Righty ho

Considering my lil' olympus c40 zoom camera was nicked from my hotel room in Beirut I'm after a replacement.

I'm not an advanced photographer by any means, but would like to invest in something rather nice and will "invest" in something that's good. So I'm thinking of getting a very nice camera for those special occasions such as walking in forests, briskoda meets etc and second small point&click one for nights out, where a big / bulky camera isn't appropriate.

So looking at the big / bulky / high quality one, what would you recommend?

Two thoughts at the moment.

In the Blue corner: I'm thiinking about getting the new Sony 828. It's got a very nice manual zoom lens and manual focus which I'd appreciate having full control of. It's very fast (can't stand having to wait ages for pics to save to memory) and will take microdrive if I don't want to fork out megabucks for ms pro. Plus, I could pick it up on the right side of

Canon EOS 300D is an astonishing machine.

Had one now since Jan and still finding new features on it.

Initially it feels a bit lightweight but that's only due to my previous SLR's being Pentax's and therefore hewn out of solid rock.

Being an SLR you've always got the issue of carting round alternate lenses and batteries etc but I think the results are worth it. A second "point and shoot" camera for convenience is a good plan - Sony Cybershot in my case.

I was once a dyed-in-the-wool camera nut with an excess of cameras and lenses, plus darkroom and all the smelly chemicals. All that has gone now and the digital revolution is in full swing in this house !

PS I took the gamble and got the 300D from Hong Kong (via eBay) - there were very few actually available in the UK at the start of the year. Paid about

I can not help you with specific models, but my expereince would lead me to recommend an Olympus Digital camera. I own an ancient 1.3 Megapixel Olympus with optical zoom. Despite the low resolution I have found the images taken by the camera to be superior in many ways to images from 3 and 4 megapixel cameras from other makes including Canon and Samsung. Obviously not in terms of resolution, but colour reproduction etc is better with the Olympus. This was my first digital camera and is still my favourite.

Xavier...

If you're looking at "budget" SLR's then there are currently only 2 real options.

Canon EOS 300D or Nikon D70. Both are pretty much the same in terms of quality, but Genuine Canon lenses are generally considered to have a slight edge. If you go for 3rd Party (Sigma etc) Lenses, then it's pretty much even.

Be warned, this IS the most expensive route without a doubt. For a UK 300D with 18-55 lens, a 75-300 zoom and a "proper" flashgun, you are looking at

I'm not a camera-wise person but would happily agree with Geoff's sentiment regarding cheap microdrives. I have a Magicstor that is going back to the supplier for refund as it's totally ****ing useles and intermittently fails to read and write :(

HTH, Mark

Cheers for the comments Geoff. And you've pretty much confirmed what I thought. But I didn't know about the microdrives and how bad or unreliable the cheap ones can be!

I'm very tempted by the Sony one. For under

Hmm. Just reading the review of the 300D on dpreview. They're very good at describing all the features...

Decisions, decisions, reviews, reviews

Canon 300d is good my Dad has one and he raves about it, however I am a Nikon fan, try a Nikon D2X or D1X just amazing cameras. If they are a little too pricey what about a Nikon D70 just a little above your price range but eat Canon camera's for breakfast

Link

Edit: Or what I do is use a 'point and shoot' for the digital photography and get yourself a proper 35mm camera for the good stuff , I have just bought myself a Nikon F100 and a lot of slide film and the images are just fantastic. Again I can only recommend Nikon high enough.

Ive got the Canon EOS 300D and i think its bleedin' fantastic! Easy to use and the photos are always excellant

I have never been able to fault Nikon cameras - Mine (coolpix 2500) is cheap as chips and less than

I've got a Fuji S7000 picked it up in jessops for 440 quid with a 64MB CF card, 512MB XD Picture card, a case and 2 sets of batteries and a charger:) Pretty happy with the results:D Quite bulky but it lets you add on lenses etc

http://www.jessops.com/search/viewproduct.cfm?PRODUCT=FUJFPS7000&BRAND=&CONTINUE=false&FEATS=&FIRSTPRICE=&KEYWORD=&LEVEL=&MODELNUMBER=&NEWQUERY=True&NODE=0&NODE_PATH=0&ORD=ASC&ORDERBY=&QUANTITY=10&RECENT=0&REFINE=&SEARCH_FOR=s7000&SEARCHNODE=0&SEARCHURL=dointellisearch.cfm&SECONDPRICE=&SHOWCASEID=&STARTROW=1&SUBS=&WORD_SEARCH=Y&

Sorry to hear your original camera got stolen.

A collegue of mine has a fuji 5000 digi camera which has a 10x optical zoom along with the digital zoom feature. I have been looking at buying one of these or one of its stable mates the S3000 or S3500 recently and the main thing that attracts is the price for a camera which resembles an SLR camera style.

Best bet though is to visit a store which will let you sample the goods and see the images you can get. Have you checked any reviews in What Cam... or Which?

Cheers and have fun choosing

I have a Fuji S5000 very happy for a snapper like me... has a good zoom and loads of features for a novice.... which I am..

Hmm thanks for all those suggestions. Looks like I have some reading to do

Alex, the "nice" camera is for nice stuff, and not so "point and shoot". But being a kid of the digital age, I'd really rather have a digicam. The thought of having to send your pics off to get them developped and only then realise you were a complete noob and had the wrong setting would depress me

Maybe at the next meet, I could persuade Geoff to bring his gear along so I can have a quick look?

The other reason I'd like a "serious" camera is to be able to chose all the settings. I'd like to try and experiment taking "arty" photos, playing with depth of field, focus, etc.

Xav,

I always have my kit at any meet i attend.

A few others on here have similar stuff too. ColinD has a 300D, Dave (dsemuk) has a 10D.

As for the comment about Nikons eating Canons etc, i won't comment, other than to say that Nikon (allegedly) licence their on-lens AF motor technology from...

Canon.

Nuff said

It's 40% Equipment and 60% User when it comes to decent pics IMHO.

The Canon 300D is the way to go... as for where to buy it from, forget the US & Hong Kong via ebay. Check out Germany. They have good prices with no warranty or import tax issues.

Try these for starters: http://www.technikdirekt.de/ http://www.lagu.de/ http://www12.guenstiger.de/gt/main.asp

Xav - the link I gave should show the range of Nikon digital SLR's :confused:

Geoff - the old Nikon/Canon debate is a bit like petrol/diesel, Furbie vRS/Octy Vrs etc I thought I would add a little variety to the discussion

A vote for the D70 here

I had the same choice as you & it came down to the Canon and the Nikon. I ended up with the Nikon for a couple of reasons, mainly subjective:

1. It was black and has a crinkley finish. Now to me that is the way an SLR should be.

2. DP review rated it slightly better, probably due to it being newer.

3. I'd always wanted a Nikon. In the past I'd always had Pentax, but I couldn't find one I liked.

I'm still learning how to use it, there are so many features and as Geoff says, it's 40% equipment and 60% photographer that defines the pictures.

I still have a point and shoot one (a Sony) for snapshots, but I'm probably going to replace it waith a 5 megapixel "Easy Share" one from Kodak, cos sometimes you just don't want to lug around all the gear.

Alex,wasn't trying to stir up one of "those" debates, but apparently that is true about the Nikon lenses. That said, Canon L series lenses are 1st class...but far too expensive.

TBH Nikon or Canon is a bit of a non-choice, they both make top quality kit but the 300D wins on price for most people, and i can live with the plastic body....until the 20D starts to be discounted

The absoloute beauty of any Digi Cam is that unlike film, it allows you to be ultra-critical of your own work at virtually zero cost. The amount of stuff i delete is shocking

I just wish i had the time & cash to allow me to get to more places & practice more...

Now....should i order that 50-500 :rubchin:

Incidentally, if i was buying now, i'd look seriously at 7dayshop.com. They're doing EOS 10D's for around

Incidentally, if i was buying now, i'd look seriously at 7dayshop.com. They're doing EOS 10D's for around

Do you really think that SLR is justified in a digital camera. I read somewhere that they felt that the higher spec compact Digital camera withan optical zoom really does the job just as well, as the nly real advantage of the slr was the ability to do the settings manually for certain special effects. With many modern film SLRs and the digital ones, no one ever bothers with manual control (and indeed some cameras lack it) and that therefore you may as well have a smaller camera. They also stated that while the big lens sizw was great with film, it does not matter with digital as the quality even of high res digital has not yet got to the point where the limitations of having the smaller compact style diameter lens matters.

TTL viewfinding is a big advantage for action photography as it allows easier panning with the subject, in my experience.

TTL viewfinding is a big advantage for action photography as it allows easier panning with the subject, in my experience.

True but most people take digital photos using the screen, although I have always found this very ackward to do both with a digital camera and with camcorders. Always seem to end up with blurred images, while having no such problems if I use the view finder to eye method :P

Mmmmmmmmmmm D70. Me wants

Well, I think it's time for me to do some shopping around. Being a noob to decent photography, although the reviews are great, the camera will surely outperform my photo shooting skills, regardless of whether I take an eos or d70 or whatever. In my case, I reckon it's 20% equipment / 80% user knowledge

Maybe just the choice of lenses / pricing of lenses may influence my decision.

Geoff, out of interest, how much for that mega zoom telephoto lens?

Xavier,

My 135-400 zoom came in at about