Can anyone recommend a decent Digital SLR?

[wacbzz]

I have a Pentax K10D...

+1

This is a great camera. But what you must do first and foremost is go to a photo store and put each one of your potential choices IN YOUR HANDS. I promise you that if you don't like how the camera feels in your hands while you are taking pictures, you will not use it. Period.

 

[PEU]

+1 for Pentax.

Purchased a K100 body more than a year ago with a Sigma 18-200 lens and never looked back.


Pablo

 

[bitslammer]

I'm loving my Nikon D90 but for a little less $$$ the D40 is hgihly regarded.

Here's a good site with great info: http://www.kenrockwell.com/

This guy does amazing work on reviews and guides. In his opinion the D40 is still the best for value.

He has plenty to say about all the major brands and models.

 

[WadeF]

This is unfortunate you can't get real good macros with a DSLR unless you have a lens designed for it. I have my good ole' Canon S3 Powershot and I can put the lens right up against the object. I wonder what the design differences are so that is not possible with a DSLR?

So you want every single lens to have macro focus? That's just not how it works with DSLR's. If you want to do macro, you get a macro lens. There are some all in one lenses, but you often trade away sharpness, speed, etc, to have an all in one. You will get better results if you buy a lens that is made for a specific purpose.

 

[wacbzz]

I'm loving my Nikon D90 but for a little less $$$ the D40 is hgihly regarded.

Here's a good site with great info: http://www.kenrockwell.com/

This guy does amazing work on reviews and guides. In his opinion the D40 is still the best for value.

He has plenty to say about all the major brands and models.

The best, most unbiased site on the net. All his Pentax info - he admits - is copied from the official Pentax site.

***************

Here's something even more important to think about Roguesw...do you want to learn to become a good photographer with a DSLR or do you want to turn a dial and let the automatic sports/landscape/portrait/macro/fireworks/etc settings do the work for you???

 

[roguesw]

Actually I am interested in learning how to use the features of the DSLR rather than using the auto features of the camera.
I like fiddling with iso and settings on my current point and shoot and I have a photographer friend who always talk shop with me.
So, I have never thought about owning a DSLR before but the tech geek in me just wants to learn it now.
I just came back from playing with the range of cameras from Nikon, Pentax and Canon,
the shop was great, i was able to handle the Nikon DX0 series as well as the D3 series and also the Canon 1D, 5D, 450(XSI) and the Pentax K20D.
I learned from talking to the shop guy and reading on the net and talking to my friend is dont worry too much about the camera, try to shop around for a decent price,
At the moment, I pretty much like any of the cameras from the Nikon and Canon range, and am shopping for a good deal with lens kits.
Thanks for all the help so far, and KenRockwell's site is really informative.

 

[geepondy]

If you narrow it down to a couple of cameras and are undecided, goto www.dpreview.com and read their reviews of the particular camera. Very in depth and I would say unbiased.

 

[vtunderground]

Here's a good site with great info: http://www.kenrockwell.com/

Thanks for the link, I hadn't seen that site before.

 

[bitslammer]

Thanks for the link, I hadn't seen that site before.

It's funny because recently he's been on a very pro-film kick.

While I agree with his assertions about the superiority of film I'm not goo enough yet to know absolutely that I've captured the shot to my liking. For me digital allows me to see what I've done wrong instantly and make the corrections.

He's also got some great general guides and how to's on their. All in all I learened a ton from his site in short order.

 

[TONY M]

Thanks for the link, I hadn't seen that site before.

Ken used to hate the full frame format until Nikon announced the D3, he then did a 180.

 

[bretti_kivi]

lol!

I did a shoot recently at an ice-track day and was astounded to see that the K100Dsuper did almost as well as my K10D. (mine was with the wife..)
another +1 for Pentax.

Lenses? at least Pentax *fully* supports old glass. I know, I have a 135manual and a 24 auto, both manual focus. Work fine, the 24 reports aperture, the 135 nothing. That's OK by me..

Bret

 

[LEDobsession]

A close second to that would be the Nikon D60 kit. There are a number of lenses you can get to compliment the 18-55mm that comes with either camera, one of which is a 55-200mm that each manufacturer has.

This is what I got and I am really happy with it. My kit came with the body, a carrying bag, 18-55mm VR, 55-200mm VR, and a few videos for $750. I think you can still find this deal in some camera stores.

 

[ElectronGuru]

Since you are in Tokyo, you might consider getting a second hand Canon 30D or similar, and use the savings to invest in good glass.

Awesome advice this. Depreciation with DSLR bodies is horrific, lenses are where you should invest. For example, get the oldest used Canon xxD that includes sensor cleaning that you can find, then get one high quality lens with the savings. A macro (EF-S 60) or anything Canon L will do. Eye popping results.

 

[Lit Up]

I have an old Pentax istDL model. I flashed the firmware so it could read the SDHC standard and support those cards. Now they're fixing to come out with a newer SD card standard called "SDXC" that will eventually support up to 2 terabyte on an sd card (Amazing, isn't it?) Doubtful my camera will be supporting that newer standard, so it's something to keep in mind when shopping for a dSLR body...

http://gizmodo.com/5125341/new-sdxc-memory-card-spec-supports-2tb-capacities

 

[Wattnot]

It looks like you got quite a few Canon XSi recommendations so add mine to the pile!

You can get the XSi and it should come with the 18-55 IS lens. Then you can add the 55-250 IS lens and have things very well covered. Make sure BOTH of those are IS (that stands for image stabilization). The IS designation is important because it's not just that one feature but all aspects of the lens are improved on those models and they perform well above their price range.

 

[qwertyydude]

One thing to consider is also the battery, only the Pentax k2000 uses AA batteries. I don't know about you but I find battery life kinda limited on DSLR cameras, they all are only like 800-1400 mah and cost like 50 bucks. And it's almost a guarantee when I go out with friends and they bring their cameras that they always die, went on vacation, friend never got to use his camera because he forgot to bring the charger, me to the rescue with 3 extra sets of batteries for my camera and flash. 1 set of nimh batteries easily tops 2000 mah and is only like 10 bucks, so it's much more economical. I can usually shoot 800-1000 shots on my k2000 even with flash on I get at least 300. Also you can drop in AA batteries in a pinch. Plus I have a large shoe mount flash that uses AA batteries, and my backup compact uses AA Olympus sp-350. Better to consolidate your consumables.

Also my favortie thing about the Pentax is the in-body stabilization and lens compatibility, so you can use old lenses and still have rock steady pictures. With a steady hand 1/8 second portrait exposures are not an excersize in futility. I also got a perfectly good used 300 mm telephoto zoom lens for only 60 bucks. You can't hope for that with a modern in-lens stabilized zoom. I'd say with $1000 and judicious shopping you can get the K2000, 18-55 lens, telephoto zoom, macro lens, good quality flash, I like my Metz 48 AF-1. Even even get a used prime lens too, old manual style ones still have perfect shooting capability on digital cameras. Pentax's premium prime lenses are some of the best most respected ones on the market in terms of quality.

 

[alpg88]

just look at what pros use, 90%of them use canon, for a good reason.
i recomend canon d5, the cheapest (doesn't mean bad in this case) camera you can get with full frame sencor 24x36, plus canon's sensors are the best on the market. my friend is pro photographer, you wouldn't catch him use anything other than canon.

you said 1000 is your budget, is that for camera body only, or camera and lens?
cuz i doubt you can get both for 1g. good lens alone worth about 500-700.

 

[qwertyydude]

Most people aren't pros and most people I know who buy their first DSLR are overloaded with features they never use, even after learning how to use all the features 99.99% of the time they still choose not to use them. How many people here even know how to use HSS and Slowsync with their flash? Very few.

Buying an ultra high end camera because the pros use it is like saying you might as well buy a formula one race car cause your friend is a pro racer. When in reality you just need a sporty sub-compact. $1000 on a body and you're broke and screwed because now you need all the other high end components. Dollar for dollar you can't beat the entry level friendliness and feature set found in Pentax, Canon certainly can't beat the amount of features in as low a price range because they don't offer a $450 camera and lens. Ignore the pros and get what YOU need cause the pros also say you need a $1000 carbon fiber tripod to shoot outdoors, I do just fine with a $75 aluminum one.

Also take a look at dpreview.com and see what they say about the K2000 vs the similarly priced and featured XTi. It's also kinda known that the site has a bias for anything Nikon and Canon. Yet they have less good things to say and more bad things to say about Canon's entry level camera vs Pentax's, which has a long good and short bad list. To overcome dpreviews bias is no small feat. And again we're talking entry level here not what pro's use. My own experience has shown me Canon's entry level DSLR's absolutely suck when taking natural light photography, their white balance setting for incandescent light always turns out badly blue, flourescent terribly green, it's like it doesn't even work at all. I'm not bashing Canon here but having handled and shot with both Canon and Pentax entry level DSLR's I have to give Pentax the win because it is clearly superior in the entry level category.

I have to keep repeating that because I'm not a pro, you're not a pro so why kid yourself and think you need that formula one race car to shoot your kid blowing out his birthday cake. "Just wait let me fiddle with my camera, hold on, crap got the ISO wrong, hold on let me adjust my depth of field..." I see people do that at birthday parties at work all the time, they got too much camera and never learned how to use it.

 

[alpg88]

Most people aren't pros and most people I know who buy their first DSLR are overloaded with features they never use, even after learning how to use all the features 99.99% of the time they still choose not to use them. How many people here even know how to use HSS and Slowsync with their flash? Very few.

Buying an ultra high end camera because the pros use it is like saying you might as well buy a formula one race car cause your friend is a pro racer. When in reality you just need a sporty sub-compact. $1000 on a body and you're broke and screwed because now you need all the other high end components. Dollar for dollar you can't beat the entry level friendliness and feature set found in Pentax, Canon certainly can't beat the amount of features in as low a price range because they don't offer a $450 camera and lens. Ignore the pros and get what YOU need cause the pros also say you need a $1000 carbon fiber tripod to shoot outdoors, I do just fine with a $75 aluminum one.

Also take a look at dpreview.com and see what they say about the K2000 vs the similarly priced and featured XTi. It's also kinda known that the site has a bias for anything Nikon and Canon. Yet they have less good things to say and more bad things to say about Canon's entry level camera vs Pentax's, which has a long good and short bad list. To overcome dpreviews bias is no small feat. And again we're talking entry level here not what pro's use. My own experience has shown me Canon's entry level DSLR's absolutely suck when taking natural light photography, their white balance setting for incandescent light always turns out badly blue, flourescent terribly green, it's like it doesn't even work at all. I'm not bashing Canon here but having handled and shot with both Canon and Pentax entry level DSLR's I have to give Pentax the win because it is clearly superior in the entry level category.

I have to keep repeating that because I'm not a pro, you're not a pro so why kid yourself and think you need that formula one race car to shoot your kid blowing out his birthday cake. "Just wait let me fiddle with my camera, hold on, crap got the ISO wrong, hold on let me adjust my depth of field..." I see people do that at birthday parties at work all the time, they got too much camera and never learned how to use it.

lol, i see your point,
than why would you need dslr than in a first place???? all you need point and shoot camea.
dslr is a pro camera, not something that ammatures need, if you still want one might as well do things right the first time.

there is a good old saying "we aren't rich enough to buy cheap things"

 

[qwertyydude]

I have a point and shoot and the difference is that the DSLR is much, much better at indoor photography than the point and shoot. Now the performance difference between high end DSLR and the entry level DSLR are not so much that the amateur can spot the difference in a print, even an 8x10 blow up you'll likely not tell the difference.

Also with P&S you can't easily get the cool portrait shots where only the subject is in focus and background is blurred.

But between point and shoot and DSLR there is a clearly visible difference when you blow it up. Pro's will pixel peep all day long and say one little bit of purple fringing on the edge will spoil the whole print therefore you need a $3000 pro camera and $1000, but then again that's actually more a lens issue. All the more reason to get a Pentax, lens compatibility. You can get excellent quality really cheap used glass.

If you want I can post identical pictures of a subject in low light at iso 400 with a Canon entry DSLR and my Pentax k2000 and my olympus point and shoot, SP-350 still one of the better P&S I love it's built in flash hotshoe. you'll clearly see the difference between the P&S and DSLR but you'll be hard pressed to tell the difference between the two DSLR's. At that point between the DSLR's I'd then pick the one with the best features, lens compatibility, battery, and overall cost. Having used both Canon and Pentax entry level Pentax wins hands down.

DSLR is not necessarily a pro-only camera it's also great for more creative higher quality photography beyond the limits of P&S cameras. But you don't have to get the pro camera if all you wanna do is take better shots than the P&S. Save your money and don't buy more than what you need. If you're perfectly happy with your P&S then don't get the DSLR, but don't just go all in and find yourself in over your head.