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Recommend a camera for a budding hobbyist photographer?

LosOjos

By LosOjos
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Busybub

Busybub

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@Busybub I've thanked your post but it was begrudgingly - I'd convinced myself I couldn't afford a camera until you posted links to those sites selling second-hand cameras and lenses!

 

So cheap I might even pick something up myself. Missed a 5D for 350 quid a few weeks back!

john

john

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A lot of tripods have hooks under the main stem, so you can hang your bag or other weight from it to make it [more] sturdy.

 

Yup a lot do, my Velbon one does and its great a really nice tripod :) I have a great monopod now as well thanks to an edgueek member who was selling his kit off :)

LosOjos

LosOjos

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So it's looking like a tripod should be the first accessory I buy then! Great shout on Digital Photo magazine btw mattx, had a quick flick through on the tram this morning and I'm already picking up tips from it :)
LosOjos

LosOjos

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There are some ridiculously cheap Chinese made lenses going on eBay; has anybody had any experience of them? Also there are a lot of "macro conversion" lenses, anybody had any experience of those?
LosOjos

LosOjos

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I actually like that photo! So maybe as a specific type of lens (i.e. shallow depth macro) they're OK but for anything more I'd need a better lens? (sorry, I don't know all the technical terms yet!)
mattx

mattx

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There are some ridiculously cheap Chinese made lenses going on eBay; has anybody had any experience of them? Also there are a lot of "macro conversion" lenses, anybody had any experience of those?

 

There is a reason why they are cheap.........can you guess what it is ? ;)

Macro conversion lenses I would also steer clear of. I paid just under 450 quid for my Canon EF 100mm f2.8 USM Macro Lens - and as far as I am concerned it was the best 450 smackers I've ever spent.

The 50mm is 224 smackers and also excellent if on a budget.

Edited by mattx
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LosOjos

LosOjos

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Cheers, I may steer clear then, I'm just a little gutted that I didn't check how few lenses were available for NX cameras (although there are more coming out fortunately). How about lens converters, such as this:

 

Canon EF EOS Lens to Samsung NX Mount Adapter NX5 NX10 on eBay (end time 09-Feb-11 05:43:43 GMT)

 

which allows you to use Canon lenses with an NX camera? Do you just lose the ability to auto focus, or is there more to it than that?

 

BTW - great tip on Digital Photo mag mattx, I've just subscribed and am waiting for my tripod

mattx

mattx

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Cheers, I may steer clear then, I'm just a little gutted that I didn't check how few lenses were available for NX cameras (although there are more coming out fortunately). How about lens converters, such as this:

 

Canon EF EOS Lens to Samsung NX Mount Adapter NX5 NX10 on eBay (end time 09-Feb-11 05:43:43 GMT)

 

which allows you to use Canon lenses with an NX camera? Do you just lose the ability to auto focus, or is there more to it than that?

 

BTW - great tip on Digital Photo mag mattx, I've just subscribed and am waiting for my tripod

 

The magazine is excellent - always good tips and projects you can try. I've had a set of converters for my old Canon SLR lenses, - they worked but my god getting them on and off was something out of the krypton factor. They worked fine and like you said you have to set MF on the camera but as I tend to use that mostly it did not make a difference - I got rid of the converter in the end as it was way too much hassle. Sometimes I want to swap a lens quick, zoom to a macro etc - doing that with the converter was just hassle.

Was a shame really but sometimes you have to think of the pratical element.

All this talk of cameras has made me hopefully get out tomorrow and do some photography - problem is my tennis elbow is yet again causing me problems which means I will only be able to able to get a few shots off before having to put the camera down. Roll on Tuesday as I will be having another cortisone shot.

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K.C.Leblanc

K.C.Leblanc

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which allows you to use Canon lenses with an NX camera? Do you just lose the ability to auto focus, or is there more to it than that?

 

You'll also probably lose the ability to adjust aperture, unless there's a control for aperture in the actual lens (which I don't think there will be on an EOS lens). This is a bigger problem then you might imagine. In a normal setup lenses remain wide open (at their lowest F number) until a shot is taken. When I bought some really cheap extension tubes for my Nikon I discovered the lens stops right down (goes to the highest F number) with the tubes attached. You can literately see nothing in the view finder.

 

If you want to try adaptors, you might want to consider one that uses an older mount. If you go for M42 or OM all the lenses should have aperture rings, and they'll be a lot cheaper.

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LosOjos

LosOjos

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Well I finally got the camera yesterday, had a quick play with it last night and so far I'm very happy with my decision :)

 

Also, if anybody else is reading this thread who is also just getting in to photography, found a fantastic app for Android: Photography Trainer

 

EDIT:

Also, for anybody who posts their photos on Facebook, Flickr etc., there's a great free app that you can use to quickly access them all from albums on your phone (it downloads them only as you view them so it doesn't clog up your phone's memory): JustPictures!

Edited by LosOjos
capncrunch

capncrunch

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If you go for M42 or OM all the lenses should have aperture rings, and they'll be a lot cheaper.

 

I personally use OM lenses on my Olympus DSLR and i will continue to use them when I can afford to upgrade to my camera (probably to aCanon). Yes there is no autofocus and no automatic aperture control but they are muuuuuuch cheaper. An example being Tamron Adaptall2 80-200mm f2.8 bought off ebay for £150, the equivallent modern DSLR lens from canon with the same Focal Length and Aperture £1000

LosOjos

LosOjos

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Managed to take a couple of (what I consider) decent shots over the weekend, anybody with a spare few minutes who'd like to critique them, I'd appreciate it as that's the best way for me to learn :)

 

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5218/5439558224_a8b4f8cbfb.jpg

All Good Things... by JoshJohnson88, on Flickr

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4153/5438916929_ffe9d6526f.jpg

Mr Pothead by JoshJohnson88, on Flickr

 

 

One thing I have noticed is that on one of my monitors here and my girlfriend's monitor (the PC I edited them on in RAW) the colours look how I want them to, but on my other work monitor and my brother's PC they look very dark - can anyone recommend any sites/tools that'll help me calibrate my home monitor so I know I'm getting them to look as close as possible on screen as they will in print?

Busybub

Busybub

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One thing I have noticed is that on one of my monitors here and my girlfriend's monitor (the PC I edited them on in RAW) the colours look how I want them to, but on my other work monitor and my brother's PC they look very dark - can anyone recommend any sites/tools that'll help me calibrate my home monitor so I know I'm getting them to look as close as possible on screen as they will in print?

 

You need a hardware profiler, something like a color munki should do both monitor and printer

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Busybub

Busybub

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Would the ColorMunki Create be sufficient for the time being? I'm not going to be printing my own photos yet, any I want printing will be sent off to Kodak or someone to print, I just want to calibrate my monitor

 

NEW Colormunki Create - Colour Calibration and creation on eBay (end time 28-Feb-11 11:47:05 GMT)

 

One of these:

 

X-Rite ColorMunki Photo (CMUNPH) - Warehouse Express

 

Not cheap, but cheaper than Gretag Macbeth, will profile your monitor and printer.

 

Otherwise, if that's too much, best bet is to print your stuff through somebody who provides a profile pic you can manually calibrate against.

Peak Imaging do this, you can download the test picture and have them print one off and send it to you for comparison.

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  • 2 months later...
LosOjos

LosOjos

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Sorry to drag this thread back up (I'm not really but I thought I'd start out all polite like :p), but I just wondered if you lot could clarify something for me:

 

My camera has a 1.5x crop factor, does this mean that if I were to buy a 50mm prime, I'd effectively get a 75mm prime?

 

Also, do all lens focal ranges refer to the 35mm range, or might the Samsung NX lenses (for instance) be the actual focal ranges as they are only for the Samsung NX cameras (which all appear to have a 1.5x crop factor)?

  • 2 weeks later...
LosOjos

LosOjos

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Just thought I'd say, great tip on the OM lenses; managed to pick up an OM->NX adaptor, a Tokina 70-210mm telephoto and a Zaiko 50mm prime for £85 including postage! I'll admit I've not got much to draw comparison on, but I think the quality of the photos with the Tokina is excellent, especially considering I only paid £25 for it:

 

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2729/5708275588_8b9d1702bb.jpg

Office Safari by JoshJohnson88, on Flickr

 

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2659/5708274222_702ee0b745.jpg

Mill Renovation by JoshJohnson88, on Flickr

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3069/5708272742_f9422657ab.jpg

My First Glass by JoshJohnson88, on Flickr

 

I'm still waiting for the Zaiko to be delivered

unixman

unixman

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I have a Ricoh KR5 which I purchased with my first ever pay cheque in December 1979. It's still as good as the day I bought it. I also regular use a Pentax LX of 1980 vintage (the Rolls Royce of cameras in my opinion) and an Exakta VX from 1951. I'd wonder how many of todays digital cameras will still be in regular use in 30-60 years time? Not many I suspect!
LosOjos

LosOjos

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I'd wonder how many of todays digital cameras will still be in regular use in 30-60 years time? Not many I suspect!

 

Very true, but I'd say that's because as with anything digital, technologies are constantly changing and improving, and at one point or another, the only way to continue improving is to stop being backwards compatible. So the current cream of the crop dSLR such as the Canon 7D Mark III will still be a great camera in 50 years time, but will probably barely live up to entry level cameras of that time!

 

I'll admit straight away that I know very little of film photography, but my understanding is a good film camera is a good film camera, full stop. If a better type of 35mm film comes out, it'll still work in a 35mm film camera, right? So in that sense, film will always have the edge in that if you have a great camera it'll always be a great camera!

 

The flip side to me, is that I can shoot random shots all day long, and even if only 1 out of 300 gets kept, it hasn't cost me a penny. For a beginner like me, that's massively important! Can you imagine how much it would cost me in wasted film and development time to do that?!

 

So although I may one day buy myself a nice film camera, right now I wouldn't even consider it :)

webman

webman

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The flip side to me, is that I can shoot random shots all day long, and even if only 1 out of 300 gets kept, it hasn't cost me a penny. For a beginner like me, that's massively important! Can you imagine how much it would cost me in wasted film and development time to do that?!

 

On the flip side, if you only had film, you would be financially motivated to get very good very quickly! ;)

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