On Tuesday 14 August 2007 00:03, Adam Bower wrote:
On Mon, Aug 13, 2007 at 11:16:33PM +0100, Peter Alcibiades wrote: *long* post ahead.
<major snips>
like lipstick on a pig. The only thing to use, if you are serious about picture quality, is an SLR. The difference, he says, is huge.
He's over-generalised on a specific point, *technically* a decent slr with the right lens will be better, but when you've not taken the camera down the white water rapids in the raft as you're worried about losing it and have no photos even a photo taken with the worst camera ever will be better. ;)
From the "been there, done that" department - Don't ever take a camera on a rafting/canoeing trip unless it is in a *very* waterproof box and kit bag.. And I would agree with Adam, a decent lens is crucial for good photos.
- When considering SLRs, worry about dust. Every time you do a lens
change, dust will be attracted to the sensor.
Some people use a very thin rubber gasket between the body & lens to help reduce the ingress of dust.
Think hard about whether you actually need to change lenses, and if not, get the kind of lens that is flexible enough to leave in place forever.
If you don't need to change the lens don't bother with an slr, you'd almost certainly be wasting money (or need to own more than 1 body).
Agreed (but then I have several lenses plus a manual body)
You'd have just ruined the best point of having an slr and that's the flexibility of the damn thing, an slr with a lens that will do everything will be such a compromise you'd be better off with 2 compacts.
If you go the SLR route, I'd suggest getting a manual body to take the same lenses - Note, not all lenses will fit on a manual body. With the Canon, I avoid the EFS lenses so that I can chop'n'change bodies.
- Image stabilisation is fine, but beware of processing that increases
sharpness.
Image stabilisation is only really useful if you are taking photos from a stationary vehicle with the engine running or in low light conditions to give you a couple more stops or if you need to take it slower than either 1/60th or 1/30 of a second (depends how much you had to drink the night before).
At 1/30, consider a tripod or a monopod - The latter makes for a handy seal club or walking stick ;)
I like compacts which have full manual mode available. Most of the photos I take are taken on fully automatic modes, but having that full manual available is crucial for some kinds of work.
Agreed, and for low/zero light conditions, a bulb setting is very useful for those two hour exposures.
"what are you going to take photos of? (landscapes, people, sports, wildlife, indoors... etc.)"
If it is just holiday snaps, a point'n'shoot compact would do. Sports/wildlife would tend to indicate long lenses, fast shutter speeds, where as landscapes/portraits would lean towards shorter lenses.
Photography mainly comes down that you are always going to have to compromise on the equipment you use one way or another as no equipment is better than everything else for all situations.
Agreed - Although an SLR suits *me* for much of what I do, with the lenses, filters, and spare body, it ends up being a heavy bag of kit. Not good if you also go out hiking in the mountains of Norfolk.
I'd also suggest before buying any camera from any particular manufacturer that you check out what their previous form is like for having to issue updates to fix various issues with their cameras.
Also, if you are leaning towards an SLR, find a friend with one and compare notes (and possibly try it out).
Regards, Paul.