What do you recommend?

K

kerrynorfolk

Suspended / Banned
Messages
2
Edit My Images
No
I want a camera that takes excellent photographs and is able to take action shots (kickboxing) - am I likely to find anything for £200? Am I better to wait for the January sales? Don't know where to start really or where to buy one form.....any advice will be greatly appreciated.
 
So is the 350d, AND a bit cheaper!!

Add on this forum.
"Canon 350D digital SLR with 28-80 kit lens £195 ono
Silver, full working order but I need to make one point. The red squares that show which focus points that you have selected in the viewfinder, don’t shine as brightly as they should. This does not affect the AF in any way; it is just sometimes easier to look at the top LCD panel to check which AF point you are using."

Find it HERE
 
kerrynorfolk said:
I want a camera that takes excellent photographs and is able to take action shots (kickboxing) - am I likely to find anything for £200? Am I better to wait for the January sales? Don't know where to start really or where to buy one form.....any advice will be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Your asking alot of a camera for only £200. The problem is, low light indoor photography requires a camera which can handle higher ISO settings, with out creating serious noise in the image, plus a very fast lens. The camera and lens suggested above just won't cut the mustard.

This budget might see you to just about a 2nd hand camera body (SLR), but you are probably talking a minimum of £250 just for the camera body and you would really want something like a 20D, but then you would need a decent fast lens and even the cheapest decent lens like the 50mm f1.8 is about £70-100 on top of your budget.

As for a P&S, they ain't good in low light and they ain't got a fast enough aperture, shutter speeds or capture (i.e. focus take image before it moves) for sports, especially for £200, you would need to pay considerable more. Personally, I think you are asking for the impossible with only a budget of £200.
 
wontolla said:
The 350d has that!!
Click to expand...

But its ISO performance is pants and 28-80mm lens is nowhere near good enough for indoor photography, you need fast lenses
 
pete.rush said:
But its ISO performance is pants and 28-80mm lens is nowhere near good enough for indoor photography, you need fast lenses
Click to expand...

Yes I agree, but what fast lens AND camera will the OP get for £200?:razz:

EDIT Ok, maybe a nifty fifty, but that will still be pushing it
 
wontolla said:
Yes I agree, but what fast lens AND camera will the OP get for £200?:razz:

EDIT Ok, maybe a nifty fifty, but that will still be pushing it
Click to expand...

As I said, his budget is too small for what he wants to do. A P&S just doesn't have the ISO range and capabilities for this type of low light work and you ain't going to get you a 2nd hand SLR and lens that's upto the job either for £200.
 
Just a thought guys.
The OP hasent said what sort of camera he wants, just what he wants to do with it, so seeing as a DSLR is out and so is a P&S how would a bridge camera work, ok maybe a decent 2nd hand one.
I know nothing of these cameras but maybe you guys do, just a thought

spike
 
Yeh! One of those might do it. Although I do not own one, I have heard good things said of the Canon Powershot and Sony Cybershot and should come in around the wanted price.
 
And what kind of maximum aperture and ISO speed with those do?

(I genuinely don't know!)

Will they be able to get 1/200 sec in the shooting conditions?
 
Ok just done a search on amazon and looked at a new canon powershot, ok £350 but might get a second hand one cheaper

Shutter 1/3200 to 15 seconds

ISO up to 3200

White balance settings plus many more features.

i think this or similar might just be the answer IF this is the sort of thing OP is looking for

I donot know enough about these to give concrete advice but its lookin good

spike
 
THIS was what I was thinking about.
 
I've only just read all your comments, thankyou. I have been looking all evening at cameras to take action shots and found this one - what do you think?

I thought the frames per second looked impressive??


Experience even closer encounters with Nikon’s Coolpix P90, with 12.1 effective megapixels and an incredible 24x optical Zoom-NIKKOR ED glass lens for stunning prints as large as 16x20 inches. The camera's bright, 3.0-inch high-resolution vari-angle LCD and Electronic Viewfinder make it easy to compose and share your pictures. And Nikon’s new 4 Way VR Image Stabilization makes incredible pictures incredibly easy. Nikon’s New Smart Portrait System, which automatically detects your subjects face, takes a picture when they smile and warns you if they blinked.

Coolpix P90 Highlights

12.1-megapixel resolution for stunning prints as large as 20 x 30 inches

24x optical wide-angle (26-624mm) Zoom-Nikkor ED glass lens provides exceptional images throughout the zoom range

Bright 3.0-inch Vari-Angle LCD and Electronic Viewfinder makes it easy to compose and share your pictures with friends and family

New EXPEED image processor concept ensures high-quality pictures with stunning color and sharpness

4-Way VR Image Stabilization

Nikon’s Optical VR image stabilization compensated for the effects of camera shake by moving the image sensor
Motion Detection automatically detects moving subjects and adjusts shutter speed and the ISO setting to compensate for cameras hake and subject movement
High ISO 6400 capability helps give you sharper results when shooting in low light or capturing fast-moving subjects. ISO 3200 and 6400 are available at 3MP or lower resolution
Nikon’s original Best Shot Selector (BSS) automatically takes up to 10 shots while the shutter is pressed and saves the sharpest image
Program, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority and Manual Exposure modes gives ultimate control over your pictures

New Sports Continuous Scene Mode for shooting at up to 15fps, up to 45 frames, when you set the resolution to 3MP or lower

Nikon’s Smart Portrait System:
In-Camera Red-Eye Fix automatically fixes most instances of red-eye in the camera. You may never see red-eye again
Face-Priority AF - Nikon’s face-finding technology that automatically focuses on faces
Smile Mode automatically releases the shutter when your subject smiles
Blink Warning displays a warning message, should the camera detect your subject has blinked
 
Yep! Sounds good. There are a few online sellers doing it for around £230 so about your budget.
I have an earlier Nikon P&S, (not a bridge) and it has been very robust and has been all over Europe and up most of the highest peaks in the UK! Has scratches all over it but still works great!
Go for it and post some pics on here!!
Good luck mate, and Merry Christmas!!
 
Hi,
Have a good look at this review.

http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-cameras/nikon-coolpix-p90/4505-6501_7-33520041.html?tag=txt;page

My worry about this type of camera is the delay between pressing the shutter button and the camera shutter opening. My old P&S camera took so long between pressing the button and taking the photo it was no good for precise shots, all cameras have a delay but some take longer than others. I would think for kick boxing you need to be spot on to capture the moment and a dely of 3/4 of a second between pressing the button and the camera taking the picture takes a lot of practice with your timing.

John
 
OK the Nikon P90 does have a f2.8 aperture, so its reasonable fast for a P&S, however, it falls short with image quality on the couple of reviews I've read, especially with heavy noise reduction softens images and smudges details, tends to slightly overexpose and has poor low light focusing which would be a must for you indoor shots. So personally I wouldn't recommend this camera.

Major problem with P&S or Bridge Camera's are although they advertise 50-6400 ISO ranges, most work between 50-400 in good outdoor light and at best up to 200 in indoor light, most have 2.8-5.6 lens ranges due to the zoom, you need a minimum of f2.8 or faster for indoors and preferable a usable ISO range greater than 400.

You want to take images of motion, indoors, which will require fast time to focus to take the shot, and you really are talking about a DSLR for this, P&S and Bridge cameras just don't come up to scratch, they take too long and what you would get is just a blurred image.

My advice is to save you money and not buy something that just won't do the job which the Nikon won't.
 
pete.rush said:
You want to take images of motion, indoors, which will require fast time to focus to take the shot, and you really are talking about a DSLR for this, P&S and Bridge cameras just don't come up to scratch, they take too long and what you would get is just a blurred image.

My advice is to save you money and not buy something that just won't do the job which the Nikon won't.
Click to expand...

Agreed - no matter how good a P&S is at low-light imagery, it's the ability to freeze action that's a primary requirement here and as stated that means a D-SLR...or something that allows you to control the shutter speed.
Shutter-lag is also an issue - the Auto-Focus may take a while to lock-on in low light and by the time a P&S is ready to shoot - might only be a half-second - the action has moved on...at best you get blurred, out-of focus images; at worst, the frame is empty as the subjects have physically moved elsewhere.

This is, I'm afraid one of those times where the equipment really does make a difference and the only option is to pony-up and dig deep.

It's not all bad news - you can easily afford to buy a second-hand DSLR for the money you're talking about - it might not be pretty to loook at, but a lot of ex-Pro cameras are kicking around that are dirt-cheap on account of their outward appearance - mechanically they'll be fine.
 
i moved from a p&s to a bridge camera (canon g10) thinking that it would get me the results that i was after without going dslr
i was wrong and sold it on
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top