First SLR

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Asciid

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Hi, i've been doing alot of photography and i think it is time for me to get a camera with a good lens capability. I have been working on a Nikon "mini -slr" which has a fixed lens but i feal that it is now inadiquate for the type of photography i do.

so... i am looking for an SLR and have come up with a short list of 3

Olympus E400
Nikon D40x (rerelease of the D40)
Nikon D70

I do landscape photography and i expect to have a ~10mpx body with a good lens capability. Which is best for an intermediate photographer?


Also what type of tele lens would i need for getting good landscape shooting. I also am looking for a lens with a good zoom (for shooting far objects such as yachts)
 
Hiya mate. :thumbs:

I'd have to say go for one of the Nikons. Nothing against the Olympus but the Nikon will have a far greater range of lenses and accessories available for it. Once you're committed to a range of lenses it becomes very expensive to consider changing to another brand so it pays to make the right body decision early on - this is an expensive game without switching horses mid race. ;)

For landscape generally it's wide angle lenses you'd use, but you can use any lens including long tele lenses to good effect as they can isolate a particular part of the landscape and also have the effect of compressing perspective for a completely different effect.

There's plenty of choice in zoom lenses of all different ranges and prices. Sorry I'm smiling a bit - you seem to think you're just going to have two lenses... you'll end up with a great bag full of 'em and an empty bank account! :D
 
ok, i have a few K-mount lenses off of my dad's old pentax. how much would an adapter cost? thanks for the info...
 
I don't think you will get an adaptor for your K mount lenses but if you have some good quality K mount stuff you could consider buying a Pentax K10.

CT is right about the amount of lenses you will end up with but for general use something in the 17-80mm range will serve, a wider zoom and longer zoom won't hurt to have either, buy the very best you can afford, if you can't afford it wait and save up, cheap glass will just dissappoint you.
 
Just one comment regarding the Olympus you mention - there is a "road test" in one of the camera mags this month (Digital Camera I think it was) where they are testing various DSLR's in real life situation - it was mentioned that the E400 didn't handle noise well above 400 ISO - up to that level, no problems, but a lot of problems from 400 upwards.
 
The smaller sensor used by Olympus makes it less suitable for wide angles than cameras with an APS-C sized one, such as Nikon, as it will have more distortion.

It also has a 4:3 ratio which though a matter of personal taste I would say the wider traditional 3:2 ratio is more suited to landscapes. Although if making prints then depending on the size you will be cropping bits off whichever format you use.

Difficult to suggest lenses without an idea of your budget though. Also what range does your current camera give you and do you find it wide and long enough?

Michael.
 
I agree with CT - absolutely. Go for one of the Nikons. The D70, whilst older than the D40, is in my opinion, a more capable body, in fact, the D70S, which is an upgraded model, is even better, and will cost around the same. You could probably get a D100 which was touted as a professional model (a mini D1 if you like), for the same price, or perhaps even a little less, and it is a very capable body.

If you do buy a D70, you can get free firmware from Nikon, which will upgrade it, at least as far as the software is concerned, to the same spec as the D70S.

It is always worth visiting the manufacturers site, for whatever camera you buy, to see if there are any firmware upgrade options. They are free, and will address any problems that have been found since the camera was released, and will also contain any upgrades.

Good hunting:woot:
 
mij said:
The smaller sensor used by Olympus makes it less suitable for wide angles than cameras with an APS-C sized one, such as Nikon, as it will have more distortion.

It also has a 4:3 ratio which though a matter of personal taste I would say the wider traditional 3:2 ratio is more suited to landscapes. Although if making prints then depending on the size you will be cropping bits off whichever format you use.

Difficult to suggest lenses without an idea of your budget though. Also what range does your current camera give you and do you find it wide and long enough?

Michael.
Click to expand...
my current camera is a nikon coolpix(one of the old series) which is 6 years old. the lens was ok, but now with taking wide-angles i get a bit of distortion.
 
Asciid said:
my current camera is a nikon coolpix(one of the old series) which is 6 years old. the lens was ok, but now with taking wide-angles i get a bit of distortion.
Click to expand...

This doesn't surprise me.

Even the cheapest of DSLR kit lenses, will be superior to the very best lens on a compact DSLR (perhaps with the exception of the 2.8 vario Summicron lens on the Leica Digilux 2).

Compact camera lenses are a compromise, necessarily so, because of the size of the camera body, and the small size of the sensor. small DSLR kit lenses, are in many cases, bigger than a lot of compact cameras!!

Fitting a wide angle or telephoto adaptor will only serve to magnify the faults and abberations inherent in a compact lens, and if the fault is visible in a screen sized Jpeg, just imagine what it would be like when it's printed at anything larger than A5.

I'm in no way knocking digital compacts - I own a couple, and generally speaking the results are more than acceptable, but the results from a low end DSLR will almost always be superior, given that the user knows what he is doing.
 
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