digital camera's

[cablejones]

Hi,


I don't have a clue about cameras and i will be going away in 5 months.  Im guessing like most people every time i take a camera away with me i always come back with about 35% good ones. now i understand most of the time its an 'operators error' but i am actually looking into getting a new camera and im wondering if anyone knows anything about a NIKON D40,D50 or CANON EOS 1000D.Or if you can advice me on any other camera? any tips or hints would be welcomed.


Thanks for looking

[Greg]

Hey Cable,

I travel with the D40, its a rugged, light, good little SLR. In fact, I honestly can't believe the thing works after all the hell I have put it through.

If it's in your budget, you'll probably want a better lens. The default that most of those SLRs come with is pretty wimpy....I highly recommend the Nikon 18-200, it's a one lens do-it-all for landscapes, people, and animal shots.

Whatever you go with, get a large, FAST memory card for it...they cost more but the speed is worth it for successive shots.

Cheers!

[Andrew]

The Nikon D3000 has taken the place of the D40 in the Nikon lineup. There is not a lot of differences, but there are a few. I believe that the D3000 comes with an 18-55mm/f3.5-5.6 AF-S VR (Vibration Reduction) lens, where as the D40 comes with the same focal length, but no VR (I think). The price is almost exactly the same. Photo.net did a pretty decent write up on the D3000 when it came out.

http://photo.net/equipment/nikon/D3000/review/

If you want to save money I suggest cruising craigslist for cheap bodies and lenses. I've seen D90s with 3 or 4 decent lenses used for around the same price, or less, than a D3000/D40 new. Something to take in to account here is size. The higher end Nikons tend to have larger bodies which will take up more room. It's only a few inches so not a big deal, but some people want the camera to be pretty small.

When it comes to picking between Canon and Nikon it really comes down to lenses. I chose Nikon because most of my friends shot with Nikon and I knew they would let me borrow a lenses when I'm not on the road.

Greg's suggestion about an 18-200 seems pretty good. That's a good amount of focal range to play with while traveling. I also must stand by the FAST memory card. This is an area where speed really does come in to play. When you want those back to back shots which come in so incredibly handy while traveling, you don't want to waste 10 seconds waiting for your memory card to catch up.

If you want to learn more about photography there is an area of reddit that is made just for this. I find it to be one of the better introduction to photography courses I've found online. You can find it here http://www.reddit.com/r/photoclass

[Greg]

Andrew has it spot-on - the D40 doesn't come with a VR lens which comes in VERY handy.  I can add that even the little D40 body and 18-200VR lens feel like a bag of rocks on a vagabonding trip where every ounce counts.  I shoot the D80 at home, but really wouldn't want the added bulk and weight of the body.

One of my favorite sites with a spectacular breakdown of all Nikon stuff is: http://www.kenrockwell.com/

Cheers!

[Abstract87]

I actually just purchased a Canon Powershot SX210 IS.  I'm really happy with my purchase as I had a few criteria that needed to be met with my camera.

1. Needs to record HD video
2. Needs manual controls
3. Needs to be small, wide-angle, with a good zoom lens (this one has 14x optical)
4. Couldn't afford the budget or the space for an SLR

A couple downfalls of the camera
-continuos shooting mode sucks for action shots (1 frame per 1.4 sec) boo
-Aperature range is somewhat limited f3.1 - f8

Overall I am really happy with this for my travel needs and meeting my criteria.  Here is a link to check out a review.  I`m not too sure if your in the market for a point-and-shoot but if you have criteria like mine you might want to consider a step back from the slr for the purpose of travels - in my opinion - This is a great portable camera without any of the bulkiness and still alot of the features
http://www.digitalreview.ca/content/Canon-PowerShot-SX210-IS-Review.shtml

Youcan always check out Flickr for some sample images to see image quality and capabilities

Cheers,

Jon

[Greg]

Sounds like a damn decent camera really - thanks for the review Jon I'm actually in the market for something new.

Just curious...sounds like you know what you are talking about, but I assume that you have a highspeed media card to go inside? They cost a little more but it really speeds up the frame rate/buffering.

[Abstract87]

Thanks Greg!

Considering the price point and the features it definitly is a damn good camera!  Going down to elk island national park on my week off with my cousin to do some test shots and try out all the different features, and just some general 'buffalo roaming'

i try to stay away from sony for sure when it comes to digital cameras so thats my one word of advice, but I know the Nikon has a similar, high quality choice (minus the video capabilities and the extra zoom capabilities)

I did find one good site that compared a set of 3 and depending on what your looking for it gets pretty specific - I would just google a camera you're interested in and add compare or review.  Cant find the site off my swack of bookmarks lol.

Yeah i got an SDhC 200x pro-photo 8gb memory card which also allows for the HD video capability and ALOT of photos - cost about $80 CAD in-store.  Definitly worth the extra bucks in my opinion