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Best digital SLR camera under $1000?

GQgeek

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Originally Posted by jakejake
I'm leaning toward Nikon D80 since the price will drop b/c of the D90. I've never used a D/SLR before. Should I get the D40 instead or get the D80 and keep it for a longer time? What are the major differences between the two? Any reason why I shouldn't get the D80 but some other brand?

I would take an e-510 over a d80 if you're looking to save money. In-body image stabilization is a very big feature you'll be missing out on. You could probably get an e-510 for quite cheap now. They are very good cameras and it would leave you money to buy a "real" lens like 14-54mm or the 12-60mm if you wanted to spend a bit more. Don't be blinded by canikon branding. Olympus makes very good cameras. Unless you shoot predominantly in low light conditions, you should definitely be considering them.

Btw, check Cameta on ebay. I got my first slr from them for a great price. They are a good operation.
 

milosh

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@GQgeek:

I see that you are a bit of a Olympus fan
smile.gif
I don't like their sensors and the whole 4/3 standard but I do very much like the e-420 with the pancake lens. Pretty much the ideal "everyday" camera.

Regarding the weather sealing. I think that even thou the D200/300/700 bodies are not exactly at the D3 level, they certainly can endure quite bad conditions. I remember reading this article about an expedition to Antarctica in which Nikon gear fared well. Image stabilisation is a feature in most modern Nikon lenses so that isn't that much of an issue. Maybe my point of view is a bit distorted.
smile.gif
At this point I think he can't really make a mistake. DSLRs from all manufacturers are really good.
 

LabelKing

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Originally Posted by Brian SD
I don't understand why anyone buys an SLR and leaves it on automatic mode. I understand it in wedding photography, but I see a lot of people doing still photography and using fully automatic mode. If I see someone wakling around the city with their camera and its not on M, A, S, or P, it kind of gives me a chuckle.

I don't think most people know manual settings.
 

matadorpoeta

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Originally Posted by GQgeek
I would take an e-510 over a d80 if you're looking to save money. In-body image stabilization is a very big feature you'll be missing out on. You could probably get an e-510 for quite cheap now. They are very good cameras and it would leave you money to buy a "real" lens like 14-54mm or the 12-60mm if you wanted to spend a bit more. Don't be blinded by canikon branding. Olympus makes very good cameras. Unless you shoot predominantly in low light conditions, you should definitely be considering them.

Btw, check Cameta on ebay. I got my first slr from them for a great price. They are a good operation.


the problem with brands other than canon and nikon is that there are no rental lenses available. when i first got into photography i bought a pentax and a 50mm prime. afterward when i wanted to experiment with longer and shorter lenses my only option was to buy them. with a canon or nikon, you can rent a $1200 lens, for the whole weekend, for about $30.

i loved my pentax but i switched to canon as soon as i got serious about lenses.
 

GQgeek

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Originally Posted by milosh
@GQgeek:

I see that you are a bit of a Olympus fan
smile.gif
I don't like their sensors and the whole 4/3 standard but I do very much like the e-420 with the pancake lens. Pretty much the ideal "everyday" camera.

Regarding the weather sealing. I think that even thou the D200/300/700 bodies are not exactly at the D3 level, they certainly can endure quite bad conditions. I remember reading this article about an expedition to Antarctica in which Nikon gear fared well. Image stabilisation is a feature in most modern Nikon lenses so that isn't that much of an issue. Maybe my point of view is a bit distorted.
smile.gif
At this point I think he can't really make a mistake. DSLRs from all manufacturers are really good.


The IS is usually in fairly expensive lenses though and he's saying he wants to spend under 1k. I'm pretty sure the nikon kit lenses don't have IS (haven't looked at nikon gear in a while). That's why i'm recommending something that has in-body IS.

As for 4/3s, it's just a set of compromises that might or might not suit any particular application or photographer. There's no question that the larger APS-C sensors will always have the advantage at higher iso, but the newer 4/3s cameras have made great strides. The e-3 looks great at 800 and is still ok at 1600. The issue of high ISO capabilities is generally overblown by pixel peepers though. I wish i could find it, but there was a really neat web tool that let you pair bodies with lenses to see what they looked like. It made the advantage of 4/3 immediately clear, especially for someone that wanted to travel with their camera system. Some of the zooms at the longer end were half the size of the canikon equivalents. I take most pictures when I'm travelling so I want a good system, but smaller is better.

The biggest problem with nikon sealing is that afaik it's only available in their top-level fixed aperature glass, which can be very expensive. Although the author of the LL article says some people were using D200s (there were only 5 nikons total), it doesn't mention the lenses or whether those particular people had rain covers for their cameras. He did say it wasn't a good basis for any sort of comparison.

On the olmypus side there's no confusion, all of their pro-range glass, which runs from mid-hundreds to about $1200, is sealed to the same standards as their top pro fixed-aperature glass (which is generally over 2k per lens).

Honestly, if nikon had better options for sealed lenses, i probably would have gone with them, but as far as i could tell when i was researching systems, i couldn't build a completely sealed system without spending mega-bucks.

Anyway, all this to say that I don't think one system is better than the other. The end user just need to look at the pluses and minuses of each. Olympus offers a very compelling system for those that take the time to examine its merits. And the lenses are top-notch. Anyway, all of this is moot because the OP is asking about sub-1000 cameras. Such is SF I guess. It's impossible to avoid turning everything into a high-end whatever discussion.
tounge.gif
 

GQgeek

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Originally Posted by matadorpoeta
the problem with brands other than canon and nikon is that there are no rental lenses available. when i first got into photography i bought a pentax and a 50mm prime. afterward when i wanted to experiment with longer and shorter lenses my only option was to buy them. with a canon or nikon, you can rent a $1200 lens, for the whole weekend, for about $30.

i loved my pentax but i switched to canon as soon as i got serious about lenses.


That's a valid point if you see yourself wanting to take that approach but I think most people probably just buy what they think they need based on what they shoot most often. I found out what my lens priorities should be on my first trip with the camera by hitting up against its limitations. After shooting a couple thousand photos with kit lenses I knew exactly what I wanted/needed. I supplemented with research on the particular lens options.

At worst, you can re-sell equipment you don't use much. Lenses don't lose much value on the used market. This really comes down to what you want to do though. It would be nice to be able to rent a 5k 300mm lens, but in the places i'd want to use them, i'd have to rent for far longer than a weekend because they wouldn't be available regardless. :p

Anyway, the rental issue is only a problem if that's the way you want to approach acquiring equipment and if that equipment would be available where oyu want to shoot.

Anyway, I don't want to turn this into an olympus vs. canikon thread. I just wanted to expose the guy to another option.
 

otc

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+1 for canon (any canon)

Maybe a kit 40D (be ready to spend on lenses fast, the kit lense is trash) or a 30D and spend the extra on nice glass (They still take great pictures and it is easier to get through an upgrade cycle if you spend the big money on lenses and sit a generation behind on the bodies).

Learn to shoot outside of automatic mode. P is reasonably automatic but gives you full control after it guesses at good values (though at least on my canon D60, it blows with exposure on the on-camera flash). Aperature priority is probably my favorite easy mode though. Aperature feels more important than time so you can control depth of field perfectly while estimating if the speed is going to be fast enough for what you need.
 

A Y

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I've used a Canon FD lens (200 F/4) in the rain protected only by a poorly wrapped plastic bag years ago, and it's still working fine to this day. I think weather sealing in cameras and lenses for non pro-use is a bit overrated, like people who think they need SUVs just in case.

--Andre
 

Huntsman

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Originally Posted by Brian SD
I don't understand why anyone buys an SLR and leaves it on automatic mode. I understand it in wedding photography, but I see a lot of people doing still photography and using fully automatic mode. If I see someone wakling around the city with their camera and its not on M, A, S, or P, it kind of gives me a chuckle.
I got a chuckle too -- on any decent Nikon DSLR, P is as automatic as it gets, you know 'program' mode....
 

michaeljkrell

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I use an Olympus e-300 with the 14mm-54mm lens and the quality is top notch for the price. The 14mm-54mm blows away just about everything at that price range. If things are looking good (financially) at the end of the year, I will be getting the e-520. You could pick up the e-520 and the 14-54 for just about $1000 if you shop around.
 

milosh

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Originally Posted by GQgeek
The IS is usually in fairly expensive lenses though and he's saying he wants to spend under 1k. I'm pretty sure the nikon kit lenses don't have IS (haven't looked at nikon gear in a while). That's why i'm recommending something that has in-body IS.
Well you have the 18-55 VR, the 18-105 VR that comes with the D90 and the 16-85 VR. If by kit you mean standard zooms. The 16-85 VR is IMO, awesome but pricey.
 

Brian SD

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In-body image stabilization is a very big feature you'll be missing out on.

This I disagree with. I think of camera bodies as scaleable things, and generally speaking, in-body IS isn't up to par with lens-based IS. I'd rather leave it out and get a lens with nice IS.

The best thing about Olympus Cameras, IMO, is their excellent JPG compression and customization. That said, it's useless to me as I absolutely never shoot pre-compressed pictures. They also pioneered live-view on Digital SLRs and as such, their live view is top-notch. Lens-wise, their lower end offerings are superb, but when you reach the $700+ lenses, Nikon's and Canon's glass dominates the field. The Nikon 18-200 VR II at $800 is probably the single best bang-for-buck value in camera lenses that I can think of.
 

grimslade

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You know what my real advice in this thread is? Go to dpreview and join _their_ forums and read up a lot on the cameras you're thinking of. Not sure why you're convinced to go with Nikon over Canon already, but it's a decision that tends to lock you in, so think about it carefully. And don't ask clothing friends for camera advice!

There's a lot of half-baked advice in this thread already, and while I'm tempted to add my share and get into a pissing match, I'm going to resist. Canon, Olympus and Nikon all make great cameras. They'll all take pictures much better than a little digicam. You will never notice this second fact unless you blow up your picture to 2'x3' or shoot in low light a lot. You get what you pay for when it comes to lenses, no matter who makes them. Good luck!
 

GQgeek

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Originally Posted by Brian SD
This I disagree with. I think of camera bodies as scaleable things, and generally speaking, in-body IS isn't up to par with lens-based IS. I'd rather leave it out and get a lens with nice IS.

The best thing about Olympus Cameras, IMO, is their excellent JPG compression and customization. That said, it's useless to me as I absolutely never shoot pre-compressed pictures. They also pioneered live-view on Digital SLRs and as such, their live view is top-notch. Lens-wise, their lower end offerings are superb, but when you reach the $700+ lenses, Nikon's and Canon's glass dominates the field. The Nikon 18-200 VR II at $800 is probably the single best bang-for-buck value in camera lenses that I can think of.


Yes, but it's still 800. As for lens vs. in-body is, there isn't enough of a difference for it to be significant in a buying decision. The 18-200 was what almost made me go nikon when i was first picking a system. I find that lens switching is pretty much a non-issue though. I use a slingshot and it takes me about 20 seconds to switch lenses when I'm just walking around.
 

wmmk

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Lenses are what matter. Cameras are replaceable.
Get a 20D or 30D on ebay, craigslist, or keh.com (keh is awesome), and then stock up on good glass. Canon's 50mm f1.8 is a great buy--don't waste your time with the kit lens.
 

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