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Photography Support: Looking to Buy My First DSLR, Need Some Help/suggestions

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  1. spv Jul 14th 2008 edited
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    Hi everyone,

    I lost my post so I'm retyping it (half assed). The title pretty much explains my situation. I just had a few questions that I need answered in order to work out what I want to buy. It would be greatly appreciated if I could get some professional input. Please excuse my newbie-ness.

    I've been reading in this forum about what cameras to buy. Summarising what I got from the threads was that Canon and Nikon are the best bet, and good lens is worth every cent even if it means getting a lower model camera. My friend told me that the Nikon D40x won an award for "Best Entry Level Digital SLR" but that costs around $1,200 AUD. I noticed some of the other entry level cameras that have been mentioned go around for that too.

    Is there anything worth considering under the $1,000 AUD mark? Do they even have anything below that?

    Spence
  2. Iceberg Jul 14th 2008 edited
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    I recently purchased the Canon Digital Rebel XSi (body only) with a Tamron 18-250mm lens. That came to about $1,200 USD (around $1,240 AUD). I chose to ditch the stock lens that comes with the camera and to upgrade immediately to a better lens. The price for the camera with the stock lens is generally around $900 USD (around $930 AUD) or sometimes less - especially when camera stores put on deals for certain products.

    I've had my camera for a little over a month and I love it. There's really nothing more I could want from a basic DSLR camera. I'd recommend it to any new photographer looking to get into serious picture-taking.

    EDIT: You should also check out the Digital Rebel XTi, the model just under the XSi. It's a little smaller and less expensive but it's worth to look at in case you want to save some bank.
  3. Fredrik Jul 14th 2008
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    Welcome to the jungle of D-SLRs!

    Personally I would not go with the Nikon D40x. It's rather cheap but there are some features that are severely lacking — the #1 feature the D40x (D40 and D60 as well) doesn't have is a focus motor in the body. This means that you will only be able to use auto focus with lenses that have the focus motor built in (such as Nikon's AF-I and AF-S lenses). If you're looking at third party lenses (Sigma, Tamron and Tokina for example) the lenses with internal focus motor are more expensive and far from all of their lenses have it. So that means you will either spend more money on lenses or be stuck with manual focus. I personally believe this is a (lack of) feature that is enough to stay away from the D40/D40x/D60

    About the price it won, your friend might be talking about is TIPA, which the D40x won the Entry level D-SLR camera award in 2007.
    The Canon 450D/XSi Iceberg mentioned above won TIPA's award for best Advanced D-SLR camera in 2008.

    I'm with Iceberg that the XSi (or the cheaper/older XTi) is a better purchase. Canon is releasing a cheaper version named 1000D/XS later this month. It will be in the same price class as the Nikon 40Dx, but in my opinion (from reading specs, since it's not released yet) it is a better camera.

    You might want to wait and see what kind of reviews the 1000D will be getting before purchasing another camera, if this is the price class you're interested in.
  4. spv Jul 16th 2008
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    Hi guys,

    Thank you very much for your extensive responses. I've learnt a fair bit already =] I have a few more questions though, if it's not too much trouble!

    I noticed that Fredrik mentioned 3rd party lenses, and Iceberg you straight away dropped the stock lens for a Tamron. Are 3rd party lenses the way to go when purchasing a camera? or are the stock lens just nowhere near as good? Also, what determines whether a pair of lens is good or not?

    I've been looking into the Canon EOS 450D, and it seems to be very close to the D40x in price...so I'll probably head in that direction. I also noticed that TIPA this year said the Sony Alpha 200 was the "Best Entry Level D-SLR", but it's a Sony so I'm not going there =P

    I'm yet to take a look at the Canon 1000D, but I will do just to see what if it's worth it or not.

    Thanks again for your help guys. You guys rock!

    Spence
  5. Fredrik Jul 16th 2008
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    3rd party lenses can be everything from crappy to professional quality, just like Canon or Nikon (Nikkor) lenses. Tamron, Tokina and Sigma are the most respected 3rd party companies for D-SLR cameras, and they all have lenses that are more or less the same quality as Canon/Nikon lenses.
    It's impossible to advice you to buy a Sigma lens over a Canon lens for example, unless you mention 2 specific lenses from the companies. I'd recommend that you read some of the (excellent) reviews at http://www.photozone.de/Reviews/overview for quite a large range of lenses and http://www.the-digital-picture.com/ for Canon related lenses (the-digital-picture also have some brilliant reviews of Canon cameras and other equipment as well)

    Let us know if there's anything else you're wondering.
  6. MikeWilson Jul 24th 2008
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    www.kenrockwell.com has some good specs - albeit full of advertising - it might be a place you want to check there because they have some reviews that include shots that were shot with the camera and/or lenses.
  7. Fredrik Jul 25th 2008
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    Posted By: MikeWilsonwww.kenrockwell.com has some good specs - albeit full of advertising - it might be a place you want to check there because they have some reviews that include shots that were shot with the camera and/or lenses.

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

    Seriously, Ken Rockwell is one of the most idiotic morons I've seen. Don't listen to a thing he says, it's all stupidity. For example I read about someone the other day that had destroyed their camera because they tried cleaning their sensor with the camera in Bulb mode after reading about it on Rockwell's site.
    I mean just stay the hell away from that site, it's for your own good.

    If you want reviews check out the links I posted earlier, those are two of the most respected sites around together with dpreview.com which I forgot to mention earlier.
  8. MikeWilson Jul 25th 2008
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    Haha okay okay!

    I thought I mentioned dpreview.com in my post as well - guess not.

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