DennisHolland Posted May 6, 2005 Share Posted May 6, 2005 Hi all, I'm researching in advance of purchasing a great camera (digital) but lacking the necessary experience in digital camera's itself. Therefore I'd like to recieve a small lecture what to buy with the highest quality within' a certain price-range? Keywords are: - Userfriendly but with finetuning options - Great quality - Trustworthy brand (i.e. Canon etc) - Some stock lenses - Anything else that I don't know much about, yet is a must-have - Price/quality high level - All other forgotten features - An English user-manual Please, no 800 wrds explainations but just some great advice in what to do, to avoid getting hassled by a slick salesguy when I'm in the shop. Thanks all, Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted May 6, 2005 Share Posted May 6, 2005 ebay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisHolland Posted May 6, 2005 Author Share Posted May 6, 2005 Forget the where to buy, just some things to look after. Thanks. Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted May 6, 2005 Share Posted May 6, 2005 (sorry, i missunderstood the term 'where to go' in the title ) 1 tip - ignore all claims and raves about digital zoom. digicams have optical and digital zoom. optical zoom is the boy to look at. a standard is around the X3 mark and upwards. this is real proper zooming done optically through the lense itself. digital zoom can be anywhere from X4 to X20 and above. but digizoom is the devil. it shouldn't even be considered imo. digizoom is just a further extention to optical zooming. kinda like magnifying in photoshop. so dont let a salesman tell you how good a digizoom it's got. it may aswell not be there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted May 6, 2005 Share Posted May 6, 2005 I'm assuming from your description that you are looking at Digital SLRs. If that is the case, the first question to ask is what is your approximate budget? I have a D70, and with all of the lenses and accesories I have purchased over the last year have easily spent $5-7K. If you want a top notch SLR then you should look at the D70 (soon to be replaced by the D70s) and the Canon EOS 350D. There is a D50 that will be released soon that has less capability than the D70, but will be cheaper. If you have more money to spend them there are some more options as well. If you have not already hang out on www.dpreview.com it's the defacto website for Digital cameras. As far as lenses the options are almost endless, but the type will depend on what type of photography you intend to do and then your budget. All of my lenses are Nikon glass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihabkal Posted May 6, 2005 Share Posted May 6, 2005 no ebay. go to this website and read reviews. http://www.steves-digicams.com/ this steve guy knows cameras.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted May 6, 2005 Share Posted May 6, 2005 hmm. i buy mine on ebay. as long as you know the score it's a good place for picking up incredible genuine bargins imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihabkal Posted May 6, 2005 Share Posted May 6, 2005 got my first SLR there on ebay, $1800, but believe me these days some online stores are offering great deals cheaper and safer than ebay. check http://www.newegg.com for example... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisHolland Posted May 6, 2005 Author Share Posted May 6, 2005 Allright! That was not very difficult thanks to Jeff... I just went to dpreview.com and there it was! All I needed to know and it took 5 minutes to make up my mind. I've made a choice between the Canon EOS 350D and the Nikon D70s. It will be the EOS 350D because of this: - 8,0 MP - 3 recordings p/s, sequences max. 14 photo's - E-TTL II flash-program - DIGIC II - 7-points AF - DPP RAW software for digital editing (photoshop) - Both RAW/JPEG shots at once - USB 2.0 Hi-speed/Video output - Compatibel met EF/EF-S objectives/EX Speedlite flashers - PictBridge compatible The very nice design is also due to my decision to be honest... Price here in the Netherlands for just the camera is € 799 (the set on the att. pic is € 1199 + a nice leather case/bag, a datastick + A4-photopaper) The shops are open on fridaynight. Got to go now Thanks to all for the information. Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihabkal Posted May 6, 2005 Share Posted May 6, 2005 it's already friday night and you get to go home. 5-6 hours more for me...I want to move there... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trick Posted May 6, 2005 Share Posted May 6, 2005 Before someone buys a Nikon, read this http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=236489 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted May 6, 2005 Share Posted May 6, 2005 Before someone buys a Nikon, read this http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=236489 I honestly don't get all the hype around this. So Nikon encrypts their WB. Yeah it coud mean limitatios on which apps can manipulate that data, but it still takes awesome pictures and does what it is supposed to do. Both Adobe and Nikon Capture can read and manipulate the RAW files, so what is the big deal? Did I miss something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trick Posted May 6, 2005 Share Posted May 6, 2005 It has more to do about which application can access the manufacturer's RAW data without quality loss. In the end you will also have to decide (and/or trust the manufacturer) what application you use for accessing these RAW data. To ensure the use in the best possible application an encryption resides in the metadata. If you don't need deep access to raw data you can forget about this...If you do need access, next to a camera you'll also have to look into the added software which handles the raw data... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihabkal Posted May 6, 2005 Share Posted May 6, 2005 I only bought Olympus cameras, E20N and c8080n and I am happy about them but next camera is probably a Nikon or a Canon when Paypal releases my account that is... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisHolland Posted May 6, 2005 Author Share Posted May 6, 2005 Well I've purchased the Canon EOS 350D (kit) just yet including: - camera - accu & fast loader - 18/55 objective - external flasher - 1024 Mb datacard - manual - leather shoulderbag (looks great when I wear my pumps) - 20 minutes lecture from the expert guy over at the shop Price? Total pack was € 1125.- (all in) so that is a very nice investment. On to the hard times > figuring out all nifty stuff. There must be something to enjoy, especially the 1 click raw/jpeg shooting and the pictbridge. Not to mention the 8.0 Megapixels and 1 year collect and return. Thanks, that was a pretty fast one... Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted May 7, 2005 Share Posted May 7, 2005 thats a great camera you got there m8. be sure to post up some photos when you take them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisHolland Posted May 7, 2005 Author Share Posted May 7, 2005 Thanks Stephen, for security reasons I've asked my brother to come over tomorrow, he has a menu & settings-fetisj (disorder is a better pronounce) so that's cool... This evening I'm going to shoot some night-views of the huge oil-refineries (Shell etc) at the Europort Rotterdam, great lighting. Have seen them before but now it's my turn to go out there I also have to shoot some buildings which must be mapped onto some low-poly geometry for a large VR-production, but something tells me that is gonna cost me a topic to sort out the technique for accurate mapping (maybe uv-unwrap?) We'll see.... Good luck, Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted May 7, 2005 Share Posted May 7, 2005 well, my mate Skyraider took these with his EOS300D. look at the quality you can expect - http://www.maxforums.org/thread.aspx?TID=245549&P=1 http://www.maxforums.org/Thread.aspx?tid=247392 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisHolland Posted May 7, 2005 Author Share Posted May 7, 2005 That is some quality man, fantastic! Great, thanks for the link Stephen. I'm just reading (and trying to get a grasp of) the FE lense technique. There are lots of features in it, more then I expected. There's also a cd with ArcSoft software, we'll see what it does, haven't got a clue yet Thanks, later... Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Denby Posted May 7, 2005 Share Posted May 7, 2005 Just ordered the 350D. Woohoo ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisHolland Posted May 7, 2005 Author Share Posted May 7, 2005 Here's a rough shoot on location for a backdrop I want to use in another project, posted somewhere in the finished work section. Just resized and compressed from 790 Kb down to 194 Kb. Original was 3400 px/3.3 Mb. No sharpening or other normally very usefull tricks just the original stuff...still pretty funky! I will post three nightshots, taken at the Europort refineries, tomorrow. Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted May 7, 2005 Share Posted May 7, 2005 Here's a rough shoot on location for a backdrop I want to use in another project, posted somewhere in the finished work section. Just resized and compressed from 790 Kb down to 194 Kb. Original was 3400 px/3.3 Mb. No sharpening or other normally very usefull tricks just the original stuff...still pretty funky! I will post three nightshots, taken at the Europort refineries, tomorrow. Dennis Looks good. You should look into getting some Gradient Neutral Density filters so that the skies do not get blown out. I've just started experimenting with mine now that the weather is nicer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisHolland Posted May 7, 2005 Author Share Posted May 7, 2005 Thanks Jeff, I was just thinking about a tool that's preventing this overblown style a bit but didn't know the full description so it was hard to find. Yes i've noticed while playing around in PS > levels with a pic of my dog and looked close at the ultimate white point. It goes over the top right away. The white is pretty flashing (close to blowing out) and black is ultrablack. All colours in between are just fantastic and high quality contrast. Especially the automatic settings are cool. There are standard settings on top for portraits (incl. DOF), close up, speed etc. so the camera is very userfriendly. Anyway, her are three pics, all default > resized and compressed from 750 Kb down to 190 Kb so you can imagine the quality in hires Jeff. Check out the new lofthouses on pic three, they are very high-end. I climbed up the Holland-America line gangway to have a shoot on the platform this afternoon . I've also noticed the fair amount of extensions which are on the market for this Canon but first let's get a grasp on the cam itself... Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisHolland Posted May 8, 2005 Author Share Posted May 8, 2005 Hi Jeff, Here's a chapter from the manual what covers the white balance > washing out control for the skies. It's build within' the camera and I'm gonna test this today since it's almost the same weather with bright cumulus clouds, a perfect weather-type for a test. I had the chapters in French and Dutch since you're from Canada I thought French would be easier to read. Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted May 8, 2005 Share Posted May 8, 2005 Hey Dennis, While most Canadians can not read French, lucky I can. Those chapters are on White Balance and Exposure bracketing and metering. White Balance will do nothing to control blown out skies. This simply adjusts for different lighting color temps to ensure proper color reproduction. Bracketing can help you to find a better exposure, or you can do it manually. The type of metering you choose can also help, but if you use matrix metering on the images of skies you are showing you will likely get as good of a result as you can. Spot metering for situations where you know what you need to expose properly. However, none of these will allow you to properly expose a shot if the number of stops between light and dark is too big. That is why you need a gradient filter. If you have never used one they are like sunglasses for your lens, but a gradient so you can slide the filter up and down depending upon which area you need to affect. This site shows some example: http://www.singh-ray.com/grndgrads.html Singh-Ray filters are the best you can get, but very expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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