Help! Now that I have my nice new Willberpog to play with, I want a new camera to take nice pictures of him, possibly with him wearing just a smile! I currently have a Fuji prosumer type model and do take a lot of pictures, mostly of major sporting events (my job gets me to Wimbledon centre court, Silverstone, Aintree etc) and Landscapes. I have a max budget of around

Help! Now that I have my nice new Willberpog to play with, I want a new camera to take nice pictures of him, possibly with him wearing just a smile! I currently have a Fuji prosumer type model and do take a lot of pictures, mostly of major sporting events (my job gets me to Wimbledon centre court, Silverstone, Aintree etc) and Landscapes. I have a max budget of around

I have used a friends Canon 350D and was impressed (very easy to use, fast and good quality), but from research you want body only as the kit lense is not brilliant. Personally I am looking at the Olympus but that is beacuse I seem to attract dust so don,t want to have to clean the sensor. Never used a D20 but people I know say all the canon bodies are decent, it is just the lenses that you have to watch for. They have cheap ones and very expensive ones with not much inbetween.

The Canon 350D is a lovely camera. Compact and light yet very well specced. I am very pleased with mine, and have the kit lens with it. However, I mostly run it with a Tamron 28-75 f2.8, and together they make a lovely team. If you wanted a longer zoom, I would suggest the Sigma 70-200 f2.8 which is a damned fine lens, with many agreeing it gives the Canon red "L" versions a good run for their money.

You could also consider a used Canon 20D, now that the new Canon 5D is out and the new Canon 30D which will replace the 20D.

I have used a friends Canon 350D and was impressed (very easy to use, fast and good quality), but from research you want body only as the kit lense is not brilliant. Personally I am looking at the Olympus but that is beacuse I seem to attract dust so don,t want to have to clean the sensor. Never used a D20 but people I know say all the canon bodies are decent, it is just the lenses that you have to watch for. They have cheap ones and very expensive ones with not much inbetween.

I also looked at the Olympus E500 but decided that I would probably end up with the kit lenses and not feel like changing them as it would seem a waste. Also the continuous frame rate on the Canon is slightly higher (3 fps on the 350 and 5Fps! on the 20D. Also the Higher ISO

The Canon 350D is a lovely camera. Compact and light yet very well specced. I am very pleased with mine' date=' and have the kit lens with it. However, I mostly run it with a Tamron 28-75 f2.8, and together they make a lovely team. If you wanted a longer zoom, I would suggest the Sigma 70-200 f2.8 which is a damned fine lens, with many agreeing it gives the Canon red "L" versions a good run for their money.

You could also consider a used Canon 20D, now that the new Canon 5D is out and the new Canon 30D which will replace the 20D.[/quote']

That Sigma lens looks fantastic, but it would be outside my budget. This is one of my dilemmas. Should I go for the slightly more versatile 20D and then perhaps 2 cheap lenses, or perhaps the affor mentioned Sigma/Tamron? or go for the 350D and but a couple of decent Lenses. Is the Standard 18-55 USM Canon lens any good? If it is, I would have a budget of around

I would go for the 350D body only and Tamron 28-75 at the same time. Only problem with that is that the camera has a 1.6 multiplier with standard lens'es so the Tamron is'nt a true 28-75 on the 350D, more a 45-120 in true 35mm terms. (all due to the reduced size of the sensor, the 350D not having full frame sensor). On that note, you can see the kit 18-55 (true being a digital only lens) can be handy for those wide wide shots.

It is'nt a bad lens, but I only use mine for those very wide shots the Tamron does'nt reach.

As for drity/dusty sensors, so far mine has been fine (with lots of lens swapping). However there are plenty of DIY senor cleaning products, and it is'nt as bad as you think to do.

Dunno about Canons, I did a lot of reading before I bought. I bought the Nikon instead. As for lenses, I went to London Camera Exchange and bought second hand. The one I bought used to belong to the guy in the shop and was about half the price of a new one

I have the Nikon D50 with 18-70DX lens, also the tamaron 28-300 macro total cost last yeat about

The 350d is a lovely camera, but the 20D is a quantum leap on from there.

Our outgoing MD just sold his 20D with 2 lenses for

I can

http://www.warehouseexpress.com/

http://www.parkcameras.com/

A couple of sites to guage the prices for you (I got mine from warehouseexpress)

also jessops and

www.jacobs-photo.co.uk

Edit: it may be a good time to go for the 20D as the 30D has just been launched!

For what it's worth, I've got a Nikon D70 + 18-70dx + 50mm f1.8, nikon sb-600 & a couple filters...

Anyways, I've also tried the canon 300, 350 & 20D. Out of those I'd only consider the 20D. First of all, for _my_ hands it fits the best. Second of all, they already brought out 30D as a replacement so you'll be getting excellent deals on 20D now.

But most of all, I wouldn't get a canon at all but get a nikon D70s or, if not out of budget, get the D200. Main reason being that the Nikons just fit my hands better plus I like the nikon "user interface" better. As for picture quality, Nikon's have some things better and canon has other - you really can't go wrong with either one.

The main points I'd consider are:

1) which fits best in your hands

2) which gets you the best deal

3) availability of solid used lenses (in Finland, canon has loads more used lenses around than nikon)

As for the lenses vs. body - the lenses are far more important than the body. bad lense on a good body and your shots will still be crap. On the other hand a good lense can help you with certain things even on a slightly inferior body. So, stay with either canon or nikon lenses and don't go for the cheap ones. There are numerous of lense review sites in the net worth looking at. In nikons case see fex http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/nikkor.htm . His opinions are rather hmm.. biased when it comes to camera's & nikon vs canon - but his nikon lense reviews seem solid.

Sigma lenses are a bit dodgy. Some of them are really nice but it comes down to quality control, so buying one of those make sure you get to test it properly before buying it. They tend to have focus issues. I've heard that Sigma doesn't pay royalties for the camera companies but rather reverse engineers their code, which imho makes it a bit risky.

Oh and used Nikon D70 & D70s bodys should get you a great deal as well. There are certain rumours around that nikon would be introducing new dslr's during early autumn, which make some ppl eager to sell theirs

Just my 2c,

Juha

I'm quite an enthusiastic amateur photgrapher and my prime SLR is a 350D. It's a very good camera with well controlled noise and remarkably quick processing times (I covered a rally recently and it was useful being able to bang off 10 frames of 8mp low compression in one go!).

The biggest pitfalls of the 350D in my opinion are a) the size, it's tiny! not for those who like a nice, chunky camera, the autofocus is quite crude - don't expect EOS3 type speed and accuracy and c) lots of fiddly menus, but once you know them it's fairly quick to use.

The 18-55 I've got (kit lens) is superb, very good quality indeed. I have heard that there is a fair share of lemons when it comes to these, though. I'd personally reccomend the 17-85 IS USM. This is a very good lens, covering a wide range and has the added bonus of image stabilisation.

One last thing - the 350D is the most impressive power conservation machine I know of. The standard NBL-2H battery lasted me over 900 frames of photographs at the rally (didn't need charging once throughout). Not many digital cameras are quite so efficient of power.

Hope this helps!

Thanks yashicamat and everyone else. I eventually plumbed for the 350D over the 20D, partly because it is so much lighter and Jessops were doing a good deal. The kit lens is a 17-55 USM and seems Ok from what I

Quite sure you will like the 350D.

I you want more batteries, I get mine here..http://www.sterlingtek.com/canbeqba80.html. Yes they come from the States, but they are sent real quick and work out a bloody good price. (I got 2 from them that worked out at the cost of 1 genuine...and the new ones are twice the current rating, so last longer.)

Might I also recommend this forum site..http://photography-on-the.net/forum/index.php

Hi

Congratulations on the new camera. IMO, the single most important aspect of any camera choice, assuming it does its job, is how it fits your hands. Good idea to just stay with the lenses you have now and see what focal lengths and aperures you use most before spending anything on new lenses. For sport and fast action shooting, you really need fast (wide apeture) long lenses and these always cost a lot of money.

If you get the bug bad enough, you will probably end up with a lens kit covering a full range. The lenses at the shorter focal lengths canbe had for reasonable money. Dont be to quick to discount Sigma either. The EX series lenses are often extremely good. I have used both 18-50EXDC and 10-20EXDC. Both are excellent and can perform up there close to Canon L glass for much much less money. The Sigma 70-200 mentioned earlier is a stunner as well. Expensive ish, but a fast sharp 200mm f2.8 it is exceptional value. The Tamron 28-75 is another exceptional lens for the money.

Lenses down the short end go for around

Hi

If you get the bug bad enough, you will probably end up with a lens kit covering a full range. The lenses at the shorter focal lengths canbe had for reasonable money. Dont be to quick to discount Sigma either. The EX series lenses are often extremely good. I have used both 18-50EXDC and 10-20EXDC. Both are excellent and can perform up there close to Canon L glass for much much less money. The Sigma 70-200 mentioned earlier is a stunner as well. Expensive ish, but a fast sharp 200mm f2.8 it is exceptional value. The Tamron 28-75 is another exceptional lens for the money.

Gear prices wise, Bristol Cameras often come out on top for lens prices. Picstop have Sandisk Extreme III 2GB for