eeny meeny miny mo..which camera shall i choose..

surrealillusions

surrealillusions

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I'm after a new camera to replace my coolpix 5200

I dont want one that you have to attach hubble telescopes to the front, but i do want one that is better in all areas (or as much as possible) to my current one.

Since i take photos of cars going fast (or trying to), then i need a good zoom and shutter speed, and ideally one that you can take a few photos in a row without having to wait for what seems like several years between shots.

I dont have a massive budget (less than £400), nor do i have massive pockets to carry it in.

After more thoughts..does this camera actually exist? :gag: :p

Anyway..ideally it has to support the sd cards i currently have, because if it doesn't, then i cant use them and it means more money buying cards.

Any suggestions??
 
I have the finepix s5600 (fujifilm) which has everything you need, by the sound of it. It has 10x optical zoom, shutter speeds can go up to 2000/s (more than enough to take photos of cars without any blur!)

It's not for pros, but it does the job. It takes XD cards, not SD, but it only costs £115 so you've got a bit of change out of £400 to buy some XD cards ;)

If you wanna ask me anything else about it I'll be checking back :D
 
Go for the absolute best you can afford. Go for a DSLR, because if you don't now, you will eventually, and you will have wasted the money on the camera you have just bought.

There are plenty of DSLR/lens packages around if you care to look under £400, and even better, buy a used one from a dealer, with a guarantee... eg a used Canon 10D/20D, both of which will have cost over £1000 new a couple of years ago, and will knock the socks off a 'beginners' DSLR. The standard zoom 18 - 55 is OK, but there are plenty of 'longer' bargains out there.

Most of all, forget about the XD cards!! Why ruin the choice by having to find a compromise which will take these cards. 1mb CF cards are available now for a tenner, and the 7Dayshop.com will sell you a decent 4mb card for less than £20.

I've just done a quick check, and Purdey's have the new EOS 400d with 18/55 lens for just over £400.

MXV Photographic have a mint used 350D with 18 -55 for only £279!!!

MPB Photographic have a Mint used 400D with 18-55for only £379!!! That's a real bargain!

Look at the bottom of the page for the latest offers.....

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=257443#post257443


Good hunting:)
 
I just bought my boyfriend a Panasonic Lumix FZ50 which is a fantastic little camera. Like you, he didn't want to be bothered by carrying lots of equipment and lenses around with him. The zoom on this camera goes from 35mm - 420mm. The only downside for me is that the viewfinder is a digital image.

It retails at around £300 roughly, and it takes SD cards. Your best bet is to go into a camera shop and have a look at the different cameras on offer - see which suits your needs and feels right, then have a look online for a bargain price :)
 
I have a suggestion, have a look at fujifilms 6500fd or the 9600 so what if you have to buy a different type of memory card, 2gb xd cards are only approx £25, the macro on the 6500 is excellent, and the cameras are good for just picking up and using.
 
i echo the comments about getting a dslr now, i made the mistake of getting an in-between camera before my 300d, dont make the same mistake!
 
thanks for the help and suggestions so far.

At the moment the Canon 350D looks good.

Any cameras that are similair or better but cheaper?

Might have to head down to the jessops in town to see if they got one in stock and have a little play in the shop..

thanks again

:)
 
Check magazines and the internet for cameras that look likely to be in your price bracket. Then head along to Jessops (yes, really!) and get your hands on as many as you can find. Grab yourself a CF card to take with ytou and actually take a few shots on each in the shop - that's the only way you'll knoiw how a camera feels in use. Then smile nicely, say you'll be back when you've thought about iut a little more, and walk away to buy the camera of your (now well informed) choice elsewhere at a sensible price.

Happy hunting, good luck, and if you go for a compact or bridge camera in the end, with you wanting to do fast moving stuff, check for shutter lag! ;)
 
surrealillusions said:
thanks for the help and suggestions so far.

At the moment the Canon 350D looks good.

Any cameras that are similair or better but cheaper?

Might have to head down to the jessops in town to see if they got one in stock and have a little play in the shop..

thanks again

:)
Click to expand...

Better but cheaper?? That's really an oxymoron as far as DSLRs are concerned. Canon (and Nikon) cameras are really state of the art. You could perhaps buy a Sony/Pentax/Olympus cheaper. They are fine cameras, but residual values are poor, and the selection of lenses isn't as good, or as cheap.

You could look for the following (used) all at around £300.

Nikon D100
Nikon D70/70S
Canon 10D
 
ok..cool..thanks

I think i'll check out the following in jessops

canon 350d
nikon 70s
nikon d100

Just a few questions (probably stupidly obvious)
- battery life on each of them
- do they take SD cards (i have bytestor high speed sd cards)
- which one is generally better for taking photos of motorsport?
- any other problems or advantages that one has over the other in terms of usage etc?

thanks

:)
 
I'll put in for the Olympus users (all two of them). The E500 stands up well to the 350D, and is a close match for the 400. You can pick them up for about 350 quid from ebay, with a couple of lenses. There aren't a huge amount of affordable four thirds lenses, though the range is expanding.. but you have access to all sorts of lenses with adaptors - so long as you don't mind a bit of manual jiggery pokery.
 
Nikons - D70 on CF cards

D40[x] and D50 on SD
If you can manage to push the budget a tad, jessops are doing the D40x for £465 online I think with the kits lens [18-55], and its spec is terrific. Personally I prefered the 'feel' of teh nikon DSLR bodies over the Canons, but that really is persoanl choice. I know a canon owner who loves the handling of his, but wishes the actual controls were Nikon-esque....

Alternatively, I used to own a Fuji 'tweenie' camera, and their high end non SLR units are also very very good!

EDIT: One Stop Digital are doing D40x kit even cheaper, though not sure how thw warranty stands...
http://www.onestop-digital.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=21_22&products_id=406
 
:bang: Find the camera you like then if the SD cards fit great otherwise E Bay them Dont let memory cards dictate your choice
Bob:wave:
 
One thing I do not like about the four-thirds system used by Olympus is the smaller sensor size, which means less depth of field for a given angle of view and less suitability for wide angle shots.

Though for motorsport I doubt this would be much of a problem as I presume you would be using motion to blur to the background. And instead it might work to your advantage as the you get more "reach" which makes it more suited to you budget and pocket size requirements.

You would get the same field of view on an Olympus with a 150mm lens as you would with a 200mm one on a Nikon body, or a 300mm one on a 35mm camera.

But as said the range of lenses is much smaller. Only Sigma of the big third-party manufacturers currently support the standard, they do not offer their full range, and usually charge more for the ones they do.

Nor do Olympus use SD cards, instead they use xD of CF cards.

It really depends on what you like after trying them out, and what offers you can get. If there was a simple answer to which brand of camera to get we would all have the same though. And Nikon would have closed down.

Michael.
 
thanks for the help/tips so far..all messages/tips/etc have been noted..keep them coming though..i will still like some more cameras to try out..and gradually work them down after trying them out..building a list up at the moment of the cameras i will try and see which i like the feel best out of them.

I'll let you know of any updates..wont be able to get in till middle to end of next week to test cameras out.

:)
 
by all means try out cameras in the shop. b4 buying on the internet ask the shop if they will match the price.
Normally they will as some profit is better than none!!!!
 
Think hard about what kind of photography you want to do or are likely to want to do.

If your interest is non serious pics of the family and friends with holidays etc. every so often then don't buy a dslr, you'd be wasting your money (remember a dslr is eventually going to cost you a lot more than the original purchase price when you have to buy extra lenses and bits for it). A decent compact like the FZ50 Mini recommended would be best.

If on the other hand you want to get more serious about photography then dslr is the only route worth considering because of it's versatility.
 
tried out the Nikon D40 in jessops, and it was ok. Only problem was that the menu/screen kept dissapearing, although i guess this was probably the battery, as it was the camera on display.

As i already have a nikon, the dial menu thingy was easy enough to follow, and it seemed a bit complicated at first..alot more options and settings to play around with compared to my current coolpix. The guy said the battery only lasts for 100 shots..which i thought was pretty crap..considering even i have taken over 300 on my coolpix in one day without changing the battery.

Overall, it was ok..but i had nothing to compare it too. They had no canons in stock..

Need to try out some more..but the rest seemed to be quite expensive for what i need and want to spend.
 
surrealillusions said:
As i already have a nikon, the dial menu thingy was easy enough to follow, and it seemed a bit complicated at first..alot more options and settings to play around with compared to my current coolpix. The guy said the battery only lasts for 100 shots..which i thought was pretty crap..considering even i have taken over 300 on my coolpix in one day without changing the battery.

Need to try out some more..but the rest seemed to be quite expensive for what i need and want to spend.
Click to expand...

Just went to the Nikon website products page.... D40x facts... bit about the battery.....

" Rechargeable Li-ion Battery: take up to 520 shots in single-frame shooting mode (measured according to CIPA standards, with Built-in Flash used for 50% of the shots). "

Jessops strike again! :bang:
 
chuckles said:
Just went to the Nikon website products page.... D40x facts... bit about the battery.....

" Rechargeable Li-ion Battery: take up to 520 shots in single-frame shooting mode (measured according to CIPA standards, with Built-in Flash used for 50% of the shots). "

Jessops strike again! :bang:
Click to expand...

seems so..and whats worse is..it was the store manager that told me that :bonk:
 
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