£849, so £469 more than the old banger. Enough for a mid-range lens. But look at the spec difference. Dynamic range in particular.

I know I’d have a lot more fun with £400+ worth of lens on a £400 body – some of the best pics I’ve taken were with an old Canon 20D and L glass. Unless you’re printing BIG you’d be hard pressed to tell the differences between photos taken with my older Nikon bodies and my friend’s latest D90…

(that said, I still maintain you’re hard pressed to better the results of well processed MF film; I’ve got some fantastic pics taken with my old Hasselblad. Just no time or money for appropriate amounts of processing any more)

I can’t argue with fun 😉

**** me I’m confused. Just bought a Fuji HS10 Bridge to take shots of nipper, plus sailing plus MTB type shots but I miss most of the smiles etc due to the slow speed of it. Realisticly I want 3fps+ So, thinking I’ll return it and get something with a little more poke. Looking at a Nikon D5000 (I think) which I can pick up second hand with a 18-55mm Nikon lens on it for £399. Is this a winner?

http://www.jessops.com/online.store/products/78032/show.html

Please be nice, I’m simple when it comes to cameras. I appreciate I won’t use all the functions of a full SLR, but I want one. I’m sick of compacts, they really just don’t cut it most of the time (for me) I’ll be adding a longer (roughly 300mm) lens shortly as well to get the boat shots sorted.

Not a huge difference (on paper at least). The D5000 has the edge, but as you’re simple when it comes to cameras I doubt you’ll notice the difference. New with warranty etc has to be the better bet?

EDIT: Looks like you can get the D500 body for £399…. Might be worth looking on ebay to see how much a used kit lens is if you fancy the D5000.

However, if you’re on a budget then a couple of hundred on an older pro body and a couple of hundred on a lens, over a newer lower-end kit is IMO going to be a better bet

Hence why I’m considering a used 40D w/nice lenses over a new 550D w/cheaper lenses 🙂

For cheap DSLR you could do a lot worse than this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-OLYMPUS-E620-DIGITAL-SLR-CAMERA-%2014-42mm-LENS-KIT-_W0QQitemZ300484289562QQcmdZViewItem?rvr_id=215338833335&rvr_id=215338833335&cguid=d36d2a731270a0aad2853305ff27f6a3

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-OLYMPUS-E620-SLR-CAMERA-2-LENS-KIT~14-42mm~40-150mm_W0QQitemZ300483510300QQcmdZViewItem?rvr_id=215343900454&rvr_id=215343900454&cguid=d36d2a731270a0aad2853305ff27f6a3#ht_14373wt_1108

Holy cow, actually I had no idea they were that cheap still! Amazingly good VFM I reckon… The Oly lenses are better value for money than any other inexpensive new lenses afaik.

Ta, I always forget about Olympus!

Earlier in the thread I said IA had inspired me to do some flashing.

Well… the Sony F58AM comes in at £300+ so that was out. So I picked up the very similar (mint, boxed) Minolta 5400HS for £40. The only problem being that although the Minolta flash fits my Sony body it speaks an older protocol so doesn’t actually work (other than in manual). Hence the price.

So… I bought a Minolta/Sony translation board for £29.

Half an hour of flash dismantling and soldering later (without tazering myself) I now have a flash with a 54m guide number, TTL & HSS and bounce… it’ll do wireless TTL too. 🙂

My stepdaughter is thinking about doing photography gcse next year. The tutor has said that the canon 550 is at the top of a very short list. We’ve seen it for about £600. Does anyone on here know if there is a slightly cheaper option. Failing that anywhere got any good deals on? One other thing what is the camera equivalent of the stw forum I can look at?

The tutor has said that the canon 550 is at the top of a very short list.

Ask them why? What are the specific features the 550d will offer that you can’t get with a cheaper camera?

The tutor has said that the canon 550 is at the top of a very short list.

What, no film cams?

Not a proper photography teacher then.

(Opens another can)

Crisp, anyone?

andygreener

might want to broaden the search

worth a look at the various Olympus deals in this thread and the internet some bargains to be had

E620 deal as above… a while ago that dual lens deal was 400 squid -insane deal

E-P1 body is going for 199 kit is under 250 I think

The Pentax K-x is being sold off too now at a decent price. If you google you find a lot of reviews basically saying this is the entry DSLR to beat. You need to decide (or your daughter) what lens system you want to invest in. Pentax make good prime lenses but they might not be the best idea for zooms.

After receiving numerous distinctions in the European press during the past year, PENTAX is pleased to announce that the Digital SLR has been voted ‘Best Entry-level DSLR of the Year 2010’ by TIPA (Technical Image Press Association).

http://www.pentax.co.uk/en/news/1292/news.html

Olympus as molgrips said – cant really go wrong with them. Probably offer the best value products.

Proper student cam:

film, hahahahahahajahahahahahaha, bad troll 🙄

What, for actually learning photography rather than computer operating?

Film rawks.

One other thing what is the camera equivalent of the stw forum I can look at?

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk

You could get a second hand 450D or similar with kit lens for a fair bit cheaper which would be fine – or a s/h 40D which is a bit old now but still quite a nice camera.

What, for actually learning photography rather than computer operating?

YES!

Might as well train computer programmers with punched cards 🙂

My daughter just bought a Canon 550D and must say i’m very impressed, got a good deal in Comets witha code that gave 7% off and even rang to say when it could be collected (hour after I ordered online)

Very easy to use, plenty of direct buttons for functions, great screen and image quality to match. Really like the auto ISO feature that lets you set a limit that the camera will go up to and the quick control button that gives access to oft used settings.

Seems they have got it about right with this one and should think anyone would be happy with it

60D ordered 😉

In the end I decided I’ll have it for a good 6 years+ so it was worth getting a fresh model. Shiny lenses to follow…

I’m still in a camera based sulk because my Canon 17-85 lens needs a service, haven’t taken any pictures in AGES – I need to get the camera back out this weekend I think.

I read this today:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/notcamera.htm

And this:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/lens-sharpness.htm

Good old Ken, amusing enough most of the time, but some of his advice is shockingly bad

Transapp – I bought a D5000 a couple of years ago – great bit of kit. Really nice to use compared to compacts – SOOO fast. The swivelly screen is actually really useful – you can get away with “shooting from the hip” for candid stuff or for all those annoying places that say “no photos”. It’s also useful for tripody stuff as you don’t have to get a crick in your neck bending over. As I’ve used it more, there are one or two irritations that a more upmarket body could deal with, but really not worth the cost of upgrading.

I gave in and bought a secondhand 18-200 lens, which is a good allrounder for travel etc – suffers from distortion a bit, but easily correctable. So my 18-55 kit lens is going begging if you want to make me an offer. I want a proper fast 35mm or 50mm lens now though.

Good old Ken, amusing enough most of the time, but some of his advice is shockingly bad

Yeah I didn’t really like some stuff I’d read on there but I thought those two were worthwhile.