Here’s the background: I’m a freelance design engineer and model maker but I seem to be doing more and more graphic work. I use a lot of stock images but I always struggle to find ones that are just right. A lot of these are just backgrounds, eg leaves, brick walls, sky. I’m toying with the idea of getting a decent camera to take my own images. It would be handy to take pics of the things I make, too.

Cutting to the chase: I’m looking for a dSLR that’ll take decent pics that can be blown up fairly big for printing. Can I get something without breaking the bank? Is there better bang-for-buck by moving away from the Canon/Nikon? I’ve seen some keen pricing on Pentax. I’ve got an LX3 for keeping in a pocket and taking general snaps so this will only be for occasional use and spend most of it’s time at home.

I like Pentax. Downside is a lack of high quality (super expensive) long telephotos. Upside is a huge availability of brilliant old manual lenses

Any DSLR will do what you want.

Is there better bang-for-buck by moving away from the Canon/Nikon?

Yes, Sony seem to be better. They have less market share so are trying harder to sell cams, I think. Same applies to Pentax too I think. AFAIK Pentax are a little smaller than others (I like small) and I think they have the cheapest weather-sealed option.

Both Sony and Pentax have lots of old manual lenses available (although not all produce as good image quality as they did on film) which would be fine for static product photos and the other stuff you are talking about.

Any DSLR will do what you want (in fact some compacts and bridge cameras will do it just as well to an extent).

Whether the person behind the camera can actually compose the shots and get them ‘technically’ right for the intended use is another thing altogether!

Yeah – product photography is not as simple as it sounds. See a few of my threads (search for product photography in the title) for lots of waffle on the subject which turned out to be massively helpful for me. My ‘studio’ consists of a big roll of paper suspended from a home made shelf bracket and two flash stands and umbrellas from amazon which cost a total of £60.

Both Sony and Pentax have lots of old manual lenses available…

The old lenses for Sony are actually autofocus not manual focus Minolta lenses, the manual focus Minoltas won’t fit. As the Sony has in body stabilisation old Minolta lenses are as good an option as a new lens. The latest generation of Sony bodies start at quite a high price point though.

It sounds like you’re looking at static subjects, in which case m4/3 or Nex cameras will do just as good a job as a dslr. The ‘not the latest models’ of those can be had cheaply.

pics that can be blown up fairly big for printing.

Define “fairly big”. A4? AO?

Define “fairly big”. A4? AO?

Current project will be up to 2m but that’s just a faded out background. For proper images, probably up to A3 for actual image.

m4/3 or Nex cameras will do just as good a job as a dslr.

I did consider that then I might be more tempted to use it for other things. I don’t want to compromise too much, though, as it really is mostly for work stuff

Happy to consider 2nd hand as well but I’m finding it hard to compare like for like as new prices drop.

did consider that then I might be more tempted to use it for other things. I don’t want to compromise too much, though

Compact systems aren’t a compromise in image quality terms, really.

You lose an optical viewfinder, and you lose phase detect autofocus which means that it’s not as good for moving subjects, but that doesn’t sound like it’s that big of a deal for you.

Yeah, what molgrips said. Unless you want to do full on action shots of erratic subjects a compact system is an option rather than a compromise.