Camera buying advice

Fionn

hi
I'm thinking of buying a Sony CyberShot DSC-R1 i have no clue about photography but i want to give it a go anyway.
i have used a smaller Sony snapshot digital camera before and it seems to be pretty good. Does anyone know anything or have any experience of this camera?
any info or advice would be appreciated!!

bp_me

For the money (740 from nomatica, didnt look elsewhere) I would buy the fuji s9500 (in fact I did). Less megapixels, but much larger zoom and somewhat more normal (screen and hotshoe positions to mention but 2 things).

andy1249

For that money you can get an SLR kit , not to be sniffed at seeing as you have much better expansion potential if you get into it , such as adding more lenses etc.

However , if fixed lens is the way you want to go , then the R1 is streets ahead of that Fuji that was mentioned , there is no comparison , go with the R1.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonydscr1/

Heres a review.

Shrimp

dont by that, by the canon 350D...

by this months edition of practical photography, there is a comparison between the 350D and the R1 in it.. very comprehensive.


actually if u dont have a clue about photography, got a get a good point and shoot..

EireRoadUser

sorry for sticking my head in ,but if i was thinking of buying an slr style point and shoot I'd seriously consider the panasoinc's
I think it's Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7

EireRoadUser

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_reviews/fz7.html
Definitely looks tasty ,35mm-430mm zoom with IS

Borderfox

I had the FZ5 and it was an excellent introduction to slr-type picture taking. The zoom is excellent and with optical stabilisation too! here's a sample

http://static.flickr.com/50/127634269_0c1398a158_b.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/42/104616380_844287688f_b.jpg

They are at half resolution I think at 5mp but FZ7 is 6mp. Class camera

Fajitas!

If you could get last months Practical Photographer, or find the review of it VRs the 350D, I'd highly reccomend you read it!

wingnut

Wouldn't really class the FZ5 as 'SLR' type, lots of compacts have similar manual settings. Besides that the FZ20/30 would be close to a SLR (manual linked focus rings and hot shoes). Don't get me wrong I have an FZ5 myself and think they are a great 'take anywhere' camera. The massive zoom and the aforementioned OIS are great on a camera that size. They are also a good camera to go for if you are getting into photography, the SLRs can be daunting. You can aslo afford decent memory cards etc. If you want seroious quality you will have to go SLR sooner or later. You could always start with a small kit (nikon D50 + one lens for €650) or the canon 350D for a couple of hundred more, and build from there.

Things a DSLR can give you that compacts can't:
1. Night photography. Most compacts are crap (although with OIS you can useable results.
2. Lag: when you take a picture with a compact you have to press the shutter release in advance. With an SLR you get what see when the button is pressed.
3. Sensitivity: Higher ISO settings thanks to bigger sensors
4. Expandible: Loads of accesories and lenses to bulid on.

EireRoadUser

Personally i think if fionn is starting off and he went for a reasonably priced point and shoot and got good use out of it ,at least he didn't spend so much that he couldn't buy an SLR in the future.
If your starting off ,don't go flying into slr's . The panasonic is only 384 euro on Techikdirekt.de

thomj42

i agree, i only got into photography about 8 months ago and i decided then to get a "high end fixed lens" (the canon powershot s2 IS) which is an awesome camera but now i regret not spending that bit more and getting an entry level dSLR.
that said, the powershot is brilliant and there is little i havent been able to do with it in the past, just want to move to the next step.

joolsveer

I bought this Olympus 5000 Zoom about two years ago and have been very happy with the results. It is better than a lot of point and shoots as it can be set to manual, aperture priority and shutter priority as well as fully automatic. I think it cost about $399.



Here is a sample photo taken in Paris in 2004.



and Moore Street, Dublin, in the last week.

andy1249

I posted before about that type of Olympus , I had a real bad experience with one of these cameras and judging from the photo above this one has the same issues , ie a purple cast across the whole photo , that is not a natural sky colour and no matter what you do to that camera you cant fix it.

Heavy photoshopping is the only way to get decent photos out of that camera , Im sorry but I would not wish that range of Olympus cameras on anyone.
If you are going to spend that kind of money there are infinitely better options.

Check this site always ,

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/

they are objective and shoot a lot of targets for comparison , it may not be real world photography but instantly shows up the faults in a camera , the R1 performs excellently and is compared to the 350D in the review ,

Olympus on the other hand , performs very poorly! And I know , I wish I had seen these reviews before parting with the money!

joolsveer

As I said above I am very happy with my Olympus and I was unaware of the previous poster's issues. It is not my main camera but I continue to use it as it fits in my pocket so I can take it most places. I have never noticed a problem with colour correction. In the past I have used Olympus film cameras and have always been impressed by the optics.

I did a quick google for a review on the camera and came up with this site http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/OLYC5000/C50P.HTM.

Extract

Test Results
In keeping with my standard test policy, the comments given here summarize only my key findings. For a full commentary on each of the test images, see the C-5000 Zoom's "pictures" page.

As with all Imaging Resource product tests, I encourage you to let your own eyes be the judge of how well the camera performed. Explore the images on the pictures page, to see how the C-5000 Zoom's images compare to other cameras you may be considering.

* Color: Very good color. Slightly oversaturates some strong primary colors, and a slight tendency to leave a warm cast in images, but good overall. The C-5000 Zoom produced good color in most instances, although the Auto and Daylight white balance settings sometimes resulted in a slightly warm color balance. Color accuracy was quite good, although saturation was a little high for my taste on some shots. Outdoors, skin tones were pretty good, though slightly pink, but the blue flowers were purplish. Indoors, the Manual white balance again won out, and overall color was nearly accurate. The Manual setting produced the best results on many occasions, with good white values on the House poster and Davebox, and it handled the very difficult household incandescent lighting of the Indoor Portrait test quite well.

* Exposure: Accurate exposure, but high default contrast. An effective contrast-adjustment option though. The C-5000 Zoom's exposure system handled most of my test lighting pretty well, actually producing more accurate exposures with its default setting than is often the case for some of my more difficult subjects. Its default contrast is quite high though, causing it to lose highlight detail and plug shadows on harshly-lit subjects like my Outdoor Portrait test. Offsetting this though, its contrast adjustment feature does provide a fair range of adjustment, helping tame the contrasty tone curve when needed. Indoors, the camera required an average amount of exposure compensation, and produced accurate exposures. The camera's high contrast limits dynamic range under harsh lighting, but image noise is lower than average in the shadows, preserving detail there. Despite the high contrast though, the camera both distinguished subtle tonal variations on the Q60 target and held onto significant shadow detail on the Davebox shot, a worthy accomplishment.

andy1249

Yeah , Jools that review is accurate , for me , who takes a lot of pictures of flowers and macro photos , and who also takes a lot of landscape ,seaside shots , that blue to purplish cast is an absolute nightmare ,

I could not get accurate sky colours and some of the blue flowers came out completely the wrong colour , for me this is totally unacceptable and like i said , many cameras do not have this issue.

joolsveer

The Olympus wasn't the camera I went into the shop to buy. I had my mind set on a Canon but the shop (I think it was Bestbuy in a smallish town in Texas) didn't have my preferred camera in stock and I didn't want to go away without getting a decent point and shooter.

Valentia

joolsveer,

To be honest if I was to make a decision based on the two pics you posted (not your photographic skills BTW) I definitely wouldn't. The colours, noise and depth are awful. They look like high end phone pics.

joolsveer

Here are three shots I took on Sunday at Farmleigh. I have not manipulated them in any way apart from reducing the size to 640 X 480. They are just random shots taken at the Program setting.

Fionn

ok
well thanks for all the input - there's so much choice!

what caught my eye about this camera was Sony's flash presentation, i guess i'm a marketing man's dream, customer loyalty etc. i tend to stick to the one company/product line if i've had positive experience, since i've had experience with Sony already i looked up their offerings first.
here's the link to their promotion (turn down your speakers - the sound gets a bit tedious)

http://www.sony.ie/ShowArticle.do?article=1123689907716&language=en&country=IE&campaignId=EMC-05EM48MYSONY

there seems to be trade offs in all the comparisons as far as i can see like what bp_me mentioned about less megapixels but greater zoom etc.

I looked at the Canon 350D it's a great camera no doubt, however it is a SLR and really i'd be content to have, as shrimp said a point and shoot, it's just that the Sony would presumably have everything needed and a little more to be a competent camera.
and i looked also at Panasonic FZ7 and the Canon Powershot s2 IS which might suit me too.

I take the point of perhaps spending a lot less and see how things go then it wouldn't be as painful to upgrade to SLR however i'm sure i could flog the Sony if i was going to move up. But to be honest when i take a photo be it crap or not, I'd rather have the advantages a higher spec point & shoot would offer.

i'm still a bit confused by it all.

Anyway nobody said it was a bad camera which is something and it was highly recommended by the DPReview but i'm not making any decisions just yet

thank you all once again for your interest and advice

and I suppose I’ll be back again annoying everyone with dumb questions if I ever do choose a camera

joolsveer

I had a quick look at the Sony blurb and I am impressed with the Carl Zeiss lens which I think should be comparable to a Canon, Nikon, Pentax or Olympus lens. I would not have the same regard for lenses made by Sony themselves as the other companies - particularly Zeiss - have very long histories in the optical area.
As I mentioned on another thread I have a Zeiss Ikonta made in the 1950s and it was the Zeiss lens which made me buy the camera.

pokypoky

I bought a Nikon D70 when i didn't need it and at the time I felt I had made a terrible mistake because it was simply too advanced for me. I'm finally getting used to using it now about a year on and I think its the bees knees but I felt like the bee's arse for a while after I bought it.

Go for something simple first I'd say let me be a lesson to you.

Fionn

After a lot of soul searching pocket searching and comparisons etc. I've decided to take shrimp's initial advice and opt for the Canon EOS 350 and i also considered all the comments in between, hopefully pokypoky's observations won't apply to me!! if they do, well i can be a lesson to someone else

thanks again!

Borderfox

I would agree with your decision, I had trouble deciding what camera to go for and in the end got a 350d from amazon.co.uk for €740. I couldn't be happier with my purchase. Excellent camera, one you can grow very easily into... happy snaps

andy1249

Bravo man , you'll enjoy it , remember if you not sure of the setting just stick in ton the green square and everything is automatic.!! The green square is the piece of p*ss mode , should be no problem at all.