£1000 to spend on new camera + equipment

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mwoody

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Hello all!

Im looking to buy a new camera, I have roughly £1000 to spend but ideally, the less I spend, the better =D

I previously owned a canon 350D for a few weeks (you might remember my Fstop questions, im still confused by it all), but unfortunatly had to sell it to fund christmas and have regretted it ever since. I had the below kit at the time-

Canon 350D Silver
18-55mm Kit lens
Sigma 55-200mm f/4-5.6 lens

Now im going on holiday in mid august to weymouth, and they have a carnival type thing on (http://www.weymouthcarnival.co.uk/) that I would like to get some pictures of, as well as some lovely beach type scenery.

So with the above in mind, what do you recommend I spend my £1000 on? I need everything, camera, lens(s), bag, memory card, tripod, remote release, the whole works. Something to stop sand getting in as well =D

I did like the canon, but im not totally closed minded in going for another manufactuer such as nikon

Essentially a complete starter pack.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.
 
Main thing is to buy used. Much better value for money. I can only speak for Canon but things like 10D/20D are the next league up of camera and available for less money than a new 350D.
 
Its a shame you can't wait another month or two. Canon are likely to be announcing the successor to the 30D soon, so prices for the 30D will be dropping a bit, to make way.
 
Personally, I would go for a Canon 400D (£437 body only, but with £50 cash back to the end of August, although it does take a good while to get it) a Sigma 18-50mm EX f2.8 (£280), Sigma 10-20mm (£290 ish).

I think that is £1007, you can then spend the £50 cash back on a Lowepro bag, as anything of theirs over £50 also gets 20% cash back.

All the prices I quoted are from www.warehouseexpress.co.uk


Chris
 
Well i was looking at second hand, but other than here and ebay i dont really know where to look for good deals.

I dont think I need anything as good as a 10D/20D and money could be better spent on lenses. But im the newbie here so tell me why im wrong

thanks
 
cjlawton said:
Personally, I would go for a Canon 400D (£437 body only, but with £50 cash back to the end of August, although it does take a good while to get it) a Sigma 18-50mm EX f2.8 (£280), Sigma 10-20mm (£290 ish).

I think that is £1007, you can then spend the £50 cash back on a Lowepro bag, as anything of theirs over £50 also gets 20% cash back.

All the prices I quoted are from www.warehouseexpress.co.uk


Chris
Click to expand...

what about anything over 50mm? For example the red arrows will make an appearence, i would like some nice shots of those.

I think i need 3 lenses-

an every day lens (18-70mm ???)
A landscape type lens (10-20mm???)
a zoom lens (55-200mm or more???)

again, my knowledge is very basic with this so dont laugh if i dont make sense :) point and laugh instead lol
 
mwoody said:
what about anything over 50mm? For example the red arrows will make an appearence, i would like some nice shots of those.
Click to expand...

The trouble is anything in the Sigma EX range like a 50-150 f2.8 (£460) or 70-200 f2.8 (£596) is getting a bit on the expensive side.

For fast Canon lenses expect to pay a good bit more.

Chris
 
cjlawton said:
The trouble is anything in the Sigma EX range like a 50-150 f2.8 (£460) or 70-200 f2.8 (£596) is getting a bit on the expensive side.

For fast Canon lenses expect to pay a good bit more.

Chris
Click to expand...

Obviously im not needing top of the range to start off with, surely there is something else suitable that is cheaper
 
400D Body Only
Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC Macro Lens
Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 APO DG Macro Lens

Comes to £700 total leaving me £300 for the other bits and bobs.

what does all this DC APO DG stuff mean also?

Thanks
 
or 350D (£350 ish or 400d for £420) tamron 28-75 f/2.8 (£250 ish) and a sigma 10-20mm (£250 ish) the rest spend on bag and cards etc Got wide end covered, walkaround if you like that bit of extra reach. Good copies of both are excellent.

I would leave the long end until you can save for something very decent
 
Olympus E-510 Twin Lens Kit (14-42 & 40-150 giving 28-300 coverage in 35mm Equiv terms)

£699 from Most Places, leaves £300 for bits, bobs and a decent tripod and bag.

Dont need anything other than the kit lenses, and the IS is a bonus.
 
400D + 18-55 Kit ~£380 after rebate
70-300IS ~£350 from Kerso
50 f1.8 ~ £50 from kerso
2 x 2Gb Sandisk Extreme 3 from play.com @ 17.99 each

That leaves you a couple of hundred quid for other bits and bobs. Thats whats in my kit bag anyway :D

Dump the 50mm and add the Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM for ~ £282 from cameras2u instead and I recon you would be pretty sorted.
 
Another option if going for a 70-300mm lens is to look at the Sigma 70-300 f4.5-5.6 APO - a cracking lens which I used prior to getting my 70-200 for my speedway stuff, and, on a couple of occasions, these chaps....

305295631_72aaed6320.jpg


Taken using the 30d & Sigma 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 APO DG macro. That lens can be had for inside £150 at the moment, I believe....
 
Witch, What's the exif on that shot? Thats ace
 
Cheers Marcel! :D I have to say it's one of my personal favourites!

ISO 160
Focal Length 168mm
Shutter 1/640th
Aperture f9 (yeah yeah, I know - I was trying to keep the shutter speed from going sky high though as it was such a bright day!)
Metering - Spot

I got this one the same day

305295626_0ca4fdb0ba.jpg


same exif except f10 (no - not a clue before you ask - probably changed it by mistake!) and a shutter speed of 1/1000th (well that might have had something to do with it I guess - sun came out a bit more!)

A few more can be found here >> if you want a look.
 
My 20D with battery grip and 2 batteries for £500 mint condition. Only thing is the focus points in viewfinder have gone a bit less bright then they used to be. Still no problems though, it's still tip top and mint.
 
I was thinking about the following-

Canon EOS 400D Body (Black)
Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 Marco DC
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 Mk II
Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III USM

The only thing im unsure of is the 75-300, I dont know what the lens is like in comparisson to the Sigma 70-300 f4.5-5.6 for example.

Also what do all of these DC USM IS APO abbreviations mean after lens names?

Witch, clicking through to your photo album and those shots are similar to what i want to achieve :) did you have to do any panning with them?

So many choices! :(
 
I'd go for the sigma 70-300 over the 75-300 canon but take the 70-300IS over any of them, biased personal preference maybe :shrug: :D
 
I'll go with something different...

Nikon D70s plus AF-S DX 18-70mm £399 http://www.cameraworld.co.uk/ViewPr...kon AF-S DX 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G ED Refurbished

And there's a Nikon 80-200/2.8 that would work with this in the classifieds ;) This leaves you under budget by around £200 which can be used to buy some more glass... You'll have some decent glass which I'd say was most important when buying any camera. Oh and if you stretched the budget a bit more there's a 300/4 in the classifieds too :lol:
 
sepulchre said:
I'd go for the sigma 70-300 over the 75-300 canon but take the 70-300IS over any of them, biased personal preference maybe :shrug: :D
Click to expand...

Do you mean the Sigma 70-300mm DG f/4-5.6 APO Macro Lens? Its cheaper to =D

Have you had experience with the canon lens? For some reason in my mind I imagine the canon lens would be the better of the two, but i think thats just because it says canon on it
 
mwoody said:
Have you had experience with the canon lens?...
Click to expand...

I looked into the 70-300 range a while ago, and the general consensus was that the 75-300 wasn't a great lens as it became very soft beyond 200mm, the sigma was reported to be sharper so was therefore a better option. In the end I went for the 70-300IS as I realised I cant hold a lens still at 300mm so image stabilisation was a big must, this lens is also far newer than the 75-300 and doesn't suffer the same softness at >200mm (OK its not sharp like and L or a prime but its good enough for me).
 
The IS version really kicks the price up though =/ maybe I can justify it, i assume IS is critical at the 300mm end of the lens.

Anyone else have any input or ideal £1000 setups? the more opinion the better!
 
You don't have to have IS at 300mm. It might increase your keeper rate but I don't have any lenses with VR, even the 300/2.8 and I've never found it a huge problem.
 
Olympus E-510 Twin Lens Kit £679.00
2 x Hoya UV Filter - 58mm £27.80
Olympus FL-36 Electronic Flash £139.00
Kingston Ultimate CF 4GB £46.99
Crumpler Daily 370 - Dull Black/Steel Grey £89.99


Sub-Total: £982.78


Or if you don't need the flash, spen the money on a decent tripod.

No need for IS as is built in to the Body so is available on all lenses.
 
As icecavern has said IS isnt critical, but I find it very useful in low light conditions where I can hand hold a good couple of stops slower than I could manage without it.

One point regarding IS, the 70-300IS is f5.6 at 300mm so your loosing two stops of light there over the 300mm f2.8 sigma prime, as a result you end up with a slower shutter speed to compensate which is where the shake comes in, and in Scotland there aint much light anyway so I need all the help I can get :D

Best of luck with your decision.
 
Chillimonster said:
Olympus E-510 Twin Lens Kit £679.00
2 x Hoya UV Filter - 58mm £27.80
Olympus FL-36 Electronic Flash £139.00
Kingston Ultimate CF 4GB £46.99
Crumpler Daily 370 - Dull Black/Steel Grey £89.99


Sub-Total: £982.78


Or if you don't need the flash, spen the money on a decent tripod.

No need for IS as is built in to the Body so is available on all lenses.
Click to expand...

I would prefer to stay with canon or nikon really

sepulchre said:
As icecavern has said IS isnt critical, but I find it very useful in low light conditions where I can hand hold a good couple of stops slower than I could manage without it.

One point regarding IS, the 70-300IS is f5.6 at 300mm so your loosing two stops of light there over the 300mm f2.8 sigma prime, as a result you end up with a slower shutter speed to compensate which is where the shake comes in, and in Scotland there aint much light anyway so I need all the help I can get :D

Best of luck with your decision.
Click to expand...

So basically the IS is only their because the lens is f5.6 =D

Also, someone else advised me that nikon's are easier to use than canon's, especially for newbies. How much truth is there in this?
 
mwoody said:
Also, someone else advised me that nikon's are easier to use than canon's, especially for newbies. How much truth is there in this?
Click to expand...

Non at all I'd say. You choose which one you go with based on how it handles and how you prefer to work. I find the Canon controls less intuitive but others feel the other way. You need to try them and decide.
 
Well i have previous experience with the 350D, so it would make sense to stick with that then =D

I'd liek to thank everyone that has contributed to this post so far, you have being very nice and helpful.

Thanks
 
mwoody said:
So basically the IS is only their because the lens is f5.6 =D
Click to expand...

Thats one way to look at it I suppose :lol: Although if I could afford f2.8 glass I would still go for glass with IS as no matter what aperture your lens is capable of you will always reach a point where there isn't enough available light to hand hold and get a sharp image and thats where IS comes in to play.
 
Think i might disappoint some people here with this, but my better half also has a keen interest in photography but has never owned a DSLR, so I got her some kit as well

So i bought the below, all brand new-

2 D40 Bodys
2 Nikon AF-S 18-55mm DX F3.5-5.6G IF-ED Zoom Lens
2 Nikon AF-S 55-200mm F4-5.6 G ED Lens
2 cheapy tripods
2 1GB SD cards
2 2GB SD Cards
2 universal bags
1 lowpro slingshot 200aw
2 AR-3 remote releases
1 Hoya PRO 1 Digital Circular Polarizing 52mm
1 Hoya Super HMC Pro 1 UV Filter 52mm

For £810 in total, not a bad price i dont think! It all comes tomorrow so here goes nothing.
 
I doubt anyone will be disappointed, so long as you are happy with what you have bought and probably more importantly your better half is happy then that's all that matters. Good luck with it all :)

It seems you have a few quid left over, might be worth looking into a nifty fifty, I think they are OK with that body??
 
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