Your Questions About Canon Digital Slr Body Only

rob answers:

Hey, great choice of a camera. This one will last you a lifetime. I’d look at a zoom lens that goes from wide angle to telephoto. Canon has one at a great price, the Canon EF 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6 USM Standard Zoom Lens for about $375 at Amazon.

rob answers:

I buy used camera gear all the time. I purchased a used lens for aud 850 just last month. In the last 12 months, I’ve probably purchased aud 2000 worth of used camera gear from eBay and similar sites. So far, I’ve never had a problem.

I did a quick conversion of the 800 asking price to euros (my own currency) and that seems like a very good price. Particularly since it’s my understanding that camera manufacturers overcharge in Australia.

The 450D is two years and two generations old, but still a very fine first dSLR. Here’s a review from back then – the pros and cons mostly still hold true: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos450d/page34.asp With the newer versions you get a few more megapixels (that you probably don’t need), movie recording which could come in handy, and a few other tiny improvements, but nothing that makes for a vastly better camera… For that you’d have to transition to Canon’s next line up: the old 40D, 50D, or new 60D.

To the best of my knowledge, a Canon warranty won’t transfer. Not unless the original owner never registered his gear with Canon – in that case you could do so. So if you absolutely, positively want a warranty, this is something to investigate.

The Tamron lens is the item that makes this deal so good. It’s vastly better than the kit lens. Optically, it actually comes very close to Canon’s 17-55mm f/2.8, which costs 2 to 3 times more.

The 55-250mm lens is nothing special, but the extended zoom range along with the 17-50mm makes for a nice kit.

Everything that should come with the camera seems to be included, and the filters, memory card and remote control sweeten the deal.

If this user has good feedback history, go for it.

rob answers:

1. I would say canon 1000d – entry level dslr, everything you need to learn.
2. Yes defininitly, coz the lenses is what most important (not the body)
3.the entry level dslrs are about 350-400 (new) or 200-300 (used ebay)
4.i would probably buy a new body but 2nd hand lenses, (everyone usually keeps their lens safe and clean)

i always look for 2nd hand lenses on ebay and they are great….BUT i would suggest new body (just incase )

rob answers:

Hey,

Your friends pro photo uncle is not correct. Nikon doesn’t have better image quality, nor does Canon or any other brand. How does he know? Did he do tests? Even if he did, there are different models with different sensors and these are important. Lenses too!

Megapixels. If it’s more than 8 megapixels, it’s alright; if you wanna print and look at photos on your monitor. More megapixels doesn’t mean better image quality, sharpness or more realistic photos. I could show you 2 photos from a 6MP and 12MP camera and you wouldn’t see any difference (except when looking at 100%).

The D90 is smaller than the D5000? I doubt it..because the D90 is more advanced, so body should be bigger than the D5000.

Take a look at this article, it talks about Which DSLR to buy, what’s important, what’s not, features, megapixels etc. Here is the link: http://the-digital-photographer.blogspot.com/2009/11/what-dslr-should-i-buy.html

There are two options: Body or Body+Kit Lens (which, at lower cameras, is not such a great lens when it comes to optical quality.

rob answers:

That’s quite a few question you’ve asked . Let me try to cover some.

Nikon vs Canon?
If you are starting out, there’s really not much difference between the two and it sometimes comes down to personal preferences. The ergonomics of the two is slightly different and if this bothers you, the only way to settle the issue is for you to try out both camera and see which suits you better.

It used to be the case that people use Nikons for studio and wedding shoots, and Canon for sports. However, both brands have come to a point where they perform very well in all areas. You just need to choose the correct accessories and lens.

If you want to get a near perfect system for your budget, it is best to pick and choose. To do this, you *must* know your requirements. The cost will be higher than a kit. The 18-55mm is a kit lens and is reasonably good for general purpose use. You may want to get this first and then decide, based on your shooting preference, what your next lens should be.

Picture/Image Quality
The last image you posted (Nikon) was shot with a Nikon D80 with a 85mm F/1.4 lens. The aperture used was f2.8 which is why you get the good bokeh (blurring effect). The IQ (image quality) of the lens is contributes to the sharpness and colour saturation. This is a prime lens (meaning fix focal length). The benefit of prime is they give very good IQ but I would not suggest getting this type of lens unless you know what are the limitations they have in composition.

New models
Both Canon and Nikon roll out new models regularly to refresh their model lines. The approx age of each model is around 18-24 months – give or take a few months. They will introduce new technical features here and there to keep the buyers busy. It is not necessary true that newer bodies will give better IQ. Going back to the Nikon image which you liked, the camera body the D80 was launched in 2006.

Cropped vs conversion
Cropped refers to the reduced sensor size (compared to the film size of 35 mm SLR cameras) found in most DSLR. The size of a 35 mm film is called ‘full frame’ and there are DSLR which use FF sensors. Most ‘crop’ is 1.5 or 1.6. This means that the full frame sensor is 1.5 / 1.6 times larger than that of the DSLR sensor. The DSLR sensor will capture a smaller portion of the picture compared with that of a FF.

Because of this, lens used in the DSLR with cropped sensors will not show the similar perspective as that of FF sensor. That’s where conversion comes in. Conversion refers to the ‘equivalent’ focal length for cropped sensor camera. So if you are using a 50 mm focal length, the conversion factor in a cropped sensor lens will show an image as if it was taken by a 80mm (1.6 x 50mm) lens on a FF camera.

If you do not use FF or is particular of this, this should bother you the least in the choice of camera. FF DSLRs are in the semi-pro to pro category and they are expensive.