Camera and lens

[mickh]

The better half is looking to buy a digi camera and a lens or two. She enjoys macro and wild life shooting mainly. Can any budding photo takers suggest a decent camera and lenses to have a look at with a budget of around £1500. I can see a lot of trawling round the shops over the next few weekends.

[bobbinsjob]

trugga is the man to chat to about cameras

[gregster]

Hippo Dan is pretty clued up too and is quite near you too mate...

[Trugga]

trugga is the man to chat to about cameras

Thank you for the vote of confidence, although bear in mind I've only had this DSLR for 16 months.

£1500 is reasonable budget, although macro and wildlife lens requirements are different, requiring a couple of lenses - you'll also probably want a general "walk-around" lens as well.

Camera wise, I'm only familiar with Canon (although Nikon is comparable) mine is a Canon 550D.

Canon DSLR's come basically in 4 families, designated by either 4,3,2 or 1 digit numbers - the 4 digit ie, 1100 is concidered the entry level, the single digit ie 5D for the more proffessional and their prices reflect this. Mine is still concidered "amateur".

Buying a kit, or separates ?

There are some attractive deals to be had, but do you realy want what is on offer, for example, after 6 months I replaced my standard "kit" lens for a more expencive version - why? I wanted better quality (why put a cheap lens in front of an expencive body). I also replaced my long lens with another one after 13 months.

Lenses are not cheap (for good ones) do your research before buying.

For macro, I've little experience, although I would suggest you don't go down the cheap ebay screw on front elements - I did and it was basically a waste of money. You might also want to concider a ring flash. One of the problems with macro photography is getting close to the subject - a set of macro extention tubes will reduce the minimum focus distance of a given lens and get you closer.

For wildlife, you'll be wanting a long zoom lens. I started with a Tamron 70-300 (it also does reasonable macro), although it suffered a little at the long zoom end with image quality. I replaced that with a Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5/5.6L USM Image Stabilized a big finacial investment but the image quality is absolutely amazing (for a zoom, the primes are better).

For a regular lens (or walk around), I started with the kit lens Canon EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-56 IS MkII Lens which I later replaced with a Sigma 17-70mm f2.8-4 DC OS Lens for Canon EF-S - again for better image quality and a little more reach, but more importantly it is faster (the 2.8 aperture lets in more light than the 3.5)

You might also want to consider a tripod and/or monopod.

Have a browse at the Jessops website http://www.jessops.com/ to see what sort of kit you think you need. Then, read some reviews of your desired kit here: http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/. If you decide to go the Canon route, have a look here http://photography-on-the.net/forum/index.php - there are lots of beginner type questions with answers.

I would also suggest you buy new (with warrenty) or only second hand if you know the kits history, and stay away from ebay (I've heard good stories but heard many more bad ones).

I will have my kit with me at the FOG Annual Meet if you can wait and want to "play" and would concider selling the Canon 18-55 and Tamron 70-300 if the offer was favourable.

Does that help a little ?

Lawrence

[mickh]

Thanks Trugga will let the little woman have a read through. Definitely thinking on the same lines as you put down. Want a new Canon and will be buying a body and then the specific lenses that she wants. Will probably be back to pick your brains again soon. Thanks again.