Which SLR???

[snoopshah]

I am wanting to upgrade from a Coolpix camera to an SLR one. I looked at the digital SLR but are quite pricy for my pocket therefore mostly go for 35mm SLR. Any suggestions bearing in mind im a complete novice with SLR and want something good but affordable (approx £200-300)?

[rezMole]

I'd save up for a digital - it'll pay you in no time. If money is really tight - go for something like the Nikon D50, or buy second hand. With the cost of film and processing what it is, digital is the only option for bird photography. I often take 150-200 shots on a single day out. This is equivalent to five films - say £50? Out of this i may get just a couple of "good" pictures. There's a lot of wastage!

As people upgrade, you should be able to pick up a Canon D300 or Nikon D70 at a reasonable second hand price.

If you must go the non-digital route, at least decide which make of digital camera you'd go for in the future, and get an SLR with compatible lenses.

[stevo]

Check the 2nd hand listings in Amateur photographer,there`s often a bargain to be had.

Cheers Steve.

[Keith Reeder]

It's generally the lenses where the real expense lies, and they cost the same whether you're using film or digital.

I'd bite the bullet and go digital.

[Gramayr]

If you want a 35mm SLR, then you may find a Nikon F4 for that price, very solid, easy to use, takes normal batteries (AA). A pro camera for peanuts. Plus a vast aray of lenses to choose from even the older manual ones will fit (but may affect metering on non AI ones). Whn you get the film process, you will be able to get all your pics put on a disc.

[RAH]

I agree that you should go digital, but since your budget is limited, you might consider a digital electronic viewfinder (EVF) camera, like the Olympus C-765 and C-770, which are "super-zoom" digital cameras. They function much like an SLR (thru the lens viewing, flexible manual functions, etc), but you get a good built-in (non-interchangeable) lens with an incredible zoom factor (38-380 in the Olympus case). There are many other cameras of this type from other manufacturers, although I think Olympus was the first.

Everyone on this forum will recommend that you buy a $1200- $2000 DSLR and a $2000 lens for it, and they're right, but hey folks, he said he had a limited budget!

[dicklynch]

I am wanting to upgrade from a Coolpix camera to an SLR one. I looked at the digital SLR but are quite pricy for my pocket therefore mostly go for 35mm SLR. Any suggestions bearing in mind im a complete novice with SLR and want something good but affordable (approx £200-300)?

Good Morning,

This is a shot in the dark … are you looking at digital SLRs because you would like something with longer legs (telephoto capability) than your CP? Is your CP a 900, 950 or 4500 and do you have a spotting scope?

If the answer is “Yes” to all questions you might fill your needs by going the digiscoping route and can probably do so w/i your budget.

If the answer to any of these questions is “No’ then disregard all after “Good Morning” and I would agree w/RAH that a digital camera w/a long optical zoom lens might be worth looking at. You should fine a used/reconditioned camera w/i your budget.

Here in the states the digital SLRs are starting in the $600.00 range and that will probably just be the body.

Good Luck

Dick

[snoopshah]

Ok I finally took some advice and that was really nice of you guys.

I am interested in these two cameras and hopefully you guys can guide me.

Kodak DX7590 - 10X Optical zoom but 5 million megapixels

or

Olympus C8080 - 5X Optical Zoom but a whooping 8 million megapixels

I'm off to Tanzania on my elective and hopefully can get some decent pictures of the wildlife!!

Thanxs

Anoop

[compa]

I'm not familiar with either of those cameras, but other than the number of megapixels and amount of optical zoom some things that are very important are

the "quickness" of the camera - how much delay is there from pushing the shutter button to when the photo is actually taken?

the turn-on time - camera being ready to take a photo after touching the shutter from stand-by mode.

how much manual control do you have? As you become more advanced you will find you want to be able to control the ISO - aperture - shutter speed all in various combinations for different situations.

are there any "add-on" lenses for the cameras?

And just out of curiosity, why are you not considering the Olympus Ultra-zoom series of cameras? (C-700UZ 725 750 etc.) I found the 700 to be very capable with its 10x optical zoom.

[limicole2]

Hi,
Digital cameras (Canon and Nikon) changes each 18 months.So, prices drop rapidly. With a second-hand canon 300D and a 300mm canon or sigma lens, you will have a great pictures .. for a reasonnable price. It will always be possible to add a 1.4x extender. So, don't forget that the "quickness" is very important for the birds. It is a great advantage of the slr. I think slr have most possibilities but some do nices pictures with the 10X or 12X caméras like the Panasonic lumix. The 2 options are to consider.I think 10X or 300mm are essentiels for birds.
The digital is the only choice for birds. Expensive first but thousands of pictures completely frees.

Claude
TRois-Rivières (French-Canada)


I'm not familiar with either of those cameras, but other than the number of megapixels and amount of optical zoom some things that are very important are

the "quickness" of the camera - how much delay is there from pushing the shutter button to when the photo is actually taken?

the turn-on time - camera being ready to take a photo after touching the shutter from stand-by mode.

how much manual control do you have? As you become more advanced you will find you want to be able to control the ISO - aperture - shutter speed all in various combinations for different situations.

are there any "add-on" lenses for the cameras?

And just out of curiosity, why are you not considering the Olympus Ultra-zoom series of cameras? (C-700UZ 725 750 etc.) I found the 700 to be very capable with its 10x optical zoom.

[greypoint]

I had an Olympus 8080 just before buying a DSLR. It is a great camera for portrait, landscape, flowers etc. - Olympus actually designed the camera lens to cope with 8mp and dpreview used it as their test camera against new 8mp models. The picture quality is superb - but it's long end is'nt really long enough for any kind of wildlife/bird stuff unless you can get very close. It has just about instant5 start up and great battery life and is built like a tank in comparison with some compacts. The 1.4x Tcon designed for it is a total waste of money - the difference is negligible- it has a type of bayonet fixing and you really need 3 hands to fit it!
Kodak tend to be a bit underrated - I've used the previous DX6490 which was'nt bad.

[snoopshah]

Thanks guys