info on digital slrs pls

heggie

Hi, is £400 a good price for the EOS 300D ? and is this a good camera for a beginner wanting somethin decent. I have a 4mp camera at the moment, the hp850 but its fairly slow at doing action shots, will the eos be better ? thanks

Metacortex

Yeah, thats a great price. I got mine for E1100 in Berlin.

DotOrg

the 300D has just been replaced by the 350D so tyhe next few months will see lots of cheap second hand 300D's on the market.

€400 is a good price and yes, the quality will be far better than the HP camera. It has a steeper learning curve and you also have to spend money on lenses for the Canon but you can get professional quality from the 300D

Metacortex

I should have added that mine was worth every penny. Yes, definitely get it.

Mickeroo

thats a great price, i got mine for about 200 more than that, but it was worth every penny, you cant go wrong!

Zombrex

heggie wrote:

Hi, is £400 a good price for the EOS 300D ? and is this a good camera for a beginner wanting somethin decent. I have a 4mp camera at the moment, the hp850 but its fairly slow at doing action shots, will the eos be better ? thanks

The advantage of the 300D is that it is a SLR camera, which techically just means the view finder points down through a mirror and straight down the lens so you see exactly what you are taking the picture off (the mirror flips up to expose the film (or CCD on a digital camera) when you actually take the shot.

But more importantly SLR has come to mean a "proper" camera rather than a point and click type camera. It has nice things like lenses you can actually take off and change (99% of the technical quality of your photograph is decided by the quality of the lense, not the actually camera body which basically just holds the film), the ability to set the shutter speed and apature of the lense (how big the little hole the light shines through is) etc ect. Basically all the things a person who want to take pictures of granny on X-mas day doesn't care about but someone who wants to take interesting pictures does care about.

As SLRs cameras go it is supposed to be a good one if you are starting off learning about photography properly (ie not pictures of granny at christmas .. or at least very good pictures of granny at christmas). I have the Canon 300 which the film/analog version of the Canon 300D (the D is for digital, obviously enought) and I love it.

And if that price is correct it is about €577.36 which is a very good price for a 300D considering it was €1200 up until recently and has just dropped to between €750 and €799. I am actually heading into Dublin tomorrow to pic one up at the new price. Where did you see it for £400? Is that second hand?

acquiescefc

Anyone know anywhere I can get advice on D70.

Just got one recently and im finding it difficult to test different things when I dont have time. Not too technically minded but im not stupid.
Finding it difficult to differentiate between the four main settings(apart from auto) and when to use such as at gigs.
Still finding I have to take 40/50 shots to get one or two decent shots depending on distance/lighting etc.

Any advice/sites would be good., stonking camera, want to use it properly.

DotOrg

acquiescefc> have you ever used an SLR before, do you know what the settings mean.

read the tutorials at: http://www.photo.net/learn/making-photographs/

Concert/Gig photography is one of the most technically challenging types of shooting requiring a good knowledge of the limits of your camera so learn the basics first

heggie

hi thanks for the info, i saw it for 400 sterling on 7dayshop.co.uk

Zombrex

Bare in mind the £400 deal on http://www.7dayshop.com does not come with a lens as far as I can see, it is just the camera body. So you would have to already have a Canon EF (Canon's standard range of auto-focus lenses for their SLR range, works in both analog and digital SLR cameras) or Canon EF-S (newer, specialised, lenses for their digital SLR cameras, won't work in analog EF cameras) These types of packages are for people who already own Canon EF lenses and don't want to pay for another one they will never use. But if you don't already have a Canon EF lens you would have to go out an buy it seperately.

Just something to keep in mind. If you need a lense you are better off with the £450 version below the £400 camera, as that comes with a standard EF-S zoom lens.

Still very good value as far as I can tell, £450 is about €650. I just bought a Canon 300D in dublin for €799 ... my poor credit card is making wounded animal noises in my wallet

Elessar

I'd just like to add that I have the 300D and it is excellent. £400 is a good price, is that for the kit (i.e. the camera and 18-55mm lens?) If so then it's a good price. I can vouch for 7dayshop.co.uk, I bought the 50mm 1.8 lens from them with no problems.

FX Meister

I would wait and get the 350D if at all possible. You mentioned you wanted to take action shots. The buffer on the 300D takes a max of 4 continous shots where as the 350D takes either 11 or 14, I can't remember which. This means for fast sports shots you can take a lot more so it will be easier to get the one you want.

And regards the dude with the D70. I haven't got one but maybe some ideas for you. For gig photographytry bringing the iso up quite high so your shutter speed can be increased. You could also get a new fixed focal length lens that is faster, with a wider aperture, which lets in more light than a zoom lens set at the same focal length

acquiescefc

DotOrg wrote:

acquiescefc> have you ever used an SLR before, do you know what the settings mean.

read the tutorials at: http://www.photo.net/learn/making-photographs/

Concert/Gig photography is one of the most technically challenging types of shooting requiring a good knowledge of the limits of your camera so learn the basics first

I may have come across a bit thick but im not..just a little maybe!.

Ive never had an SLR before as ive been using fixed lens cameras, digital zooms etc. I know the limitations of light and have tried bumping up the ISO manually which works in some cases but it depends on distance. I was just wondering if there was somewhere that described the aperture settings etc and how best to use/when to use.
I know I may need a better lense, I am pretty clueless when it comes to 'f' numbers tho and a few other things, due to lack of proper education. Im learning but find it hard to try different settings in short timeframes, ie gigs. I cant really test it at home.

I have the manual, which is in french and only have an online version of it in english which isnt very portable!!

Have had a look at the site you mentioned but its still rather blinding me with techy stuff.

Zombrex

I recommend buying a book (I know that is sooo last century ). Any basic photography book in Waterstones or Easons will teach you the basics of aperture, shutter speed and focal length. I recommend a small pocket size one, they are easier to carry around with you when you are learning. Shouldn't cost more than €15 euro or so. Can't off the top of my head think of a good one to recommend that is available, maybe someone else can recommend one.

At the end of the day though practice is the best way to learn, instinctively, what is the best setting to use for a given shot

FX Meister

Or go to the library and get a few books and take info from all of them.