What camera to buy?

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Beanbag Brain
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Hi guys, next week if I get payed, im looking to buy a Prosumer Digital camera. im looking at the Samsung range and also the Canon and Sony cameras too, im willing to spend around £450 to £500 I may even go as far as £700 on one, as spending any more would be a waste of my money.

cameras I have in mind are:

Samsung GX-1L
Samsung GX-1S
Samsung Pro815

Canon EOS 400D
Canon EOS 350D

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-R1

do any of you guys own any of the above cameras?, I have read the reviews over at Dpreview, but wanted your opinions, and I will update this page once ive made a choice and purchased the camera. I am particulary looking at the Samsung Pro815, as a freind has one and it takes great pictures.
 
I have the 350d, and it's a good camera. It's being replaced by the 400d, which has 10MP, a self-cleaning sensor and revised software. Means that the 350d is available with significant discount.

Oh, and no camera "takes good pictures". That bit's up to you...
 
GilesGuthrie
I have the 350d, and it's a good camera. It's being replaced by the 400d, which has 10MP, a self-cleaning sensor and revised software. Means that the 350d is available with significant discount.

Oh, and no camera "takes good pictures". That bit's up to you...
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Yeh Ive been reading the reviews, on all the cameras above and I still am no closer to choosing, the only sticking point now is the Lens problem. If I buy a fixed lens camera, it will work out cheaper, but yeald results a little lower than a DSLR with a reasonable lens, but I dont want to be changeing lenses every two seconds, and I am buying it for my trip next year to South Africa and im a bit on the worried side of getting it full of dust when changing the lenses, I know about the self cleaning system in the 400D, but its still not full proof, im adept at using photoshop (7 years of it) so eliminating dust in post processing is fine, just a little more hastle.

I calculated that if I was to get the 400D Kit and a 2gb CF card its going to cost around £591 with the 18-55mm lens kit, I can then purchase another telephoto lens later on.

im looking at this lens - CANON EF 75-300 III F4-5.6 USM

I agree with the comment on "taking good pictures" what I meen is the actual quality of the shots, not the subject or composition. I beleive that the 400D comes out to buy over here on the 12th of this month, three days before I get payed :D I may just have one by the 19th-20th of this month all being well, if I decide to go with that camera.
 
well, canons and nikons are both good cameras, either one is good. i myself have a nikon coolpix 4100
 
If you're thinking about buying a dSLR, you should do it, because it divorces the lens from the body. You can then buy lenses which you can use with a different body in the future.

I have the 18-55 lens, and it's OK, especially if you shoot in the F/8-F/13 range. I also have the 75-300 lens, and it too is OK, although it loses some sharpness and gains some chromatic abberation at the 300mm end.

These lenses will cover you for most uses, and you won't find yourself changing them much. The 18-55 will be your "walkaround" lens, and you'll use the longer one for sports etc. And in any case, if you're properly prepared, you won't get dust in the sensor: I haven't yet. Personally, it's an overemphasised problem.

Finally, the Sandisk Extreme III is recognised as being the best CF card, and (incredibly) is cheapest at Amazon.co.uk, where you can buy a 4GB card for the same price as a 1GB card in Jessops!!! Don't buy them off eBay, since there are loads of fakes on eBay.
 
For the money I'd go with the 350D. I have one myself and I love it. And now over a year later they've dropped the price so much that there's no reason not to. The 400D is an awesome camera but unless you really need that 10.1MP and the dust cleaning, you can have close to the same thing with the 350D and spend less. As for the 75-300mm you're looking at. It's an ok lens. Don't expect any miracles with it. I had it and recently sold it. It's has a very cheap build quality. I barely ever used mine and it got quite a bit of dust in it. You might want to look into other brands of lenses if you haven't already. Sigma and Tamron make some nice lenses that fit the 350D. I myself bought the Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 EX DG HSM.
 
GilesGuthrie
If you're thinking about buying a dSLR, you should do it, because it divorces the lens from the body. You can then buy lenses which you can use with a different body in the future.

I have the 18-55 lens, and it's OK, especially if you shoot in the F/8-F/13 range. I also have the 75-300 lens, and it too is OK, although it loses some sharpness and gains some chromatic abberation at the 300mm end.

These lenses will cover you for most uses, and you won't find yourself changing them much. The 18-55 will be your "walkaround" lens, and you'll use the longer one for sports etc. And in any case, if you're properly prepared, you won't get dust in the sensor: I haven't yet. Personally, it's an overemphasised problem.

Finally, the Sandisk Extreme III is recognised as being the best CF card, and (incredibly) is cheapest at Amazon.co.uk, where you can buy a 4GB card for the same price as a 1GB card in Jessops!!! Don't buy them off eBay, since there are loads of fakes on eBay.
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Cheers for the advice, the CF card I was looking at was the one you pointed out, at play.com (where I may be buying the camera and card) they have the Sandisk Extreme III 2GB for £67.99, Im not a fan of e-bay and would never buy from it anyway, but thanks for the tip. I was looking for a tele lens for tripod long distance wildlife photos.

speedy_2
For the money I'd go with the 350D. I have one myself and I love it. And now over a year later they've dropped the price so much that there's no reason not to. The 400D is an awesome camera but unless you really need that 10.1MP and the dust cleaning, you can have close to the same thing with the 350D and spend less. As for the 75-300mm you're looking at. It's an ok lens. Don't expect any miracles with it. I had it and recently sold it. It's has a very cheap build quality. I barely ever used mine and it got quite a bit of dust in it. You might want to look into other brands of lenses if you haven't already. Sigma and Tamron make some nice lenses that fit the 350D. I myself bought the Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 EX DG HSM.
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cheers speedy, my local Jessops are doing some deals on the 350D at the moment, wich include a Tamron lens instead of the usual kit lens (not sure on the focal range tho), I was reading about the lens I specified in my earlier post, and acordign to the dpreview forums, that particuar lens isnt a great lens and the one you have sugested was also sugested as a better option. I maye have to look into bargerning with my local Jessops and see if I can get a deal seeing as the 400D is coming out.

I will keep you posted with developments as they progress, and any more insites to these particualr cameras would be much apreciated.
 
A friend of mine has just done that deal, and sent me a shot of his using the Tamron at the 300mm end. It's not good. Not sharp enough, and there's some CA in it, but mainly it's not sharp at all. My Canon 75-300 USM III lens is much better, and can be bought for peanuts separately.
 
GilesGuthrie
A friend of mine has just done that deal, and sent me a shot of his using the Tamron at the 300mm end. It's not good. Not sharp enough, and there's some CA in it, but mainly it's not sharp at all. My Canon 75-300 USM III lens is much better, and can be bought for peanuts separately.
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this is my only bug bear about DSLR, yes its nce to have the option to change the lens, but on the other hand, finding a lens thats worth using, and also that fits into my low-ish price range is a hastle, but in the end Im sure its worth the little extra time and money.

Cant wait to get stuck in, I missed two great shot opertunitys today, this morning at 6 o'clock as I was walking to the bus stop to go to work, the sunrise looke great, and walking down my street coming back, I saw a cat sat like a human, with its paw rubbing its nether regions, whish I had the camera then.
 
sprite
this is my only bug bear about DSLR, yes its nce to have the option to change the lens, but on the other hand, finding a lens thats worth using, and also that fits into my low-ish price range is a hastle, but in the end Im sure its worth the little extra time and money.

Cant wait to get stuck in, I missed two great shot opertunitys today, this morning at 6 o'clock as I was walking to the bus stop to go to work, the sunrise looke great, and walking down my street coming back, I saw a cat sat like a human, with its paw rubbing its nether regions, whish I had the camera then.
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Well yes, but then when you can save up for better glass, you get better shots, and you don't have to get a whole new camera. Then, when you can afford a new camera you don't have to get a whole new set of glass.
 
Before you go buy that 400D check this out.

copied from POTN forums:

100% Crops:

Image quality is set to Large fine on both camera and sharpness, contrast, saturation, and color tone are set to "0" on both cameras. No flash used. Custom white balance used and set manually with a 18% grey card.

XT/350D
img_7681.jpg

ISO 800, f/8, 1/4 sec

XTi/400D
img_0060.jpg

ISO 800, f/8, 1/4 sec



XT/350D
img_7682.jpg

ISO 1600, f/8, 1/8 sec

XTi/400D
img_0061.jpg

ISO 1600, f/8, 1/8 sec

Suprisingly The XTi is significantly more noisy! I think I'll stick with my XT.
 
Hi guys thanks for the replys, those shots are very suprising and quite a mind bender, I still think that no matter what camera I buy there will be good and bad points, unless I splash £2000 on a body and another £600 on a lens, the nas stated by you guys, its not just the quality of equipment, but how you take the shots. A poor photographer can make the best equipment look naff.

Got paid today, so If after paying off some debts and paying my fairs for work, if I have enough to buy one on saturday, I will if not It will have to be this time next month, unfortunatley at the start of this thread, I had unseen debts, that need to be payed unfotunatly, so I may have made this thread a little prematurly, but at least it gives me a chance to make up my mind, and collect more info.

again cheers.
 
Ripped from another forum. Noise from the D80

[quote name='OUT_OF_FOCUS' date='Sep 11 2006, 10:17 PM' post='77101']
Here are a few sample pics. I tried to get a decent range of ISO samples without blowing out the pics. All these images are direct from the camera no PP other then resizing. Of course this test would have been more usefull if I shot with a darker background, but you can still make noise comparisons by looking at the clock.
sample A 1/3" F8 iso 100

Sample B 1/8" F8 iso 400

Sample C 1/15" F8 iso 800

Sample D 1/30" F8 iso 1600

Sample E 1/30" F8 iso 1600 High ISO Noise Reduction Normal

Sample F 1/30" F8 iso 1600 High ISO Noise Reduction Low

Sample G 1/30" F8 iso 1600 High ISO noise Reduction High

[/quote]
 
Hi guys, well I did it, im now the prowd owner of a 400D wit hkit lens, and also a Tamron AF70-300mm F/4-4.6 LD Macro 1:2 lens too to boot, maybe not where near the best kit on the market, but I dont have £1000's to spend just yet anyway. But hopefully I will be able to get some shots down on onto this board as soon as possible.
 
sprite
Hi guys, well I did it, im now the prowd owner of a 400D wit hkit lens, and also a Tamron AF70-300mm F/4-4.6 LD Macro 1:2 lens too to boot, maybe not where near the best kit on the market, but I dont have £1000's to spend just yet anyway. But hopefully I will be able to get some shots down on onto this board as soon as possible.
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Congrats. I guess the noisier pics I showed from a 400D didn't scare you. Tell us if you have better results. Can't wait to see some pics :)
 
Here are two quicl shots I took today, both shot in RAW and converted using Adobe CS2 with the "beta" version of the RAW plugin.





ive taken a few more, but not had chance to add the border and name to them, but wil get around to it, not hing but a little bit of contrast and exposure change, but the rest is as the camera took the images.
 
speedy_2
Stunning shots! The detail in the flower pic is perfect. :) I'm sure you're very happy :)
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Yes Im quite happy with the camera, I just need a mac now to store and edit the images, but its been a little dificult getting the money together for one, just hope I can get it by the end of the year. as playing around with images on this pc at the moment is a pain in the a$$.
 
sprite
Yes Im quite happy with the camera, I just need a mac now to store and edit the images, but its been a little dificult getting the money together for one, just hope I can get it by the end of the year. as playing around with images on this pc at the moment is a pain in the a$$.
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Why? Storing, editing, finding them later, what? There's plenty of great PC image software, a lot of it free.
 
wfooshee
Why? Storing, editing, finding them later, what? There's plenty of great PC image software, a lot of it free.
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agreed, but my actual pc is dead, and at the moment im using an old pc that my parents use to surf the net, and its very slow indeed, I have adobe CS2 wich i got a while back, but I want Apples Apeture, as its better at converting photos from RAW than Adobe photoshop, as for free software im not sure what your on about, because the onlt free image editing stuff fro free thats worth looking into is Picasa or GIMP and they aint no good for pro photography.

plus im sick of pcs and its time for change, dont get me wrong ive been a sole pc user for years, occasonally using a mac at uni or collage.
 

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