Planning a big holiday to Las Vegas, LA and San Francisco in May 2014 and will be investing in a Digital SLR camera before then. Any recommendations here? I have always been partial to Panasonic with the Leica lens but any pointers would be appreciated.  LL.B (Hons) - University of Derby
LOT (Lord of Time) - University of Gallifrey

Last edited by The Doctor on 19th Jan 2012 8:20 pm. Edited 1 time in total

Nikon or Cannon.
Both good brands. I've got a Nikon d90 and love it. The sensor is the same as a high end Nikon costing twice the price
I bought the body only, there are some good deals to be had and plenty of S/H lens. Same applies to Cannon.
Problem is, you've only just stared, you need a very good PC with a large HDD to store RAW files. My HDD is 1.5 TB, 8 GB SDRAM and I5 processor with a 23 inch LED monitor.
Back up is 1 TB HDD Another member of the failed FL2 clutch/DMF club, twice.

Canon for me - Had an EOS 30D for four or five years now, been very good, latest version is the 60D I think. Depends what you want to spend though. I would always stick with Canon or Nikon. Spent 8 years working in a camera shop back in the good 'ol days of 35mm and would always recommend Canon or Nikon. By the way, always better to spend the money on the lens than on the body in my opinion, so if you are on a budget, cut back on the camera body and go for the best lens you can afford. Panasonic do get some good reviews in the press though, but don't be fooled, it's not a 'real' Leica lens, from what I remember they were 'designed by Leica' but not made by them. If they were, the cameras would be ten times the price! Best advice though is go to a shop and play around with a few to get an idea what you like. Some nice looking smaller system cameras around like the Olympus PEN range if you don't want to lug a full size SLR around with you but I haven't got any experience of them to say what the picture quality is like. Also, don't forget that more megapixels does not always mean better quality, the optic has a lot to do with it. My Canon is 8 megapixels but is very sharp.

Good advice mojo.
I prefer older lens. Better made, better optics. And some are a real bargin Another member of the failed FL2 clutch/DMF club, twice.

I have a Nikon D300 and its brilliant. However just don't look at camera prices lenses can cost a small fortune. On top of that there is the memory card to buy as well. I would suggest a Sandisk 8gig card minimum extreme 111 version.
What ever you do don't get a cheap card as generally the transfer rate of the picture from camera to card is slow. This can cause a camera to stall if taking continuous photos and you have to wait for the card to catch up.
Photography is my main hobby and now into video work as well with my Panasonic camcorder.
As for which lens there are many ideas on what is best, but for me my main "walk about" lens is the Nikon 24-120mm which gives a good wide coverage and a fair distance as well.
I do have several specialist lenses for particular shoots but that is another story

If you take the equivilant of the human eye in lens terms your talking about a 35mm lens to give some idea.
I used, as I said, the 24-120mm lens when I went to Fishermans Wharf and Alcatraz.
Yes there is such a tremendous range of cameras and lenses to chose from it makes the mind boggle.
I always advise stick to your budget first and foremost allowing as said for a good lens and memory card as the very basic for a DSLR irrespective of make.

Take a look here to see what may interest you

http://www.camerapricebuster.co.uk/


Remember its not the cameras fault for bad pictures its the idiot 6 inches behind it that is the problem Ex 2010 Freelander2 GS-e Diesel manual Silver owner

Last edited by realspeed on 18th Jan 2012 11:22 pm. Edited 3 times in total

Every one of my memory cards is SanDisk. I don't bother with anything else and they have never let me down. As realspeed says, go for the Extreme range as they are water / dust proof to protect your precious pics. Picstop are normally fairly cheap for them as are mymemory and of course, the beloved Amazon.

Pegleg wrote:

Nikon or Cannon.
Both good brands. I've got a Nikon d90 and love it. The sensor is the same as a high end Nikon costing twice the price
I bought the body only, there are some good deals to be had and plenty of S/H lens. Same applies to Cannon.
Problem is, you've only just stared, you need a very good PC with a large HDD to store RAW files. My HDD is 1.5 TB, 8 GB SDRAM and I5 processor with a 23 inch LED monitor.
Back up is 1 TB HDD

Lens - I love the old Nikon 70-210 F4- 5.6D type.
It's sharp, really fast focus, metal mount and metal body. Bit of bend at 210 but that could be expected.
They don't make 'em like that anymore  Another member of the failed FL2 clutch/DMF club, twice.

Doc,
Seems okay but you don't mention your hard drive memory? Another member of the failed FL2 clutch/DMF club, twice.

Pegleg wrote:

Doc,
Seems okay but you don't mention your hard drive memory?

You'll be okay for a while, but you'll fill your HDD quickly as RAW files can often be 10-16mb per image.
Don't worry, getting an offboard HDD is always a good idea, should your Mac HDD give up the ghost.
Your Mac will be fine, a nice machine. Another member of the failed FL2 clutch/DMF club, twice.

Thanks for the advice  LL.B (Hons) - University of Derby
LOT (Lord of Time) - University of Gallifrey

What can confuse with a DSLR is whch setting to use RAW or JPeg or Tiff . OK so whats the difference between RAW and Jpeg? Forget Tiff unless you what to produce large posters and memory hungry

So what is the difference between RAW and Jpeg

The easiest way of describing it is by thinking of layers of glass on top of each other. With Jpeg when editing you are only able to alter a certain about on the top layer of glass. However with RAW you can alter the glass layers underneath giving more control over how you want the finished picture to look. What I am trying to say is shooting in RAW gives a lot more scope if any editing is required, but Jpeg is normally easier and quicker.
You can shoot using both but it will take up loads more memory. Hope that makes sense.

AS for what computer its more a case of the amout of RAM and processor speed. The minimum RAM would be 4 gig and preferably 6 or 8 of ram as editing programs are quite big.

I mainly use Photoshop Elements 9 its easy to use with online video help, but there is now Elements 10 which has a few more features. Can again recommend either

lspeed Ex 2010 Freelander2 GS-e Diesel manual Silver owner

Pegleg wrote:

Lens - I love the old Nikon 70-210 F4- 5.6D type.
It's sharp, really fast focus, metal mount and metal body. Bit of bend at 210 but that could be expected.
They don't make 'em like that anymore

The biggest learning curve is the relationship between shutter speed -ISO and Aperture as all three are closely linked together as they all concern the amount of light getting onto the camera sensor. Again my advice after using Auto mode, where we all start from, is use the Aperture setting next and then shutter speed falls into place. The highter ISO setting produces "noise" or in other words pixalisation "showing spots" so the lower the ISO setting the clearer the picture,most cameras start from 100/200 ISO.

Getting to know a camera takes time, my first shots should have been shot they were terrible, its practice practice and again practice that works in the end.

If there is anything I can help with then let me now, but don't forget i am a Nikon man.

Realspeed Ex 2010 Freelander2 GS-e Diesel manual Silver owner