Please Help Me!

[macVince]

I am given a budget of $2014.00.

Thank you!

I'm a 70D user. Allow me to add a few comments. I suggest, for a 1st DSLR, buy one that comes with a kit lens (18-55mm or 18-135mm thereabout) and which costs between $1000 & $1500. That leaves you with extra cash to get some accessories such as a tripod, a filter to protect the lens, a few SD cards, a dry cabinet and/or to buy an extended warranty to 3 years if you wish to. Use the DSLR for 3-4 years and learn to use it well with different settings under different circumstances in different places. Also learn to use post-processing software to edit RAW and JPG photo files. You will soon find a type or genre of photography that you will like for a longer term.

Only then would it be time to consider buying a more expensive camera or additional accessories if necessary. I won't recommend a 70D for a start, perhaps a 700D or equivalent from other known manufacturers. Photography hobby is both expensive and time-consuming. One might also become addictive or obsessive. One might lose sleep waking up very early often. There is a need to always balance time, efforts, resources and other facets of life apart from photography. Start small, start simple, start cheaper and enjoy the basics first. Otherwise it will be money wasted if you finally could not spare the required time and efforts to pursue the hobby. Some might get discouraged - especially when you see some super-duper photos by expert Clubsnappers here - and give up altogether. A newbie may wonder how on earth did they come up with photos like that and gets discouraged when comparing with their own photos. More advanced accessories are expensive; a $2000 budget can easily overrun several times over a year or two. Some build a museum of nice, impressive equipment only to display them quite permanently in dry cabinets when time and money could not be spared. Some find it too bulky and inconvenient to bring out a DSLR and return to smaller, compact or mirrorless cameras.

I'm not trying to discourage you. But you really need to think through what you really want to do with the camera before you part with your money. And is what you want to do realistic?

Nevertheless, welcome to the hobby but tread carefully and don't be too ambitious for a start.

 

[Ah Keong]

for a beginner, i would suggest the Olympus EM10, its size, weight and price would not bog down the interest and its easy and fun to use, produces great photos, which would help one to grow. its also a good system with many lens available, both from Olympus & Panasonic, as well as other brands.

with the cash back promotion and your budget, you can get the EM10 with 14-42mm kit lens, 25 & 45mm prime lenses for around 1.5k or less. which should leave you with enough to get a billigham hadley bag to carry your gears in style, a dry cabinet, a tripod, some small accessories like a blower...etc, and you are on your way.

Yes ckwomdem10, I was looking at the EM10 promotion from Olympus when I was AMK just now. Does any master here know where to get this bomb shape blower. I saw this guy trying to get one. :lovegrin:

 

[Ah Keong]

Apart from street shooting and night shooting, are you going to take video with your camera?

Hi renol, I think I might occasionally take video (for fun). :lovegrin:

 

[Ah Keong]

Regardless of what system you choose, I would recommend starting out with the kit lens (and only the kit lens) first. It's a cheap lens and it does a lot. More importantly, it covers a wide range of focal lengths. This is going to allow you to play around and figure out what is it you really want. It could be fast aperture, wider focal length, longer focal length. The problem is, we don't know what you want, and you as a beginner, don't know either. I recommend starting with a kit lens (14-42 for the E-M10 and 18-55 or 18-135 for 70D) and after shooting for a while, you'll naturally know what you want.

Thanks brapodam!
I was looking at the kit lens comparison (12-40mm kit for the Olympus and 15-85mm kit for the Canon). The Olympus kit lens look very big!! (compared to the camera size) :lovegrin:

 

[SkyStrike]

Yes ckwomdem10, I was looking at the EM10 promotion from Olympus when I was AMK just now. Does any master here know where to get this bomb shape blower. I saw this guy trying to get one. :lovegrin:

It's actually just a normal rocket blower (giottos rocket blower). Can get it from any decent camera shop

 

[Ah Keong]

btw, for M43 systems, the focal length of lenses are approx 1/2 of full frame, therefore, the above lenses are 28-84mm, 50mm and 90mm equilavent of FF DSLRs.

Thanks ckwomdem10!

I was told that to have the effect of the Canon Camera, everything need to be divided by two.
50mm (Canon) = 25mm (Olympus)
F4.0 (Canon) = F2.0 (Olympus)
35mm (Canon) = 17.5mm (Olympus) ??

:lovegrin:

 

[SkyStrike]

Thanks ckwomdem10!

I was told that to have the effect of the Canon Camera, everything need to be divided by two.
50mm (Canon) = 25mm (Olympus)
F4.0 (Canon) = F2.0 (Olympus)
35mm (Canon) = 17.5mm (Olympus) ??

:lovegrin:

There is alittle misinformation here on the bolded part.

Aperture difference on FF vs m43. Aperture is just a hole for light to come in. If it's rated f4, it's f4 on both FF, Crop, m43 or whatever system. The bokeh part is another story itself.
And regarding aperture numbers, the larger the number, the smaller the hole. An aperture of f2 is greater than of f4.

For an illustration of the f number: http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=309544&p=3374325&viewfull=1#post3374325

 

[Ah Keong]

It's seems like shooting in live view is one of the main criteria when choosing a camera?

I could be wrong but if that's the case, you wouldn't go wrong with either the m43, Sony and Fuji range of mirrorless cameras.

Thanks KonTrol!

I was thinking that live view LCD shooting would be easier for me (kinda like my handphone) and the Olympus live view LCD will show the effect of the picture when the arrows are pressed.
The Canon live view LCD has also the same effect when the knobs are turned but the eye view scope does not show the effect when the knobs are turned. :lovegrin:

 

[Ah Keong]

DSLRs are generally designed to be used with the viewfinder mainly. If using the LCD is important to you, I think mirrorless will be the way to go.

Thanks brapodam!

Looks like the Canon is a DSLR and mirrorless hybrid, it has the view finder scope and the live view LCD in a package! :lovegrin:

 

[Ah Keong]

That may be so, but imo, both are turtle slow compared to mirrorless..



I believe you are talking about crop factor.
M43: 2x
Nikon dx: 1.5
Canon crop: 1.6x
FF: 1x

So the focal length number you see on the lens, just times the crop factor and you will get the effective focal length.

So, a 14-42 on a m43 is about 28-84mm.

Thanks SkyStrike! I have this feel that the Canon LCD has about close to one second lag compare to Olympus LCD. :lovegrin:

 

[SilentSeth]

Thanks brapodam!

Looks like the Canon is a DSLR and mirrorless hybrid, it has the view finder scope and the live view LCD in a package! :lovegrin:

Not really.. the Olympus E-M10 you mentioned also has viewfinder (but electronic) + LCD. Does this mean the Olympus is also a hybrid?

Actually, as the name implies, the (main) difference is on the mirror. DSLR has, mirrorless doesn't.

You can see the basic diagram from this article: http://camerahoarders.com/mirrorless-vs-dslr/

This is also why mirrorless eat more battery power. When you compose your picture, it needs to power on not only the LCD (or the electronic viewfinder), but the image sensor as well.

 

[Ah Keong]

There is no hard and fast rules on what focal length for what genre of photography. Just a matter of perspective.

Generally some of then prefer wide angle like 35 or 24mm to get near to the subjects. While some are like snipers that shoot from far (200 mm). But I won't go into details about whether "sniping" is considered street photography or not... there's always 2 camp arguing over this.

Thanks SkyStrike! you mean there is the "shotgun street shooting" camp and the "sniper street shooting" camp? :lovegrin:

 

[ElCarnicero]

Thanks brapodam!

Looks like the Canon is a DSLR and mirrorless hybrid, it has the view finder scope and the live view LCD in a package! :lovegrin:

Ni i think if you want a real mirrorless hybrid with the plusses of both you need to look at Sony SLT

Liveview in Canon is very slow, AF is very slow also

 

[ElCarnicero]

Thanks ckwomdem10!

I was told that to have the effect of the Canon Camera, everything need to be divided by two.
50mm (Canon) = 25mm (Olympus)
F4.0 (Canon) = F2.0 (Olympus)
35mm (Canon) = 17.5mm (Olympus) ??

:lovegrin:

Do not forget that you only divide by two if your Canon is full frame but it is not so you need to multiply by 1.6

 

[Ah Keong]

I'm a 70D user. Allow me to add a few comments. I suggest, for a 1st DSLR, buy one that comes with a kit lens (18-55mm or 18-135mm thereabout) and which costs between $1000 & $1500. That leaves you with extra cash to get some accessories such as a tripod, a filter to protect the lens, a few SD cards, a dry cabinet and/or to buy an extended warranty to 3 years if you wish to. Use the DSLR for 3-4 years and learn to use it well with different settings under different circumstances in different places. Also learn to use post-processing software to edit RAW and JPG photo files. You will soon find a type or genre of photography that you will like for a longer term.

Only then would it be time to consider buying a more expensive camera or additional accessories if necessary. I won't recommend a 70D for a start, perhaps a 700D or equivalent from other known manufacturers. Photography hobby is both expensive and time-consuming. One might also become addictive or obsessive. One might lose sleep waking up very early often. There is a need to always balance time, efforts, resources and other facets of life apart from photography. Start small, start simple, start cheaper and enjoy the basics first. Otherwise it will be money wasted if you finally could not spare the required time and efforts to pursue the hobby. Some might get discouraged - especially when you see some super-duper photos by expert Clubsnappers here - and give up altogether. A newbie may wonder how on earth did they come up with photos like that and gets discouraged when comparing with their own photos. More advanced accessories are expensive; a $2000 budget can easily overrun several times over a year or two. Some build a museum of nice, impressive equipment only to display them quite permanently in dry cabinets when time and money could not be spared. Some find it too bulky and inconvenient to bring out a DSLR and return to smaller, compact or mirrorless cameras.

I'm not trying to discourage you. But you really need to think through what you really want to do with the camera before you part with your money. And is what you want to do realistic?

Nevertheless, welcome to the hobby but tread carefully and don't be too ambitious for a start.

Thanks macVince! Actually when I was reading the web and talking to the sales girl in AMK just now. I realised there are so many things to consider in photography shooting.
Things you mentioned like tripod, SD cards, dry cabinet, filter to protect lens, etc.
I met a friend (Friend A) just now and she even give me a photography book (Understanding Exposing) to read through first before considering to start this expensive hobby.

I shall consider and weigh the costs before spending the Xmas budget. Thanks for your advise! :lovegrin:

 

[Ah Keong]

It's actually just a normal rocket blower (giottos rocket blower). Can get it from any decent camera shop

Yes!! This is the one! the AMK shop I went said they sold out and offer this guy a "Yellow Bee" shape blower. :lovegrin:

 

[Ah Keong]

There is alittle misinformation here on the bolded part.

Aperture difference on FF vs m43. Aperture is just a hole for light to come in. If it's rated f4, it's f4 on both FF, Crop, m43 or whatever system. The bokeh part is another story itself.
And regarding aperture numbers, the larger the number, the smaller the hole. An aperture of f2 is greater than of f4.

For an illustration of the f number:

sorry for the misinformation on the bolder part. I was told by my Canon friend that the Canon F4.0 shot taken has the "similar effect" of a Olympus F2.0 shot?
But I kinda understand half half only what he said. :lovegrin:

 

[KonTrol]

Thanks brapodam!
I was looking at the kit lens comparison (12-40mm kit for the Olympus and 15-85mm kit for the Canon). The Olympus kit lens look very big!! (compared to the camera size) :lovegrin:

The Olympus 12-40mm "kit" lens you are talking about is the highly rated PRO zoom lens. It has a constant aperture of f2.8 and is weatherproof and dust proof if I remember correctly.

For the Canon body, the lens that cover the same focal length and constant aperture, you have the 24-70mm f2.8 L lens..

When you compare the Olympus (382g) and the Canon (805g), you will then realize how small and light the Olympus actually is.

Do take the camera weight and size into consideration before spending your hard earned cash on any purchases.

I have seen many friends who bought their DSLR but complained about its weight and choose to leave the camera at home most of the time.

 

[Ah Keong]

Not really.. the Olympus E-M10 you mentioned also has viewfinder (but electronic) + LCD. Does this mean the Olympus is also a hybrid?

Actually, as the name implies, the (main) difference is on the mirror. DSLR has, mirrorless doesn't.

You can see the basic diagram from this article:

This is also why mirrorless eat more battery power. When you compose your picture, it needs to power on not only the LCD (or the electronic viewfinder), but the image sensor as well.

Thanks SilentSeth!

I thought the EM10 have two LCD. One on the back and one in the viewfinder scope. I read in the web that the LCDs can show the effects when the knobs are turned but not the Canon viewfinder scope when the knobs are turned. so I thought two LCDs is not hybrid but one LCD and one mirror is hybrid?? :lovegrin:

 

[Ah Keong]

Do not forget that you only divide by two if your Canon is full frame but it is not so you need to multiply by 1.6

Thanks ElCarnicero! Didnt know camera shooting involve so many maths. Chim!! :lovegrin: