First DSLR purchase

glm

What a dilema. I am jst about to buy my first DSLR and would really appreciate some advice. My main camera at the moment is a panasoinic FZ 18 - which I love, but the time has come to upgrade.

I have a look at the nikon A5000 and the sony A380. any help/advice would be greatly appreciated

Qarik

glm wrote:

What a dilema. I am jst about to buy my first DSLR and would really appreciate some advice. My main camera at the moment is a panasoinic FZ 18 - which I love, but the time has come to upgrade.

I have a look at the nikon A5000 and the sony A380. any help/advice would be greatly appreciated

what type of shooting do you plan on mostly?

what is your budget?

glm

Thanks. Budget is a bit hard as it will be in aussie dollars not the american kind & I think we pay a bit more - but around the A$1700 mark - if that helps.

Type of shooting is fairly broad - family, vacations, kids school events, and we will most likely keep the FZ18 because of the zoom alone.

thanks

glm

I have managed to have a good look at the nikon D5000 and the D90 and I must say that I'm leaning towards the D90.

They seem quite similar except that the D90 seems to be made a little bit more robustly.

What is the movie mode like?

chrisjohnson

glm wrote:

Thanks. Budget is a bit hard as it will be in aussie dollars not the american kind & I think we pay a bit more - but around the A$1700 mark - if that helps.

Type of shooting is fairly broad - family, vacations, kids school events, and we will most likely keep the FZ18 because of the zoom alone.

thanks

1700 A$=1445.85 US Dollars. This gives you a lot of choice.

One way to simplify the choice is to decide which lens system you want to invest in over time - three main choices: Canon, Nikon, or Four Thirds which is promoted as an open standard by the smaller manufacturers. To my eye they are all equally good, so you may as well draw a name from a hat.

AlbertZeroK

Canon Glass tends to be a bit less expensive than Nikon.

I would consider how the device feels in your hands. For me, I can't use one of those smaller DSLR cameras, I like the feel of a fuller size body like the D90 or the 50D (I also add a battery grip). Of course, I'm 6'2" and have huge hands. But get your hands on that camera and try it before you buy it, even if it's just a couple clicks in the store.

The video on the D90 is nice, but it in no way replaces a video camera because the D90 will not focus as quickly as a normal video camera when recording video. It also only takes video in Live View Mode and is limited to a specific time on the clips.

The Nikon cameras do take SD cards, and they tend to be a bit cheaper than Compact Flash, however, a high speed Compact Flash card will out perform an SD card any day of the week.

Since this is your first purchase, remember to budget the extras. UV filter for the lens? Case? Spare Battery? Memory Cards (speed matters on the Memory cards, especially with shooting multiple images in high speed shutter mode)?

I would also HIGHLY recomend buying the Magic Lantern DVD video for what ever camera you buy. It's a great tool - especially for people like me, who don't like to read the manuals.

glm

Thanks every one. we ended up with the D5000. We got a great deal and i must say that we are impressed with the picture quality.

What speed pf SD card would be the best to buy?

ziggy53

glm wrote:

Thanks every one. we ended up with the D5000. We got a great deal and i must say that we are impressed with the picture quality.

What speed pf SD card would be the best to buy?

The "combination" of camera and memory card tends to be very speed specific and you cannot determine transfer speeds from manufacturer ratings. The best way to know how a particular card will respond to a particular camera is through empirical testing. The only site that currently does this testing is at Rob Galbraith and they have not yet tested the Nikon D5000.

The closest Nikon camera that has been tested is the Nikon D90. Test results are located at the link below:

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/camera_multi_page.asp?cid=6007-9597

mhrivnak

glm wrote:

Thanks every one. we ended up with the D5000. We got a great deal and i must say that we are impressed with the picture quality.

What speed pf SD card would be the best to buy?

Sandisk has some good rebates out right now. I'm happily using the "Extreme III" line which seems hard to beat. Some cards in this line are rated for 20MB/s, and others 30MB/s. The latter have "30MB/s" printed right on the front of the card.

Speed will mostly be an issue when shooting rapidly. Once the camera's buffer fills up, you can only shoot as fast as the camera can write to disk.

AlbertZeroK

mhrivnak wrote:

Sandisk has some good rebates out right now. I'm happily using the "Extreme III" line which seems hard to beat. Some cards in this line are rated for 20MB/s, and others 30MB/s. The latter have "30MB/s" printed right on the front of the card.

Speed will mostly be an issue when shooting rapidly. Once the camera's buffer fills up, you can only shoot as fast as the camera can write to disk.

I can second the Extreme III SD Cards. VERY Good. Best buy normally puts the 8G on sale every once and a while for $50. Otherwise, check out Newegg.com and online vendors (bricks and morter stores kill you unless it's on sale.)

glm

Thanks to evry one. The camera is a delight. It worked out quite well in the end, a $200 rebate from Nikon, plus a 16gig hi speed SD card from lexar in the deal.

Are there any other must have items I should have?

jmphotocraft

glm wrote:

Thanks to evry one. The camera is a delight. It worked out quite well in the end, a $200 rebate from Nikon, plus a 16gig hi speed SD card from lexar in the deal.

Are there any other must have items I should have?

I'll assume you got the kit 18-55 lens, which is about $100 worth of glass, and a good value at that. I would recommend picking up a Nikkor 18-200VR if there is any room left in the budget. Hugely versatile lens and very good quality for an 11x zoom.

robb01 wrote:

then find an online store that has the one you want for a lot less

No. If a knowledgeable sales person has been helpful and spent significant time with you, you owe them your business. And if you ever have questions or a problem with your equipment, having somewhere local to bring it is a big help.