Shopping for New Camera

Hey guys n gals,

I've been using a cheap 5MP point and shoot for the last 2 years and it's time to upgrade. I don't think I'm ready for an expensive SLR quite yet but I've found one that's just as nice as an SLR that is 10.1MP and 18x Optical Zoom.

This is the camera I have my eyes set on getting this coming weekend, and it's very affordable at $419.99...

http://www.nikon.ca/en/Product.aspx?m=16675

Thoughts on the camera?
 
Dont get that camera.
Buy once-buy right-never buy again
http://www.kenrockwell.com/index.htm
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d40.htm
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/mpmyth.htm
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/dslr-comparison/index.htm

Read these links before you buy a camera.
You can pick up a D40 for 499.00 with a lens, battery, and charger.

Check out my website for some pictures: http://www.freewebs.com/justincarl/index.htm
Also, I can give you an address to my photobucket account.
Just PM me
 
Last edited:
Vibrant,
Having been a professional photographer for some time, and of course someone who started out just like you, I highly and strongly suggest you start with a DSLR. I myself am a Canon 30D user.

For starters, I'd say to begin with a 20D...the 30D is quite similar in it if you can find it for a good price. Of course, most DSLR's come with no lenses, but the beauty of it is that your investment in lenses is never wasted! They are always transferrable to your new camera body when you're ready to upgrade.

Whether you choose Canon or Nikon is up to you. I've done both, but found Canon to be the better of the two for me. Now I have thousands invested in lenses and I'm never going back to the point and shoot days (I too bought a Coolpix way back in the day)!

SLR's have great buffers and get the pics almost instantly to what your eye sees as well. And, even if your motive is only chameleons, a nice SLR will take some fantastic family portraits!

If you need more assistance in choosing, feel free to contact me. I'll even vouch to teach you how to use your new camera to get you started in no time. :)

One more important thing...when it comes to SLR's, buy them from reputable dealers! Amazon is a good choice (as long as it's sold BY Amazon), or B&H.
Hope this helps!
 
Thanks for all the replies. Maybe I'll hold off on my decision to buy the P80.
I like the P80 for its 10.1 MP and its 18x Optical Zoom with cheap pricing.

If I went with the D40 it's only a 6.1 MP. Wouldn't that be like buying a brand new 2003 car in 2008?

How much would I spend on a lens that would give me 18-20x Optical Zoom?
Also a Macro lens.
 
Cameras are getting cheaper by the minute, so the buy once theory is out the window. I bought a nice pro-grade camera a few years ago, 500 bucks. Now I have a kodak pocket cam which is a 10mp and I paid only 140 on sale. I use it more often because I dont have to fumble with fifty lenses and filters...just point and click. Besides most of the newer cams today are packed with better features at a better price. I can take great pictures...faster and just as good, with a newer cheaper cam. IMO buy what is functional for you.
 
Vibrant,
Optical zooms are cheap...you can't compare them to a standard lens. They are not transferrable, and not a great investment. Almost any SLR lens beats an optical.

Don't let MP (Megapixels) fool you. They are only for print sizes, and says NOTHING about the quality of a camera. Unless you're going to make MASSIVE posters, 10.1 MP is excessive, and on a point and shoot will not help the quality of your image. 6.1 MP is quite a bit and makes some BEAUTIFUL prints...first thing that comes to mind is a Canon 300D in the 6.1 range.

SLR's are advanced cameras...the buffers allow you to take tons of photos in a short matter of a few seconds, and there is no optical zoom to worry about...buy a nice lens and be done with it...you'll really appreciate the quality of the color, picture, etc. Trust me, your investment is just better spent in an SLR.

I strongly discourage ANY kind of camera purchase on ebay. While I love ebay (I really do), many camera items on ebay are grey market and warranties are completely null and void...your camera breaks, it's not taken care of.

The 30D has gone down a ton in price from when I bought it:

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-8-2MP-D...5?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1211405108&sr=8-5

I also suggest this as a GREAT starter camera...it's sold as a kit and comes with a lens. When you get used to the camera, you can buy another lens. :)

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-Digital...?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1211405225&sr=8-11

Hope this helps some!
 
I agree with the ebay, my coworker got hammered with a refurbed canon and they claimed to be authorized dealer...they werent and the 600 he blew on it was gone...like the seller. But I disagree with the megapixels, if you actually plan to take photos on a different, albeit professional level than high mp is key for high def photography. HD is everything nowadays, but once again, buy what works for you...if you are merely posting pics here or sending photos via email by all means buy a lesser camera to suit you. But if you are like me, I am always blowing up photos for posters and making my photos lasting masterpieces, I use it. So to say MP has nothing to do with quality...pass it over here bro.
 
Billy,
I hope you weren't directing your MP speech to me. :) I specifically said that MP are something to be considered for with print size.

Many of my photos are in magazines and major newspapers. It all started as a hobby (still pretty much is), but it's something I had to start taking more seriously as time passed. To say that a 10.1 MP point and shoot is going to beat out an 8MP 20-30D is a bit of an overstatement to say the least.

I am not against point and shoot per se', but the SLR is definitely a "real" camera. Digital SLR's have finally gotten to if not surpassed 35mm film quality, and the lens is where the money is, especially with L glass and IS systems.

For the record, I have a Canon PowerShot SD870IS. It's convenient for taking pics of things real briefly, but when it comes to any kind of pan motion, forget it, just like with any other point and shoot I have ever tried. There is always that shutter delay. With an SLR this is practically non-existent, and allows one to get "money" shots. Chameleons are definitely slow creatures, but there are sometimes when you may want to get a leg moving or dangling, and that delay will capture the moment right after it...just giving a very minimal example. This logic especially holds true for airliner photography (something I know we aren't talking about here), but the speed of a plane just simply cannot be kept up with when using a point and shoot.

Billy is right though...buy what suits you, but also consider that the DSLR option in my last post (the Rebel XT) is only about $50 more expensive now days and comes with a starter lens. I think you'd be quite happy with such a purchase!
 
^^^
Alright, that was moderately quick :)
Since you are getting a fairly expensive equipment, always get it from an authorized dealer for less intense headaches if something bad happens.
 
^^^
Alright, that was moderately quick :)
Since you are getting a fairly expensive equipment, always get it from an authorized dealer for less intense headaches if something bad happens.

I totally agree. For something more expensive, it's always good practice to make sure the warranty is guarantee.
 
I agree with all of you. eBay can be a risk, but I know someone who bought a P&S digital a couple of years ago with the kit and it was not grey market. Maybe she was lucky.

For my 2 cents, out of curiosity I stopped by a camera shop on my way home last night wanting to try out this Nikon P80 because my Lumix is already outdated. They were sold out. I looked at a Fuji FinePix S8100fd and fell in love! It's 10 MP and 18X optical zoom. I'm big into the zoom shots because I live in the country and do a lot of nature shots. No, I don't print to poster size, but I can tell the difference even just opening a pic online from one that's smaller in MP. I love the crispness and clarity! The Fuji does better in low light conditions than the Olympus or Lumix I have.

True, buy what serves your needs. I personally like the convenience of P&S but SLRs are definitely more pro.

:)
 
I need a point and shoot with good quality. SLR would be nice, but too bulky for everyday use - not to mention I , and my wife, would have to learns stuff... I woudl love to learn the ins and outs of slr photography, but I suffer from a serious lack of spare time.

I had a canon A-series 3.3 MP camera for a few years. Excellent picture quality.
I was starting to crap out on us, working intermittantly, I I got th eA640 off of Newegg.

It was $100 less than best buy, and came with a 1 gig card.

10.0 million pixels is a tremendous amount, and usually overkill, but there are situations when it's very handy. Chameleons look great in closeups, but tend to despise cameras. I can usually not get close enopugh to fully utilize this thing's macro function. Being able to crop a large pic really helps get a nice close-up shot when I'm trying to take close-uppics of hateful lizards.

AND, Sam's club will print out a 20'x30' poster size print for like $12.00...

it's a great multifunction point and shoot camera, and gets great battery life on 4 NiMh AA batteries.
 
Howdy,

Here's a shot from my old Canon Digital Rebel (300D) 6.3MP. Part of what you get from all of that glass is the potential for sharpness. No matter how many MP you have, if they aren't getting through sharp glass, you don't end up with a sharp photo. The fun with sharp images and a decent amount of pixels is that they can be cropped and cropped and cropped :).

This one is already cropped about 10% (Someone mentioned fast response :))
PerfectTiming.jpg


Cropped quite a bit more but still showing pretty good detail due to the sharpness of the lens (a cheap 18-55mm kit lens a that :eek:) along with a decent amount of pixels.
TongueOnBug.jpg


Stick with a Canon or Nikon DSLR and have some fun!
 
Back
Top Bottom