550d good entry camera for photography and filmmaking?
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seriousrikk
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Bit more info needed I think.
What sort of photography? What sort of film making?
What sort of photography? What sort of film making?
alexhcowley
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I have no interest in video so I can't comment on that but as the owner of both a 550D and its grandfather, the 450D, I can recommend it for stills photography.
As noted above, we really need to know a little more about your photographic interests before making a firm recomendation. If you have any interest in wildlife then the 550D is an excellent camera. If performance in poor light is an issue then you should seriously consider a Nikon.
The standard advice is go down to your local Jessops / Jacobs / other pusher and fondle the stock. There are people who love the handling of Canons and hate Nikons and vice versa.
As noted above, we really need to know a little more about your photographic interests before making a firm recomendation. If you have any interest in wildlife then the 550D is an excellent camera. If performance in poor light is an issue then you should seriously consider a Nikon.
The standard advice is go down to your local Jessops / Jacobs / other pusher and fondle the stock. There are people who love the handling of Canons and hate Nikons and vice versa.
Well this will be my first DSLR, so I would use it for a range of photography, general use kind of stuff.
Also I would hope to make lots of different types of film to, including sports.
Thanks.
Thanks for the advice and as I live in Cornwall alot of my photos would be of nature, is the kit lens for this camera any good or should I get the body only then buy a lens separate?
Thanks.
For video work the 550 is the best there is unless you prepared to pay a great deal more. However, SLR's are not a replacement for a camcorder. The pictures may well be superior, but when shooting video the focus is manual and therefore basically useless for sport. Also because its intended mainly as a stills camera the handling is not suitable for fast handheld action, really needs to be on a tripod for video - for stills though a great choice for any type of work.
One of the things that caused frustration with 7D/550D film makers was auto gain control on the sound.
the 60D gives the option to turn it off etc, which might be useful if your using external mics etc, depends how far you want to take it really
Keep in mind with canon DSLR video there is no autofocus, you need to do it manually (or pic a small aperture with large dof) the new nikon d7000 is one of the first to add this feature but watching some of the review videos it's a bit hit and miss, bound to improve over the next few years though
Also the files are pretty painful to edit, things are slowly getting better.
Just make sure you know what your getting into on the video side, most people would probably be happier with a camcorder
the 60D gives the option to turn it off etc, which might be useful if your using external mics etc, depends how far you want to take it really
Keep in mind with canon DSLR video there is no autofocus, you need to do it manually (or pic a small aperture with large dof) the new nikon d7000 is one of the first to add this feature but watching some of the review videos it's a bit hit and miss, bound to improve over the next few years though
Also the files are pretty painful to edit, things are slowly getting better.
Just make sure you know what your getting into on the video side, most people would probably be happier with a camcorder
alexhcowley
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What, precisely, do you mean by nature? For landscapes, you will need a short zoom. Depending on your budget, the kit 18-55mm lens is fairly good but the 10-22mm wide-angle lens is better but very expensive. There is a cheaper Sigma alternative to the latter but I've not used it so I don't know how they compare.
For wildlife, you can never get too much zoom. I currently use the Canon 55-250mm lens for most of my wildlife stuff with a Sigma 150-500mm for when I need more reach. The 55-250mm is an excellent lens for the price but I hope to replace it with the new 70-300mm L range lens next spring.