Sorta newbie - first venture into dSLR-land.

MonaCK

So my husband and I are both amateur photographers. He's much better than I am. I am still a little bit intimidated by the camera, but am finally learning to just pick it up and shoot pictures.

That being said - about a year and a half ago we bought a bridge camera - the Fuji S9000. It was a leap ahead from our old P&S olympus, and was my first experience with a camera that has detailed manual settings, etc. We've been using the camera more and more on trips, as well as some product photography for my husband's business, but I have found that the photo quality is just not the best. When zoomed into 100% in photoshop, I find that the pictures almost have artifacts in them, almost like the camera is faking it, and really not doing it at the resolution that it's supposed to.

I did some research, and came to find that this is a common problem with this camera. That, coupled with the fact that my husband and I are both getting to be much more into photography has made us consider taking the leap into dSLRs.

That being said - what lenses would you recommend? And what additional lighting should we look into investing into in order to get the best possible product shots? Right now we are using flood lights with a small box that diffuses light in order to shoot individual products. I'm wondering if there is something better that we an use, or if using better lenses with a better camera body will do the trick.

Also - I was looking at the specs for the Canon XSi. Do you think that it's worthwhile to wait for the XSi, or would you recommend getting a really good deal on the XTi? Do you think that we'll be at a disadvantage buying what is essentially 2 year old technology? We're definitely looking for a system that we can grow with, and can grow with us. And we would really like it if we could wait a few more years before investing in another camera body.

Thanks for any insight you can provide. I've been lurking around here for a little while, and you all seem like rather friendly folk

ziggy53

Welcome to the Digital Grin. Friendly, that's us. ... and kind, generous, courteous, ... pretty much all the good stuff.

Ahem.

What you may be seeing on the Fuji images is compression artifacts. Make sure the camera is set to the highest resolution and highest quality (lowest compression) available for JPG. I think you can also shoot to RAW format for the very best results that camera can offer.

For product photography, look here:

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=87337
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=81049
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=75658
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=3801
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=50622

with special emphasis on the links here (it's about food photography, but if you can shoot food, you can do about any type of product):

http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=454531&postcount=8

MonaCK

Thanks for the beginning threads - I really appreciate it Since the products that we are going be shooting are a combination of bottles of sauce, coupled with the dishes that the sauce can produce, I am especially grateful for the food photography threads

ziggy53

I should add that I shot product photography for over 30 years and it was the advent of a video preview that really helped the most in recent technologies.

If you do decide on a dSLR, chose one with a "live view" capability. Live view, even the video preview of a digicam, is a great benefit because, used with lights that accurately portray shadows and reflections and intensities, it makes for much faster setup. It also allows a more accurate positioning in the frame with multiple objects, and when you get used to the view it is also easier to fill the frame confidently without worrying about clipping an important element.

Use an external video monitor (on a cart) for best results and easiest positioning.

Using a digicam can actually be a benefit for product work in that DOF is generally greater at a given f stop and field of view on a digicam. A digicam can also sync flash to faster shutter speeds, a benefit if using simple manual flash or studio flashes.

Tee Why

If it was me and money is a factor, I'd probably get the XTi and a nice decent all around lens that can do near focusing for product shots. I think the Sigma 17-70 is a nice lens.

If money difference is not a factor, then a XSi may be nice, but I wouldn't expect the image quality to be much if any different between the two.

Looking at the specs and the images, the XSi may have better ergonomics than the XTi, but I'd go to a store and see what the XTi feels like. The XSi IIRC is suppose to be bigger than the XTi and some women with smaller hands may not like the bigger body.

MonaCK

Thank you all for the advice - we are still reading and learning, but ended up getting the Nikon D40x on the recommendation from my brother in law. The lense we got is a Tamron AF 18-250mm lense. I've only had it for a day, but so far so good. Pictures are definitely superior to what we got out of the bridge camera, and a little later I am going to go outside and play with it some more.

We also picked up some additional lighting for the product photography, and are hoping to be able to get everything set up to be able to take some great pictures on our own. We'll see how it all works out

Icebear

Might I suggest you investigate shooting in "tethered" mode. I'm pretty sure you can do that with the D40. You need Nikon's Capture software (less than $100) but it allows you to shoot directly connected to a computer, and view the image immediately on your computer screen which is WAAAAYYYY better than "chimping" at the puny LCD on the back of your new D40 ( for the new camera by the way).

Shooting tethered is PERFECT for product photography, since youaren't moving around much. I do architectural photography and it's the only way to fly. If you ever try it, you will wonder how you ever did photography any other way.

Welcome to the asylum!!!