The jump from bridge to DSLR..

Borats Baby

Borats Baby

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Rikki
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I currently use a bridge camera, its my only camera, and I really like what it does.

Its a Panasonic DMC FZ50.

Now, I am finding that I am reaching the limit of its capability and the next obvious step would be a DLSR.

Only thing is, I really like the focal range on the panny as it means I dont have to lug lenses about, the macro is quite good, and optical zoom is 12x, which I find more than enough.

The other factor here is that I am pretty skint and pretty much the only money I'll have is what I get for the Panny and what I get for my forthcomming birthday, prolly £80 ish !

So, what would all you nice fellows recommend I do ?

Keep the panny and wait till I've got more money?, or flog it?, and if I flog it, what could I get ?

I guess I'll have around £300 to buy something.

Used is the way forward here, not bothered about gear being slightly damaged even, as long it works 100%

Can it be done ?
 
12x is pretty meaningless as it depends what the starting point is - but this normally means a DSLR with a range of lenses covering the 18 - 300. Most people do this with a kit lens 18-55 and then a 70-300.
 
andrewc said:
12x is pretty meaningless as it depends what the starting point is - but this normally means a DSLR with a range of lenses covering the 18 - 300. Most people do this with a kit lens 18-55 and then a 70-300.
Click to expand...

So with a macro lens aswell, that 3 lenses in total, plus a body.

I'm not going to do it for £300 am I ?
 
Even if you did, you would be disapointed with at least two of the bits you bought. You can pick up good second hand DSLR bodies for about £250, that leaves you with nowt for a lens.
It's not what you wanted to hear but I would stick with what you have for now and keep saving.
If you buy a compromise now you will end up spending more later to make up for it.

What is it the FZ50 can't do?
 
Al Brum said:
What is it the FZ50 can't do?
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Its poor at higher ISO, that is anything above ISO200

Even at ISO100, if I use a F3.4 or similar to get blurred backgrounds, the b/g is usually quite noisy !

The main issue though is the slow autofocus !! it's now making the camera almost unsuable for catching moving objects, which is a shame as I like to photograph birds on the wing :)
 
Unfortunately you won't get a lot for £300, and you only really have one option - second hand: You can probably pick up a Canon EOS 350d for about £250 with the kit lens, leaving you some money to buy the Sigma 70-300 APO macro. None of this kit is outstanding, but for the money you'll no doubt be more than happy. Just invest in a tripod for macro work with the 70-300, since it isn't a dedicated macro lens.
 
£300 would get you a good new DSLR. Olympus E410, Sony Alpha 200, Pentax K100, Nikon D40 can all be had for alot less than this, but would only give you a kit lens (18-55 ish) but would be a good start. Search on here for opinions on these cameras because these threads come up all the time. With regards to the other lenses: with my meagre experience, going cheap on the lens is a false economy, so it might be worth getting the basics and then saving for a good zoom/macro/wide depending on what else you want.

The usual advice goes though, get a short list of models together depending on what features you want and get yourself to your local Jessops/Currys etc and have a play with them all and see which you prefer.
 
Your problem is you have a bridge camera that has a huge zoom range but is designed for all comers - its limited as a result. Be honest with yourself or go back through your shots and find out how much of that zoom range you really use, and find out what it means in SLR equivalent terms ( a review on dpreview if there is one would tell you). I doubt you have many shots in the last 25% of that zoom range.

You can get a Nikon D40/50 with kit lens for well under £300 now and cashback offers on at prsent too - i watched a couple of new Sigma SD14s go through ebay this weekend, one for £225 and one for £255 - thats a £600 body in the high street !
 
To set a budget first particularly when you may well be restricting yourself out of any thing worthwhile is not always the best plan of action.

Go visit some photography shops and play with bodies/lenses to see which feel right.

Get an idea of how the 12x zoom compares with for example a 70-300 zoom.

Then when you know what you want, you know what you need to save, and have an incentive to do so, while retaining your current camera until you have saved enough at which point you can sell it if you wish to put towards more glass
 
The panny will hardly isolate anything with it's tiny sensor and huge DOF either... Also there'll be lots of distortion and softness with such a large zoom I expect. Moving up to a DSLR is a big leap, but it's expensive and you do seem to get what you pay for.

I'd probably either choose a 2nd hand camera with a large zoom kit lens if you don't mind distortion and flare/CA's (still less so than you have for now) or choose a camera and get a 50mm 1.8 prime lens then zoom with your feet (by moving around)... you'll learn a lot by moving up to a proper DSLR and the 50mm lens is cheap, fast, sharp has a lovely OOF blur too.

The great (and terrible) thing about SLR's is that you can always buy new lenses and get a real difference with you results but in my opinion, buying cheap do-it-all type stuff usually gets replaced with more specific lenses as your results improve and the desire to please the critic within increases.

bridge cams are worth keeping for macro stuff though, especially if you get a decent macro add-on lens (like most raynox stuff)
 
Hmm some food for thought then.

In response to a few things mentioned, I DO use the full zoom quite a lot as I like to photograph wildlife, and to be fair, the Panny does rather well at full zoom.

Here is an example along with one of my better macro shots :

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However, here you can see its took that long to focus that by the time it has, the subject has moved :

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Maybe I'll just have to sell a kidney or something :lol:
 
Just had a quick poke about on Ebay and found this 350D for £199 + P&P on a Buy it Now and this Sigma 70-300 for £98 + P&P from HK.

Have a read here for a review of the Siggy 70-300. Not the greatest lens in the world, you wouldn't expect it to be for the price, but not all that shabby either :)

So it can be done within you budget (or very close to it) ;)
 
Thanks for that Grendel.

How does the 350D compare to the 450D ? I know very little to nothing about any DSLR on the market as I have never been in the market for one. I've got a lot to learn..
 
The 350D is a fine entry level SLR. It has, of course, been superceeded by the 400D and now the 450D, both of which have improvements such as larger rear screens, more MP, faster AF, Live View (on the 450D) etc etc but that doesn't make it any less of a camera. For many years many people have taken phenomenal photos with a 350D.
 
Grendel said:
Just had a quick poke about on Ebay and found this 350D for £199 + P&P on a Buy it Now and this Sigma 70-300 for £98 + P&P from HK.

Have a read here for a review of the Siggy 70-300. Not the greatest lens in the world, you wouldn't expect it to be for the price, but not all that shabby either :)

So it can be done within you budget (or very close to it) ;)
Click to expand...

Similarly you can get Nikon for about the same

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Nikon-D40x-DS...ryZ31388QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The important factor is to ignore the brand (to a certain extent) and feel which is best for you.

Then you can set off on the never ending curse of adding to your kit.
 
Personally, I would ignore the need for Live View as well... its not much cop for SLRs.
 
Well.

I've borrowed a mates Nikon D40x and to be honest, I'm not getting along with it very well indeed.

I cant come to terms with the fact that if I want to shoot a macro, then zoom in on a bird several metres away, then take an ordinary family shot, I've got to change lenses twice.

It also does not feel as comfortable in the hands as my panny.

In short, I dont think I'm ready for SLR yet, its just to complicated for me. I know that given a few weeks, I could navigate my way round the menus etc etc and probably start taking some half decent shots, I just cant be bothered lugging all the kit round with me and having to permanantly change lenses. It wastes valuble togging time :lol:
 
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