Making the jump: pocket vs. prosumer vs. dSLR (1 Viewer)

[Dave_vega]

man..the main features I want are a macro and a large zoom..and of course I want good quality pictures..the main deal with the 717 sony is the price..sure you only get 5MP and 5x opt zoom compared to 8MP and 7x opt zoom on the sony 828, but the price factor of the 828 vs the 717 really catches my interest..as you said in the other photography post (which I forgot to thank you for..so thank you for that info now) I could always add a 2.0x opt zoom lens to the 717..but right now after checking the quality of pictures at pbase I really don't see much of an improvement over my sony 3.2 MP other than a larger zoom and a closer focusing macro..and of course all the other features such as manual and Av and Tv..I was also looking at a digital rebel or the nikon D70, but the price of these slr's when you factor in a larger zoom is really over my budget right now..I had high hopes for the canon powershot pro1 because of your recommendations in the other post, but the camera was flat out bad.. (not meant to insult anyone using this camera..I just had high hopes for it I guess)..anyway at this point I guess I am going to continue researching these cameras until I find something that has everything I am looking for..again thanks man-fai for the help..

 

[Ryan Tsang]

I don't know if anybody mentioned this....I just scanned the threads.

DSLRs have larger sensors. A 6MP D70 or DRebel will outperform an 8MP prosumer in terms of noise and color rendition. A prosumer sensor is smaller, and so the pixels are smaller in order to cram 8mil of them in.

I think prosumers need the LCD for composition or a crappy EVF. This eats batteries. dSLR have optical VFs so it looks bigger, clearer, brighter, sharper, and doesn't use any power at all. Especially useful when you're spending 30min setting up a closeup shot of a flower and you're trying out compositions. With a prosumer, it will go into standby and you have trip the shutter over and over.

Start up times/shutter lag is what turned me off from prosumers. Once you've experience the instantaneous response from SLRs, you won't go back. I cannot understand why anyone would buy prosumer if: a) they can afford it b) they are serious or plan to be serious about photography and wants to do more than snapshooting

Size/weight/price is the only disadvantage of SLRs. My camera bag weighs at least 15lbs but I've got 2 flashes, 4 lens, Nikon F90X slr body.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Ryan,

I understand what you're saying, and I'm keeping my film SLR (Canon A-1). I want a digital mainly for two reasons: portability, and the ability to get images onto the computer. But I'm the sort of person who, when it comes to something I care about like photography, will need to go the extra mile and get a prosumer-level camera instead of a simple pocket point & shoot, even though theoretically that'd probably be "enough camera".

This is a good time for someone interested in photography to get a film SLR -- the popularity of digicams is making them very affordable.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Dave,

Have you checked out the Olympus C-8080? It's gotten very good reviews compared to the other 8mp cameras, and it can be gotten online for under $750.

I think it might be a little bigger than I want to get, though. I haven't actually handled one, but I might check it out.

 

[Dave_vega]

yeah aaron I checked out the olympus..not very in depth though..I have been reading reviews over at www.dpreview.com and for the price I think I am going to go with the older sony dsc-f717..it is only a 5 MP but really that is plenty..especially considering the 8mp models aren't really capable of 8mp yet..

 

[Aaron Silverman]

From what I can find, the difference in price between the Sony 717 and Olympus C-8080 is under $100. Seems like it'd be worth the bump (unless it crosses the threshold of what you want to spend, of course! ).

 

[Dave_vega]

well being up here in Canada the price difference between the sony 717 and the oly 8080 is around 6-700$..I can get the sony for around 700$ canadian and the olympus is 1399.00$ at futureshop.ca..

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Wow! That's quite a difference.

I got to play around with the 8080 last night. Very cool camera, but. . .it's so BIG. The only difference between lugging it around and travelling with my film SLR would be the extra lenses and film. Tempting, though.

 

[Brian Perry]

I just bought a Nikon D70 and it is an absolute joy. I took 100 pictures right out of the box with no manual adjustments at all and they look great. My plan is to have the best 20 pictures developed at Costco, Wolf Camera, and Adorama.com to see which is best or if there is any difference.

(Just got the first batch back from Costco and I'm thrilled with the results. I even had one enlarged to 8x10 and it's awesome.)

I can't wait to rediscover the fun of photography!

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Congrats, Brian, on the new camera. I love my D70 too and have not stopped lugging it (along w/ couple extra lenses) w/ me just about everywhere I go since getting it 3+ months ago. Before that, I did similarly w/ my G3 (plus accessories), but it saw far less action than my D70 does now. Of course, John Rice (rightly) thinks I've gotten too trigger happy -- well, actually, he didn't say that, but that's probably true anyway.

Aaron, maybe you should go give the D70 a look-see too while you're at it. :wink: If it's too expensive for you right now, maybe it'll give you good reason to hold off on an expensive compromise that doesn't completely satisfy.

_Man_

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

For anyone considering a DSLR, here are a couple recently announced alternatives for good quality wide-zoom from Sigma.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0407/04...igma1850dc.asp

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0405/04051202sigma2460.asp

Not sure how much they'll cost since the PRs didn't say. I'd guess they're not quite that cheap given they're Sigma EX series w/ f/2.8 constant max aperture. Probably somewhere around $400-500 as that's the ballpark between the Nikon 18-70 DX (when purchased w/out body) and Sigma's other EX lenses, except the ~$300 28-70 EX. They don't seem to have HSM though (and has less range than the Nikon although larger aperture), so it might be on the lower end of that ballpark.

Something to consider if you're shopping for a DSLR.

_Man_

 

[Aaron Silverman]

That's exactly what I was thinking last night while playing around with the Olympus, because it was so big. My original goal, aside from being able to put pics online, was portability! That got me looking at the Canon S60. I'm wondering if it solves any of the fringing/ noise issues with the S50/ G5. dpreview.com doesn't have too much info on it yet.

A DSLR is definitely in my future at some point, but it'll have to wait. My (ancient) desktop PC seems to finally be dying, so the new camera won't be my only large expenditure this summer.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Yeah, I need to upgrade from my ~5-year-old(?) overclocked, early gen Celeron PC too. It's still actually running just fine, but it's too slow for doing much w/ PS and such -- and I need more storage anyway. I'm just having a hard time deciding on exactly what to get for a PC as I don't want to spend more than I actually need. Those Dell deals for $400-500 PCs look attractive, but after you add some memory, a new monitor (even just a 17" CRT), a new DVD burner, maybe XP Pro, maybe Office Basic, etc. the cost really inflates big time. And I already bought a 200GB HDD for this w/ one of those rebate deals. And then, there's the thing w/ whether I should go for HT technology and 800Mhz FSB (and the better memory) for a more lasting investment, especially if one would expect to do some good video editing down the road...

_Man_

 

[Aaron Silverman]

The deal on the HTF Deals Page for the new Dell 8700 (or is that the 8400) for $700 and change looks pretty good. I think it expires tomorrow though!

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

It sounds pretty good except it's pretty basic though. If you don't add anything like extra memory, XP Pro, Office Basic, monitor, etc. *then* it's $700. Personally, I don't think it's worth it. I checked up on the new technologies over in www.tomshardware.com and seems like these are just entry level to the truly better stuff. Doesn't really buy you any real performance diff over the 4600 models w/ HT tech and 800FSB.

Also, I'm never too crazy about being on the bleeding edge w/ adopting new technology, and that's what this would be w/ the PCIe thing. If you intend to do video editing, especially NLE w/ realtime hardware add-on, you should be weary of this stuff.

If it weren't so much work, etc., and I didn't care about getting legitimate installations of software and such, I would just build my own PC (again). Well, having Amex rewards points for buying from Dell plus (small) company discount does push me in that direction also.

_Man_

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Ditto!

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Back on the camera tip, it looks like the price of the G5 has gone UP at a number of shops! For instance, I'm pretty sure it was $489 at Beach Camera last week -- now it's $549!

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Yeah, camera prices do fluctuate a bit due to supply and demand, especially for one like the G5, which is on its last legs (in the marketplace), but still popular enough w/ people-in-the-know like us. Same thing happened w/ the G3 before it disappeared -- and there was one point when the G5 was merely $10-20 more than the G3.

BTW, I find that even SLR lenses fluctuate significantly because of this. There was a short period of time when the Nikon 24-120 VR could be had for ~$400, IIRC, but now, it's back up to ~$500, where it had been all along.

_Man_

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Well, at least the stores selling kits on eBay are at the same price points.

(There's one in Miami that's selling a G5 kit with a ton of stuff for $1600!!!! I can't imagine anyone wanting to spend that kind of money even considering the G5.)

 

[PatrickM]

Sorry, just found this post.

I went from a Canon SLR to a Digital Rebel in January and I am completely enthralled with it. I also owned a cheap Kodak 3MP point and shoot and although the convenience of the digital P&S was great I just couldn't handle the lack of quality that I could get with my film SLR.

I've probably taken 3000 or so picture on the Digital Rebel so far and I'm extremely happy with the results and my ability to do more nature photography with a ton of experimentation since it only eats up flash space.

Plus, I can use the Canon mount lenses I had before.

Here's a link to one picture I took while on a sailboat in Kingston, Ontario.

It was taken with the Digital Rebel with my Tamron 28-300 F3.5-6.3 Lens without image stabilization.

Kingston Yacht Club

Patrick