Looking For Midrange DSLR

alexratman

Hey, I'm a photography hobbyist who is looking for a Midrange DSLR for about £600-£750, I am currently using a old Olympus E-320, but the sensor has just started to go. There are a couple of things i Really need. I am looking for a body and a Lens kit but seperate purchases are acceptable

14Mpx + (Love to crop to action AKA large picture sizes)
Good Optical Sensor (Suitable for Landscapes but also Live shoots)
Auto Exposure Bracketing
Macro focus of about 1cm
Optical Image Stabilization
3 inch display screen
Nikon, Olympus, Canon

Thanks In advance. Take a look at my work to get an idea of what sort of camera you think would be suitable "[url]Http://Flickr.com/people/alexratford[/url]"

ziggy53

Please do some more looking around here, at the Digital Grin. We have a number of forums with a lot of great people who are posting their work and describing how they achieved their images.

I suggest looking in the Macro forum, specifically looking at the Tips and Tutorials for macro photography:

http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=143373

Also check out our Landscapes forum where you might have to search a bit but you will find people talking about their equipment and techniques.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "live shoots" but perhaps it is photojournalism, weddings and events. In that case it would be these 2 forums:

http://dgrin.com/forumdisplay.php?f=59
http://dgrin.com/forumdisplay.php?f=49

I suspect you will find that your budget of £600-£750 may not cover everything you wish to accomplish. The nice thing about dSLR cameras and lenses is that you are buying into a "system", and you can build that system as quickly as you like, and as quickly as your budget allows.

Do plan on spending much more for lenses than for the camera itself. Good lenses tend to be a bit pricey. Allow some budget for an external flash for event photography. It's rare that ambient light alone will suffice.

Used cameras are an extremely good way to get started. Many perfectly good cameras are available one or two generations old, and fairly well depreciated (they won't cost too much.) There is some risk in buying older equipment in that they generally have no warranty, so part of your decision depends on your sensitivity to risk.

I just used an older Canon XT/350D exclusively this last weekend for some family event stuff, and it, along with standard zoom lens, can be purchased in your budget and would allow for a used external flash as well. I would suggest expanding your budget a bit and I recommend a constant aperture standard zoom instead of the usual zoom that often comes with a camera. A lens with a constant aperture of f2.8 is very helpful in isolating the subject(s) from the background.









I believe that all of the above were shot with the same XT/350D camera body, Sigma 18-50mm, f2.8 EX lens and a Sigma EF 500 DG Super flash, with the last image from this weekend.

Don't worry too much about megapixels. I often go to 20" x 30" prints from this camera. It's the quality of the light and the quality of the lens and the amount of sensor noise etc. that will impact the image. More pixels does not automatically equate to better images. Most of the time it is just the opposite.

BTW, the Sigma lens I suggested will not do true macro images, but it is fine for close focus images.

If you want to do extreme magnifications, how about this coin image for around $8USD?:





"How to ..."

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=69392

ThatCanonGuy

NICE pooch shot Ziggy! Not to hijack the thread, but I really like the dog's facial expression

Overfocused

Raynox's DCR-250. I gotta keep pushing that

You can use it on any lens to get ultra close macro. I approach ~1-2cm when I put it on a Canon 100mm f2.8 macro. I second what Ziggy says about the budget not being able to cover all those aspects at a very high level of quality/ease of use, but, there are all kinds of gadgets and contraptions (that are cheap) that can substitute and do very acceptable jobs of higher priced equipment. It just takes more elbow grease and time with some of the stuff.