Hi,
I'm a newbie and decided to foray into DSLR because photography has always been my interest. Hope to be able to learn how to use a camera and pictures to tell a story or convey a mood.
Right now i'm looking for a DSLR with the following requirements, would appreciate some recommendations/comments from fellow Clubsnappers
- sufficiently compact and lightweight kit (including body+lens) that will encourage you to take the DSLR with you anywhere you go. i know size is subjective, but something ard the size of the nikon d300 is pretty big to me. sony alpha a-100 will be the maximum size i can tolerate. good photographic opportunities lurks everywhere, even when you least expect it, so this factor is really important to me.
- great range of manual controls over the image.
to me, image quality is of lesser priority compared to the power of control over the parameters of the image. I'm not a professional photographer and i dont intend to me one (its a tough tough job, i feel), and i also dont intend sell them for prints or whatsoever. all my images will just be for a personal archive, computer wallpaper, some bigger prints to decorate my room blah blah blah... just nice pictures (i hope they turn out nice!) to share with myself and my friends and whoever wants to see them.
- cheap enough for an amateur, but sufficient features that i wont outgrow the camera too soon. hope to use it happily for 2 or more years before considering an upgrade
- good performance for night photography. because i like to go out at night and shoot city lights =)
- how well it captures potrait shots dont really matter to me, as i dont think i have the courage to approach a stranger to ask if i could shoot him/her
- i definitely need a solution for a wide angle lens, as i would love to shoot landscapes of greens and mountains when i travel. hope the wide angle lens for that system wont be too $$$
- good ergonomics and grip. i played around with the olympus e410 before, and found the grip a bit unusual at the first impression. however many user reviews and online reviews mentioned that its just about getting used to it. can anyone comment on this? i also tend to have a bit of sweaty palm, would it affect my grip on the e410 significantly? cant risk dropping such a expensive investment!
- all other factors are less impt compared to what i have here
Right now looking at these requirements i've set for myself, i've narrowed down my search to the following cameras.
1) Nikon D40
not too sure if the savings of ~$120 compared to D40x is worth the 4mp, but i suppose 6mp is good enough for my purpose
however, i think AF-S and AF-I wide angle lenses are not easy to come by and are expensive right?
i like the punchy image output of this camera, but some commented it looked a little overprocess, and can be easily post-processed via RAW.
i also like the low noise at high iso settings. incredible for this pricepoint i feel!
2) Olympus E410
i really really like this camera and its features. its small, compact, very small lenses, but my only grip with it is well....the grip. worried how sweaty palms will hold onto the grip for longer hours.
also, i like the ~$1160 dual lens kit. pretty good value to me, might consider using the 40-150mm for a while before selling it off to get a wide angle lens.
high ISO performance is endurable for me, although not as good as the nikon i feel.
3) Sony Alpha A-100
the biggest of my choices, but still reasonable to me. however the kit lens is pretty long, so might be difficult to lug around.
love the features, packed full of them, but will this distract me from the essence of photography itself? that your always playing with DRO and SSS and forget about the importance of the composition and subject? probably not a problem with the pros, but i'm an amateur and i think i get distracted quite easily by the gears and equipment. as you can see, i'm probably already overcomparing all these cameras
however, personally i find the sony lens quite expensive, even compared to the nikon ones.
But the SSS could really be a winner if i wish to take some night photographs. Although the sony's poorer high iso performance could somehow mitigate this fact? any comments?
So right now, i'm having helluva time deciding between these 3 budget SLRS, any help would be greatly appreciated!!
thanks fellow clubsnappers =)
weisheng
I'm a newbie and decided to foray into DSLR because photography has always been my interest. Hope to be able to learn how to use a camera and pictures to tell a story or convey a mood.
Right now i'm looking for a DSLR with the following requirements, would appreciate some recommendations/comments from fellow Clubsnappers
- sufficiently compact and lightweight kit (including body+lens) that will encourage you to take the DSLR with you anywhere you go. i know size is subjective, but something ard the size of the nikon d300 is pretty big to me. sony alpha a-100 will be the maximum size i can tolerate. good photographic opportunities lurks everywhere, even when you least expect it, so this factor is really important to me.
- great range of manual controls over the image.
to me, image quality is of lesser priority compared to the power of control over the parameters of the image. I'm not a professional photographer and i dont intend to me one (its a tough tough job, i feel), and i also dont intend sell them for prints or whatsoever. all my images will just be for a personal archive, computer wallpaper, some bigger prints to decorate my room blah blah blah... just nice pictures (i hope they turn out nice!) to share with myself and my friends and whoever wants to see them.
- cheap enough for an amateur, but sufficient features that i wont outgrow the camera too soon. hope to use it happily for 2 or more years before considering an upgrade
- good performance for night photography. because i like to go out at night and shoot city lights =)
- how well it captures potrait shots dont really matter to me, as i dont think i have the courage to approach a stranger to ask if i could shoot him/her
- i definitely need a solution for a wide angle lens, as i would love to shoot landscapes of greens and mountains when i travel. hope the wide angle lens for that system wont be too $$$
- good ergonomics and grip. i played around with the olympus e410 before, and found the grip a bit unusual at the first impression. however many user reviews and online reviews mentioned that its just about getting used to it. can anyone comment on this? i also tend to have a bit of sweaty palm, would it affect my grip on the e410 significantly? cant risk dropping such a expensive investment!
- all other factors are less impt compared to what i have here
Right now looking at these requirements i've set for myself, i've narrowed down my search to the following cameras.
1) Nikon D40
not too sure if the savings of ~$120 compared to D40x is worth the 4mp, but i suppose 6mp is good enough for my purpose
however, i think AF-S and AF-I wide angle lenses are not easy to come by and are expensive right?
i like the punchy image output of this camera, but some commented it looked a little overprocess, and can be easily post-processed via RAW.
i also like the low noise at high iso settings. incredible for this pricepoint i feel!
2) Olympus E410
i really really like this camera and its features. its small, compact, very small lenses, but my only grip with it is well....the grip. worried how sweaty palms will hold onto the grip for longer hours.
also, i like the ~$1160 dual lens kit. pretty good value to me, might consider using the 40-150mm for a while before selling it off to get a wide angle lens.
high ISO performance is endurable for me, although not as good as the nikon i feel.
3) Sony Alpha A-100
the biggest of my choices, but still reasonable to me. however the kit lens is pretty long, so might be difficult to lug around.
love the features, packed full of them, but will this distract me from the essence of photography itself? that your always playing with DRO and SSS and forget about the importance of the composition and subject? probably not a problem with the pros, but i'm an amateur and i think i get distracted quite easily by the gears and equipment. as you can see, i'm probably already overcomparing all these cameras
however, personally i find the sony lens quite expensive, even compared to the nikon ones.
But the SSS could really be a winner if i wish to take some night photographs. Although the sony's poorer high iso performance could somehow mitigate this fact? any comments?
So right now, i'm having helluva time deciding between these 3 budget SLRS, any help would be greatly appreciated!!
thanks fellow clubsnappers =)
weisheng