DSLR Cameras

[Kelburn]

As you may know, I want to get a DSLR camera.
I'm looking at Canon and Nikon.

One question.
How do you choose a lens and what to the different numbers and figures mean (I've got a rough idea I just want to know more in depth)

[benwynn]

If your going fairly budget, but what good quality- You should go Nikon. I found that out after a long time of study! lol. Canon has better high range lenses, which are also cheaper than the Nikkor competitors, but in the more inexpensive range, Nikkor Wins with both price and quality.

Lens wise..

For Plane spotting, your gonna want to get a 300mm Telezoom. I have a Nikkor 70-300mm VR lens. It does the trick really nicely. Beyond that, you can get some 400mm + Lenses, but theyre usually quite expensive. Another option is a teleconverter- But again, reduces quality so not worth it IMO. It also doubles the f stop.

As for the F stop, your lens might say for eg. 18-55mm f3.5-4.5. That means that the apeture setting at 18mm is 3.5, and at 55mm, 4.5. Lower the better, im sure you know all about that otherwise you wouldnt be getting a DSLR..

As for VR/IS/OS. Id definently recommend getting it. If your shooting moving photography, ie Aviation, it doesnt make a huge difference as your panning. But if your taking some still images, definently get it. Its very difficult to take images hand held at 150mm + at low shutters and it just stops camera shake in general.

What do you want to photograph? Obviously for Aviation, im going to recomend the 70-300mm lens, but what else? The 18-55mm which is usually included is only the equivilent of something similar to a 3x Zoom Digital Camera, but I find it at 18mm quite a bit wider, great for landscapes. I would try to buy something like an 18-105 or similar as a general "walk about" lens. You get a great zoom range, and wont have to be swopping lenses all the time.

Prime lenses are also great. Usually they have better image quality, as theres less moving parts. Alot cheaper too, and faster.

[Kelburn]

Basically my photos would mainly be aviation so whats a good lens that allows manual focus (not hugely necessary but I like having manual) but has decent zoom and is good for moving airplanes?

[benwynn]

Well They all do Manual if they do auto.

In your case-

Canon 75-300mm IS
Nikkor 70-300mm VR

[Anthony]

What Ben said is all pretty good, so seconded
Nikon has a 18-200 lens that's meant to be quite good, and the 18-105 is meant to be pretty good too.

Lens recommendations can be hard sometimes... what's your budget? Are there going to be any other uses for it?
Look for something fast, although you will be using f6-f11 a lot for aviation it is still nice to have something faster than f4.
Zoom is nice to have, but the less you zoom you have generally the greater the quality - less glass, more space, faster aperture.

I think you will probably want to use autofocus for aviation though, as stuff doesn't sit still and AI Servo can be great feature - I personally prefer AF to MF for aviation and most things.
Lenses will do manual, but the focus ring on some is gritty and hard to use. On others it is fluid and very nice.
Lenses that allow instant override like Canon's Ring USM lenses are great - the camera can autofocus and then you can touch it up with the focus ring without having to change modes.
Ben's lens recommendations are pretty good really, good value and fairly decent.

[Kelburn]

Don't have a budget yet (will be around $1000 max) I will probably get a cheaper camera (such as the D40X or D60 if I can find a good deal) but I won't be getting a camera until next year earliest. Just getting all the info I can. I'm saving up for a School Europe trip and eventually uni and a PPL etc. so this would be a small thing on the side. (maybe b'day?)

Anyway again, mainly aviation but photos when I'm on trips etc. General purpose etc.

How good are the lenses that come in the kit (e.g. the 18-55) are they worthwhile (for aviation?)?

How about these:

http://www.photowarehouse.co.nz/1001980/ni...+55mm+lens+kit/

http://www.photowarehouse.co.nz/1001565/ni...5+200+lens+kit/ (maybe pushing my predicted budget)

http://www.parallelimported.co.nz/view.php...+VR+kit+18-55mm

http://www.parallelimported.co.nz/view.php?id=17751
http://www.parallelimported.co.nz/view.php?id=17751 dunno about those just in my price range

[benwynn]

D60 replaced the D40x, and the price range isnt huge. If you like manual focus, the D60 has a cool feature were you can use the metering mode instead to measure if the picture is properly focused! Plus it has dust reduction and stuff that is helpfull.

D40 is a great camera for its price, but lacking features and pixels (that doesnt really matter) to the D60.

The Pentax is a pretty good camera, but I dont like the OS/IS built in, it doesnt show up in the viewfinder- Which I dont really like.

For about $800AUD, you can get a Sony A200 with 18-70mm and 75-300mm Lens. It has the IS Built into the body like the pentax, and its a pretty good camera. Sony lenses are quite expensive, but really good quality (Carl Zeiss)

Check this link- Much cheaper, but no warrenty and stuff like that through the camera company, only the store, because its a grey import.

http://digitalimagingonline.com.au/product...1870mm__75300mm

http://youshop247.com.au/store/product.php...2d918649f7888cb


D60 replaced the D40x, and the price range isnt huge. If you like manual focus, the D60 has a cool feature were you can use the metering mode instead to measure if the picture is properly focused! Plus it has dust reduction and stuff that is helpfull.

D40 is a great camera for its price, but lacking features and pixels (that doesnt really matter) to the D60.

The Pentax is a pretty good camera, but I dont like the OS/IS built in, it doesnt show up in the viewfinder- Which I dont really like.

For about $800AUD, you can get a Sony A200 with 18-70mm and 75-300mm Lens. It has the IS Built into the body like the pentax, and its a pretty good camera. Sony lenses are quite expensive, but really good quality (Carl Zeiss)

Check this link- Much cheaper, but no warrenty and stuff like that through the camera company, only the store, because its a grey import.

http://digitalimagingonline.com.au/product...1870mm__75300mm

http://youshop247.com.au/store/product.php...2d918649f7888cb

[Alex]

Tui, check out this thread, only three weeks ago Ben asked the same question.

Alex

[Kelburn]

What is the main difference between the 40X and the 60 cause I was looking on the Nikon website and they had the same shutter speed and ISO etc. and same MP but the 40X was cheaper by about $200.

Is the Sony a good camera? I mean why is it so much cheaper?

Also reading over that link (I'm not too camera literate as of yet) but you can link two lenses together to get bigger zoom?

This is gonna sound stupid but I don't quite understand all of that talk. Could someone please spell it out to me (I should be able to learn quickly)

[benwynn]

Well, When I bought my D60, I got grey market. So the different between the 2 was only $50 or so. Not so sure its worth $200.

The D60 has in built dust cleaning, which I think is great, stops you having to clean the whole time, or edit out those pesky dust spots. It also does a few extra things like focus metering. But the main thing is, it takes lenses the D40X doesnt, but then again, the D80 + takes all lenses (and autofocuses on all of them)

Check out this link, its great! I found it when I was camera hunting. It lets your compare, 2,3,4 even more cameras side by side!
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_po...00&show=all

The sony is a great camera for the money. Lets face it, were not all professional photographers and we dont really need $6000 cameras. Any DSLR is going to be a step up from your P & S. Ive read some great reviews about the Sony, go check it out on that link I gave you. Ive read it autofocuses a wee bit slower than the others, but really, it will be fine. When I spot I just focus at the start and it holds on focus for all the pictures I take of that aircraft.

I think what you read Kelburn was linking 2 lenses to get a bigger Zoom Range like 18-55mm 55-250mm. You cant actually link two together though.

What parts dont you understand? Let us know what exactly you dont understand and Ill be glad to help.

[Kelburn]

What robin was talking about the F length. Also I don't quite fully understand the lens terms used that's probably my main weakness.

[benwynn]

F Length is Focal Length. So 300mm or whatever yeah?

As for the lens terms. I guess you just pick it up over time. Mainly you need to worry about the F Length, so 70-300mm, and the F Stop. Dont really worry about the other stuff. You just have to make sure if its a nikon it either says AF-S, or if its a sigma etc, it has HSM motor.

[Kelburn]

What do I need to know with the F point?

[benwynn]

The F Stop is the Apeture. So basically how wide the lens can open. This effects depth of field and stuff.

Basically, the lower the better. The lower, the wider the lens opening therefore a faster shutter speed. In Telezooms, its usually 4.5-5.6 or something like that, which isnt an issue at all, especially in Aviation photography where you will be using an F Stop of 8-9 mabye 10-11 ocassionally. Just post what your thinking of buying before and I can give more detailed answers..

[Kelburn]

How would the standard 18-55 lens do? (assuming that is a zoom lens with manual and auto focus)

[benwynn]

In the Nikkor? Lets just say it is-

The kit AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR..

AF-S Means it has an built in Auto Focus Motor. Budget cameras, like the D40, D60 etc dont have these motors built into the camera, so only lenses with AF-S will autofocus. Cameras like the D80, D90 and up have it built into the body, so it will autofocus without AF-S

DX Basically means its for DSLRs only, not SLRS. It has something to do with the crop factor and size. Doesnt really matter to you as they all basically have that.

18-55mm Thats the Focal length

f/3.5-5.6 is the Aperture range. the lowest F stop will be 3.5 at 18mm, and 5.6 at 55mm and ranging in between.

G- Has something to do with the mount type im pretty sure, cant be certain though. I think G means its a plastic mount or something. It really doesnt matter either.

And the VR meaning Vibration Reduction. The same as IS or OS.

[Kelburn]

Sorry but could explain the mm and the f stop cause I'm not entirely sure what that means. E.g. the different numbers

[benwynn]

Well, Focal Length is a very complex subject If I were to explain it all from what ive read. Even I dont really understand it. Basically, you just have to use DSLRs and see how far you need to zoom. the Lower the mm, the wider the angle, the higher the mm, the longer the zoom or whatever.

Again, the f stop is (apeture) is how wide/shut the lens is. Like the pupil in your eye, in the dark it becomes bigger to let more light in,and when its bright it gets smaller. A camera is the same. What dont you understand about the figures? is it the range between 3.5-5.6 or is it just the apeture in general and why/how/when we use it?

[Kelburn]

the figures like 3.5-5.6 confuse me I'm not sure how to decipher them within context.

[Alex]

To be fair Kelburn, if you're not sure what the difference is between a DSLR and a 'superzoom' digital camera, it might be best to go there (superzoom) first to get your head around the numbers?

You'd be able to get your head around some of the photography plus save money.

Alex