SLR Camera Hints

[Shadow Wave]

lol nice work, although I personally would have taken it all to cashies
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[Mick Saige]

Ahahaha... i still might

[Shadow Wave]

Hey guys, im thinking about selling my macro lens..

its a
Sigma EX 105mm F/2.8 DG Macro for Canon

Was wondering what you guys think it would be worth second hand??
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[bronson]

For someone that is a tard with cameras, is a D90 easy enough to get good result with? I'm going to vegas next year with my missus for our honey moon and my mate is lending me his D90. Never used an SLR before.
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[InvivnI]

Yep, just chuck it in auto and it's as easy to use as any pocket digicam.

I suggest having a play around with the manual settings though, you might just enjoy yourself!
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My Photos

[mclinton92]

Thought I might give this thread a bump!

Just got back from a trip to Bali for schoolies. 12 days in paradise.

I loved it so much that I'm planning on going back 2 more times next year, haha!

It was hard to take photos, because their was 8 of us, so we all had to agree on something, but I'm happy with some of them.

The place is amazing. So cheap, and some of the best scenery I've seen for a while, especially the volcano, although photos just doesn't do justice.







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Its the absent minded fool who's afraid to think.

[Mick Saige]

^^^ Nice work man.

Been doing some casual work helping a friend who is getting into some wedding photography – She has been getting me to do colour grading/effects and what not.

Id forgotten how hard it is to make things pretty.

Most of the time when I grade things I just f**k around until I go ‘oh there it is’ and stop.

I think I need to organise some proper shoots with some people – I need to teach myself to push things in terms of aesthetic, namely when I’m not aloud to crunch blacks – saturate and make everything look grim and awesome.

On the up side – this finally gives me an excuse to get into some model work.

[theory]

Bumpbumpbump.

Harvey Norman are doing the Canon 1000D with single lens for $497 until Jan 16.

HN and Officeworks are doing the 1000D with twin lens kit for $597/$596 respectively.

Never used an SLR in my life, want to get into photography. Assuming this is a great price for twin lens kit? Especially since Mick got his for near $900 a few months ago.

Or does anyone know if a better SLR has gotten cheaper and is worth the extra money?

I don't even know what I'll be shooting, just want something to start with to learn some stuff.

Thanks in advance for the help guys.
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[grim-one]

^ That's pretty good for the single lens. Shopbot has body only for that price

If you can spring the extra cash, you might be better off with a 550D. Way higher pixel count, plus it does 1080p video. I love mine
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[Zhou]

An excellent starting point considering you're getting TWO lenses, a good entry level slr for UNDER $600. Later on when you get more comfortable with your abilities why not drop another $120-150 for a nice 50mm 1.8 for some portrait work. The 50mm will also be so much better in low light situations.

Don't be salesmann-ed into getting something you don't need though. You may be told that the ISO only goes to 1600 and there is no video/hd video mode and only 10.1mpx etc etc. The fact is, its not so much the camera that makes the photo, its the photographer him/herself. Mick has proven time and time again you don't necessarily need the most flash bang awesome SLR on the market to take super hot photos.

However, you may also want to factor in some budget for things like product care, uv filters, memory cards, tripod, bag and Flash guns. However, think of these as sort of an investment. As long as you stay canon, you'll have no issues using your lenses and other bits and pieces you pick up along the way on any canon body if you choose to upgrade.

I'll warn you now, when you start to really get into SLRs it starts to become pretty expensive. Not that its not totally worth it though!
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[theory]

Thanks for the help guys! Further questions if you have time, please.

[Island_Wolf]

[grim-one]

[theory]

^ Thanks man. I have no idea what lens I want, what different lenses do or anything. If you care to help me out by describing what different lenses do, that would help.
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[InvivnI]

[grim-one]

[Mick Saige]

Hey Theory

As the guy who put his fist through a window having read about the above sale, the D1000 twin lens kit is a really great package… To spare you mm speak and what not, you basically get a great wide angle/standard lens and a great zoom lens in the twin lens pack.

The zoom lens is brilliant for well… zooming (duh) – but is also fantastic for getting close ups, shallow depths of field and beautifully framed objects in the distance… It can how ever be really restrictive in doors/when your trying to photograph something moving when its not really far away.

That’s where the wide angle lens comes in, its perfect for mid shots, indoors and really captures everything you see with your eyes. To put it into perspective, if you stood in front a house with the zoom lens all the way zoomed out you would probably be able to fit the door into the frame, stand there with the wide angle lens and you will probably be able to fit the whole house.

Having these two lenses is a great place to start – as there has literally not been a situation I haven’t been able to photograph with the D1000.

Admittedly you cant shoot HD video – which to be frank – I don’t really care about. How ever it comes chock full of presets – whilst still having a completely manual mode.

So basically when you are at say a festival/show, or something that requires little to no fiddling – you can set to a preset and get brilliant results… or when you have the time, you can tweak everything manually…

Yeah – its considered entry, but if your smart you can get away with a lot. I recently did 30 second long exposures at night using the roof of my car as a tripod. Got over the button press blur by setting a 10 second timer.

If your looking to start out – this is a brilliant package, and for just over 500 you cant go wrong.

Also worth noting – Canon are brilliant in terms of their standard connections and what not. So if ever you DO want to upgrade to any other Canon camera – both the lenses from the twin lens kit will be compatible… as will just about any other lens Canon has ever made.

P.s. Thanks Zhou <3

[theory]

A million thanks, Mick. I was hoping someone could put it in layman's terms for me. I've never used a manual mode on a camera before so am looking forward to learning about all that.

Just had a look through your SLR album on Facebook, and since I'm interested in both macro shots and wide scenery shots, it has me pretty much convinced.

Don't need something that shoots HD video as I don't have a computer capable of even viewing HD stuff, let alone editing it. One day...

Plus I'm rich* so if the camera is limiting I'll just buy another one.

*Not really.

Thanks to all for their help, I'll be back if I have more questions.

P.S. grim-one, that was a great link about lenses (except now I'm even more confused). Thanks!
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[grim-one]

[Zhou]

I'm a nikon fan to be honest, and I shoot with a d90. That being said, Canon also has awesome cameras too, I just happened to pick my camera up at a super sexy price.

Everything that I was going to say has pretty much been said. I might mention here that I actually only use class 2 cards, aka the cheapy $12 for 4gb kinda cards. Sure my d90 does video but I've literally never shot video with it, then again, I DO have a class 6, just in case.
In your case, since the 1000d does not support video anyway, you may as well just get class 2. You may already have some lying around the house.

As for bag, I might point out the altus 160 is on special at the moment at $34 down from $64.95 in the Harveys catalog till the 16th and is one that I would recommend. Depending on how much gear you plan to get, you might consider getting a bigger bag. Even a backpack.

I can also point out the vanguard uprise 33 (you can only find it at Teds). You can probably haggle them down to $85 as my other friends have done before. Its a messenger style type bag and can also fit a laptop or use it as an ordinary bag. You'll also feel like you blend in more at events or gatherings because of its appearance. It also doesnt scream SLR BAG, STEAL ME!

The big question of if you should go twin or look at SLK + another awesome lens is really up to you. You say you want to do wide scenery shots, I would suggest a sigma 10-20. You can get it imported from Hongkong for a smidge under $500. Im personally looking into getting one myself.

You know whats also an awesome site? http://www.pixel-peeper.com/

You can define a) your camera and b) any lens you like on the market and it will show up photos other people have taken with that combo.

For instance:

Pictures taken with a 1000d and the sigma 10-20
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[Mick Saige]

Thanks man - and for the record every photo in my photography album was taken with the 1000D

[theory]

Zhou, that last post was immensely helpful. Except now, before even buying the SLR, I'm wondering which bag to get for it. Expenses!

Pixel Peeper website is genius! Genius!

In other news, my friend lent me her Olympus E-410 to have a play with while I decide what I like and what I want to get.

The lenses I have to play with are 14-42mm 1:3.5-5.6 and 40-150mm 1:4-5.6.

She gave me a really quick tutorial and I'll have to charge the battery so I'll hopefully get a couple of shots in tomorrow morning before work.
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[Shadow Wave]

I finally went to my camera shop today to try out some lenses...

Currently looking at either the Canon 100-400L or the Canon 70-300L

Im really leaning towards the 70-300mm,

its newer, its sharper, it does better low light, it doesn't have push pull zoom, better image stabilizer, and one of the major things for me, is that its more compact and much lighter. Oh and its also cheaper.

On the downside though, the 70-300 is not compatible with the canon Extenders, and it is missing 100mm

Can't decide really, has anyone tried both?
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[A13x]

Other downside of the 70-300 is that the zoom ring is in front of the focus ring.

This is annoying if you're leaning on something for stability, as the balance point is between the mid point of the lens and body, and you won't be able to manually focus while resting the lens.

I've not yet tried it, but the 70-300 does sound good apart from the aforementioned issues. I own the 100-400 and I'm very happy with it's performance, my favourite Tele lens, and great IQ, as far as push pull, it takes a little getting used to, but it's not detrimental, I've not had lens creep on either my 28-300 or 100-400, no "dust sucking", as they're both clean inside, and the advantage of being able to zoom a lot faster than with a ring. I do airshows with them, and being able to find a fighter jet at 28mm, then zoom in on it to 300mm and take a shot in a fraction of the time required with a ring, is a valuable feature.

100-400 is set to be replaced at some point this year, so I'd be holding off if I were in your shoes. Rumour has it that the 70-300mm may have even been the replacement, but with the drop in length, I'm resistant to the idea and believe the replacement will either be the same or longer.

If you can't wait, and don't need the extra zoom, go for the 70-300, from everything I've read, it's a great lens, and the portability, combined with the 3 stop stabilization makes it a winner. Shooting video on it would be good fun.
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<3

[Shadow Wave]

yeah well thats what I've thought about the 100-400, as its set to get an upgrade.. it might even be worth waiting off completely and maybe buying a current gen one when the new ones are out for cheap or something. I dunno, i want to take photo's now though

edit: also my worry with the 400's push and pull system, is that like if I'm at the beach on a windy day or something, sand is going to get all over the inners of the lens... and then it will either reduce the smoothness of focusing, or the sand will do damage etc.
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