Conundrum

Catfirelily

Hi all,
I'm new here and new to digital photography.
I'm contemplating buying my first dslr.
I still have an old Minolta 7xi from the 90's with a couple of decent lenses.
I know the camera is worth buttons but was wondering if the lenses will be worth keeping and using on a dslr. I believe they will fit the sony A mount but am not sure if they will function properly
Are the sony camera's up to the Nikons and Canon's in the same price range..?
Should I go the sony road with my lenses..?
Or bite the bullet and go Canon/Nikon...?
Thinking of spending around E500 on a body.
Thanks in advance for your advise.

condra

I shoot Canon so I can't advise you on the Minolta/Sony lens continuum but I can tell you lenses are getting better and better all the time. Some of the decent lenses of old aren't worth shouting about by todays standards.

Canon and Nikon are obviously huge these days, and there are benefits of going with one of those big brands:

• great build quality
• reasonable resale value
• huge range of lenses and accessories
• huge online community support
• swap lenses with friend

For choosing your camera, apart from budget, I think you need to consider what type of photographs you will be taking, how mobile you need to be, and whether or not you need features such as weather proofing, HD video, fast continuous shooting, flip out screen, etc..

Full Frame cameras like the Canon 5d series are great for portraits and landscapes. They have huge sensors and offer a slight improvement in image quality. Crop sensor cameras (xxxd/xxd/7d)are often more compact, lighter, more portable, and some, such as the 7d can shoot very fast continuous rates, which is great for wildlife and essential for sports photography.

The cheaper "entry level" DSLRs from Canon such as the 600d offer tons of features, great value, and amazing image quality. The main drawback is the build quality, though it never bothered me.

In my experience with half a dozen Canon cameras over the years, I've found them to be extremely well made, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend anyone buy a Canon DSLR second-hand. If you have a look at adverts.ie, you might find a bargain.

Personally I think the best bargain in used cameras right now is a used 5d mk1, which can be had for around 500 quid on Adverts.ie. It doesn't shoot video, but the images are stunning.


Whatever you choose, let us know how you get on...

Catfirelily

Thanks for the advice but I already went the sony road.Bought an A77 on adverts (body only) for e700.
Still getting my head around all the functions at the moment but WOW! what a camera!
My lenses function fine on it but are showing their age,auto focus is slow and noisey and the cropped sensor takes away abit at the wide angle ends.
Contemplating selling them on and buying new or upgrading second hand.

condra

Congrats on the new purchase! You won't be stuck for megapixels anyway!

If your lenses don't demand much money and aren't worth selling, you might still appreciate the "look" in video mode. Personally I don't care for old lenses for still photography, but they can look cool for music videos and the likes.

Looking forward to checking out your work in the Random thread!

Best of luck.

Catfirelily

Thankyou :-)