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Thread: Digital SLR

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Grand Rapids, MI
    Posts
    144
    I bought the Nikon D90 & the Nikon 18-200 VR lens last December from Amazon. I couldn't find a cheaper price anywhere. I've had good luck with B&H and Adorama in the past. Newegg is another place that sometimes has great prices on items like this. I bought an Onkyo receiver last November for a great deal.

    I will agree with others that should you need to try the camera in person before you buy to make sure you like it because what every brand you buy, you are stuck with that company unless you want to re-buy all your lenses and flashes. Photography can be as expensive as woodworking.

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Athens, Alabama
    Posts
    197
    For what it is worth, buying locally is great for the personnal service, but when it come to repairing a camera, more than likely, it will have to be sent to the manufacturers service center. Cameras are way to complex for the vast majority of camera shops to do any repair work.
    For further advice, check out FM Forums (Fred Miranda), where there are sub forums for Nikon and Canon and one more for all other brands, Nikon Cafe, Nikonians, DP Review, and others. The ones that I mentioned are the biggest forums out there, so you stand to get a response from someone.

    Regards, Colin
    Where's the beef.

  3. #18
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Henderson Kentucky
    Posts
    1,498
    Blog Entries
    2
    In my price range, I've narrowed the choice down to two. The Canon XSi or the Nikon D5000. Anyone have any experience with either one? Pro's and con's? Thanks, Sean

  4. #19
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Athens, Alabama
    Posts
    197
    I'm sure the D5000 would be a nice camera to have. Whichever way you go, set the camera to shoot in RAW mode, Lossless Compressed, which preserves all of the information in the image. You will need a program like Picasa (It's free), Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop or some other program to convert the RAW files to JPEG images, but you only do that after editing the images to remove spots, correct colors, remove objects that you don't want, etc. After editing, use Save As to save the images as JPEGs. This preserves the original images for future changes, where again, you use Save As to save the new copy.The file sizes are quite large, upwards of 15 Mb, so be sure to get a 4 or 8 Gb memory card, and download the images to the computer quite often. If you fill the card up, it can take several minutes to download the images.
    Keep the ISO setting as low as possible for the best images without noise. As you go up in ISO, the noise increase, so use that feature carefully. You may also need an external hard drive to save the images for backup purposes. It's amazing how a large hard drive (or so you thought) can fill up quickly, so the external drive is a nice option to have, and when full, use another to save your work.
    Don't get discouraged by your efforts. They will improve over time. You will see lenses that you want, because the lens is a better quality, allows more light in, which allows for faster shutter speeds to stop any blur, and overall, gives you more versatility in the way you shoot. There are accessories that you will want. Some will be good to have, others, not so much, but only you can decide that.
    Enjoy the experience, join photography forums and learn from what others are doing.

    Regards, Colin
    Where's the beef.

  5. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Sean Troy View Post
    In my price range, I've narrowed the choice down to two. The Canon XSi or the Nikon D5000. Anyone have any experience with either one? Pro's and con's? Thanks, Sean
    I don't think you'd be unhappy with either one. Both are more powerful than the average user will ever know. I've played with some of the "deeper" functions of my camera and done some cool stuff, but I've never met anyone with it, or one like it, that had any idea how to use any of that stuff. Hard core Canon and Nikon folks won't have too many nice things to say about either of those, since they are the entry level models, more or less, but as someone that's going from a point and shoot camera, you'll be happy with either, in my opinion.

    Long term lesson to learn is better photos come from better glass. You can certainly buy a $250 lens for it, but the $1000 lens with the better glass is well worth the money. A good lens on a entry level camera is still better than an entry level lens on a high end camera. Nikon and Canon both have some stunning lenses (with stunning price tags).
    Lasers : Trotec Speedy 300 75W, Trotec Speedy 300 80W, Galvo Fiber Laser 20W
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    Real name Steve but that name was taken on the forum. Used Middle name. Call me Steve or Scott, doesn't matter.

  6. #21
    Be very careful with on-line camera 'stores'. B&H has a good rep, however. Make sure you know what is included, what's supposed to be included, and that it comes with a US warranty. Lots of shady deals in the camera world.

    I've used Hunt photo (even way back when it was Hunt Drug!) for years, and feel they've been honest and forthright. My current is a D200 with the 18-200 zoomtele. I purchased them in late 2006 and they haven't had a hiccup. I can't say enough about the general utility of the lens - it sure beats the bag-full I used to carry around.

  7. #22
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Arlington, VA
    Posts
    1,850
    Quote Originally Posted by Scott Shepherd View Post
    Long term lesson to learn is better photos come from better glass. You can certainly buy a $250 lens for it, but the $1000 lens with the better glass is well worth the money. A good lens on a entry level camera is still better than an entry level lens on a high end camera. Nikon and Canon both have some stunning lenses (with stunning price tags).
    I would agree good glass is important, but disagree that it is always costly. You can get a very good prime for relatively little money. Nikon's 35mm and 50mm lenses are very good, and very fast. Learning to shoot with primes is worth the effort.

    The other observation I'd make is that digital really, really deserves post processing. At a minimum, for any pictures I intend to print/post, I will adjust white balance, set white/black points, typically push the contrast a bit, crop and sharpen. The differences are not subtle. Getting a decent tool like Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom (or even GIMP, which is free) is something I would highly, highly recommend. What most people don't realize is that a lot of this kind of stuff occurred in the darkroom when people processed their film. If you are disappointed that your digital pics don't look as good as your old film pics, it may be the lack of the photo pro in the back room on the lab. Now you have to do some of these things yourself...

  8. #23
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Williamson GA
    Posts
    100
    Plus 1 for B&H. I've had great service from them. And as was mentioned before, sometimes good deals on good used equipment.
    Hal

  9. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by Eric DeSilva View Post
    The other observation I'd make is that digital really, really deserves post processing. At a minimum, for any pictures I intend to print/post, I will adjust white balance, set white/black points, typically push the contrast a bit, crop and sharpen. The differences are not subtle. Getting a decent tool like Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom (or even GIMP, which is free) is something I would highly, highly recommend. What most people don't realize is that a lot of this kind of stuff occurred in the darkroom when people processed their film. If you are disappointed that your digital pics don't look as good as your old film pics, it may be the lack of the photo pro in the back room on the lab. Now you have to do some of these things yourself...
    And you can't use any of that to adjust color properly without having a good monitor and a calibration tool for your monitor. You can spend a lot of money trying to get into that side of it. Good software, good monitor, calibration device for your monitor.

    Most people have no idea that when the light changes in the room, just through simple light coming in through blinds or a window, it changes the color representation your eye sees on the screen. A good calibration device will make those adjustments automatically as the light changes.
    Lasers : Trotec Speedy 300 75W, Trotec Speedy 300 80W, Galvo Fiber Laser 20W
    Printers : Mimaki UJF-6042 UV Flatbed Printer , HP Designjet L26500 61" Wide Format Latex Printer, Summa S140-T 48" Vinyl Plotter
    Router : ShopBot 48" x 96" CNC Router Rotary Engravers : (2) Xenetech XOT 16 x 25 Rotary Engravers

    Real name Steve but that name was taken on the forum. Used Middle name. Call me Steve or Scott, doesn't matter.

  10. #25
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Fort Wayne IN
    Posts
    1,210

    Another + for B&H

    I bought my Canon from them last year and did the Bill me Later thing. 0% APR and paid it off mith my tax check.

  11. #26

    +1 Adorama

    Adorama is my goto place for my cameras. Have ordered many times through them and have had very good luck.

    I would also keep Costco as a consideration. Their return policies are great if something shouldn't work out. They didn't have the specific model I wanted when I was buying otherwise I would have likely bought from them.

    Josh

  12. #27
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Lakes Region of NH
    Posts
    187
    I used a deal alert on slickdeals.net to get my Canon SLR. I ended up getting it from Dell and saved about $150 compared to amazon. Just another thing to consider.

  13. #28
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Dallas, Texas
    Posts
    32

    Thumbs up +1 for B&H and Adorama

    I have had great service from both of these venders for over 25 years. I am looking at the Canon 40D or 50D. Canon makes the best cameras for astrophotography (Nikon is catching up).
    Ron Carlton
    Dallas, TX

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