DSLR Help Please

[rusty30]

DH has said I can get one

I automatically thought of the Canon 400 as I have some lenses from my non digital Canon EOS 200 that should? fit.

However, I dont want this to cloud my judgement and I am open to any recommendations.

The Canon 400 seems very reasonably priced, but Im intrigued to know what you get on a camera that costs £500 and one that costs £5000. Id be interested in using mine on a (limited) semi professional basis (i.e several people have asked me to take pics of their kids on the basis of some of my snaps) - I realise that the 400 might not be the right camera to go for for this kind of work.

I dont have a £5000 budget by the way (or even close ), but I can probably persuade dearest hubby to part with a bit more than the 400 costs, if I needed to.Would I be OK with the 400, if I splashed a bit more on some decent lenses?

Ive seen some greats results with the canon, but there also seems to be a general consensus on some photography forums Ive read that is a popular "next step" from a compact point and shoot but isnt that great for someone wanting a more "pro" set up? Is that just snobbery or is it fact?

Im going to have a tinker with the 400 and the Nikon D80 soon, but anything else I might want to check out too?

[Stu]

The 400D is a fantastic camera and I don't think you would regret it if you purchased one.

The 400D contains all the features that you could want for semi professional use.
The price difference is mainly the build quality of the case, although the 400D is very well built it doesn't have the full metal body of the £5k cameras.
Also it's not a Full Frame DSLR, to get Full Frame DSLR then you need to go into the £thousands

I have been using my 400D in a semi professional area

Have a look at this latest shoot that I did using the 400D. disbb/Furlong/

If you want to look at any of the raw images from this camera I'll happily email them to you as long as you remember they are copyrighted

[AndyJ]

I do have the £5k Canon 1ds Mark2m thanks to the company needing one ;-)

The difference between that and the Canon 10d I also have are...

Full frame 35mm sensor, 16.7 megapixels
Speed and accuracy of focus
Number of focus points, and the control thereof
Build quality (..and weight. 2.5kg with the flash on.)
Unlimited battery life (or so it seems ;-)

I find it a lot harder to get a good picture out of it, but when I do... Yummy.

diary.andyjpartridge/im...mushlights.jpg

The 400d is great.

Edit: Added link to picture of a fully loaded 1ds lol.
http://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/show...02&postcount=2

Your pictures are great btw Stu.

[rusty30]

Thanks both.

Stu- that was a great slideshow and the sort of thing Id being looking at doing. Apart from the camera, what sort of equipment did you use for these shots? (background, lighting etc etc).

Andy, interesting thanks. Id be interested in the full frame 35mm sensor but couldnt justify the extra expense at the moment for the other features. We too have a business that could buy this camera (and so claim it against business expenses) but I think I will stick with the 400D at least to start. If I want to upgrade, it seems there is a pretty buoyant second hand market for the 400!

Cheers again guys, invaluable as usual!

[Guest]

You could consider a decent second hand camera. Kim bought me a used Nikon D100 for my birthday, Its over two years old but was a very high spec camera when new and ive been really pleased with it, especially as we got it from someone we know so wasnt too worried about its past use.

Having said that it has so many features that im only scratching the surface of what it can do. One really annoying thing with it is that if I try and take pics of the car im building in my garage with the built in flash they come out very blue, Ive messed about a lot with the white balance etc but cant get a good pic, perhaps its just the built in flash thats the problem.

[Stu]

Hi Allie
For this shoot I used a portable white backdrop, two Elinchrom D Lites with attached Soft Boxes, also used a Polaris Flash Meter and a wireless trigger.

Post shoot I removed the background to produce the high index pure whites using Photoshop.

[Guest]

I was looking for my first proper DSLR before christmas and it was between Canon 400D, Nikon 80D and the Pentax K10D. I ended up going with the Pentax due to the shake reduction in camera as well as the build quality and I am over the moon with this camera, before I would lose 25% of my pictures due to camera movement and the picture will be blurred, now its down to 1% but thats more to do with my knowledge of the camera. It was a different choice as the two big brands are what you will find in Jessops etc and they would rather sell you those.

Whichever camera you go for at this level you will enjoy, they all are pretty much the same on specifications and only have small differences, the one thing you should do, goto a shop that has all the choices you are looking at and try them all out. I tried the Canon and it felt small and plasticky to me. Whereas the Pentax feels perfect and I added a battery grip and its perfect ( for me )

Whatever you get, happy snapping and if you buy from jessops see if they will pricematch

[glorfy]

The Pentax K10D is a great 10Mp camera - and Fully Weather Seales!

Argos of all people were doing it for £599 with 2 lenses - make sure you put it on your short list!

[Guest]

Or go for the Samsung GX10 which is almost identical to the Pentax K10 but 100 cheaper ie argos do it for 599 with two lenses... and is it the K10 on Argos or the K100?

[Guest]

Few shots from the K10D, also these were all taken hand held! no tripod was used and no resting on walls. The shake reduction helped to get lower light shot

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