 with flash resulting in a much clearer picture.

To get the most from a DSLR, you need to take the automatic settings as only a suggestion and know when to manually override them, especially in difficult lighting situation. That takes lots of practice.

Under ideal conditions (outdoors in sun) a P/S and DSLR will produce almost identical results.


-Paul

 

[boBQuincy]

To get the most from a DSLR, you need to take the automatic settings as only a suggestion and know when to manually override them, especially in difficult lighting situation. That takes lots of practice.

Program Mode

Program Mode

Program Mode

I do know how to use Manual mode but rarely do so when Program mode works so well under so many conditions. The point is I could not have taken these with a P&S but a dSLR did a great job in Program mode, which is about the same as Auto. While I agree that at some point we will need to override the camera's chosen settings I feel these images show that the camera is far better than some give it credit for.

Further, by looking at the histogram and adjusting the exposure compensation we can get *excellent* results without really knowing any more than to keep the histogram between the end points. Today's cameras have changed a lot of the old misconceptions.

 

[jsrj21]

BOBQUINCY-

What magnificent pictures. Please tell me the specifics about your camera....in a nutshell, this is what I would like to accomplish. These are truly amazing shots. Thanks.

Jose

 

[boBQuincy]

Thank you! Probably the best way to show how these were done is to show the EXIF data.

Tinkerbell:
File: _MG_2279.CR2
File size: 6,943KB
Camera Model: Canon EOS 30D
Date/Time: 2007:09:11 14:20:14
Shutter speed: 1/60 sec
Aperture: 4
Exposure mode: Program
Exposure compensation: -2/3
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Evaluative
ISO: 800
Lens: 70 to 200mm
Focal length: 70mm
AF mode: One-shot AF
Image size: 3504 x 2336
Image quality: Raw
White balance: Auto
Color space: AdobeRGB

Beauty and the Beast:
File: _MG_4993.CR2
File size: 7,112KB
Image Serial Number: 085-4352
Camera Model: Canon EOS 30D
Date/Time: 2007:11:30 11:15:14
Shutter speed: 1/200 sec
Aperture: 4
Exposure mode: Program
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Spot
ISO: 400
Lens: 70 to 200mm
Focal length: 168mm
AF mode: One-shot AF
Image size: 3504 x 2336
Image quality: Raw
White balance: Auto
Color space: AdobeRGB

Ariel:
File: CRW_9789.CRW
File size: 6,229KB
Image Serial Number: 897-9789
Camera Model: Canon EOS 10D
Date/Time: 2006:09:17 14:49:12
Shutter speed: 1/60 sec
Aperture: 4
Exposure mode: Program
Exposure compensation: -1
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Evaluative
Drive mode: Continuous: frame 1
ISO: 1600
Lens: 24 to 105mm
Focal length: 75mm
Subject distance: 16.3 m
AF mode: One-shot AF
Image size: 2048 x 3072
Image quality: Raw
White balance: Auto
Color space: sRGB

From all this trivial data we can see that the camera did most of the thinking, and that these were taken with cameras that might be considered almost antiques by now. I do often tweak the exposure compensation to adjust the histogram, and that is something we should be prepared to do if the camera is not giving good results but in many cases it is not necessary (like when I used the spot meter in B&B).

Even then, the exposure compensation was only -1 or less so if I had not bothered to adjust it the photos would still be ok. I am impressed with how good these cameras can do on their own and the newer ones are even better!

 

[skbachand]

I have taken a few classes from karen russell and follow her blog daily. She recently switched from Canon to Nikon. In the process she did a lot of research including renting the equipment before buying. She did a long blog post about the differences between Canon and Nikon...perhaps this may help you with your decision.

http://karenrussell.typepad.com/my_lifejust_not_on_the_ro/photography_tips/

Kelliann

 

[jann1033]

I have taken a few classes from karen russell and follow her blog daily. She recently switched from Canon to Nikon. In the process she did a lot of research including renting the equipment before buying. She did a long blog post about the differences between Canon and Nikon...perhaps this may help you with your decision.

http://karenrussell.typepad.com/my_lifejust_not_on_the_ro/photography_tips/

Kelliann

interesting article to see them compared like that.
i use canon, if i had it to do all over again i might switch but every brand has good and horrible points so pick the one that looks best to you...also if no one mentioned it, check out the lens/accessory options as well. canon has made some more affordable lenses lately but check out the options available. ie if you have to use older lenses to get the lens you want do you want to have to manual focus all the time? can you afford the lenses that brand offers? i think some( the 3/4?, the efs etc ) lenses can only be used on crop bodies..is that a concern or do you think you'll never go full frame...so the body is just the beginning