Photographers Help!

[notsosmall]

I want a decent camera for taking good quality shots like the ones shown on here all the time

Was thinking DSLR'S but never used one before anyway i found this and really like it and think it would suit my needs

Samsung WB5000

Any views or comments welcome from people in the know

Thanks

Chris

[bmwhere?]

I really wouldn't recommend fixed lense SLR's like the Samsung one you suggested. One of the main advantages of SLRs is the ability to change lenses for different applications. Quite often in the world of high quality photography, its not the camera body that produces the quality, but the lenses you are using.

With SLR's you shouldn't really consider it a single purchase, but rather you start with the basic equipment, then invest in some decent lenses and possibly upgrade the body if you want some more features. You will generally stick to one brand so you can upgrade the body in the future without having to replace your lenses, so picking the right brand for you is really important.

Basically, there are only really two brands to choose from - Canon or Nikon! Sony Alpha's are pretty good and cost effective too but don't have the level of 3rd party support that you get from Canon or Nikon. As said before, you will generally pick one brand and stick to it, so people will always tell you that Nikon is better than Canon or vice versa depending on what they have themselves. The truth is, there is very little in it and it really comes more down to the lenses you buy than the brand of camera body.

At the professional end of the scale, Nikon probably edges Canon, but you really need to know a lot about photography to get those sorts of results. At the cheaper/beginner end of the scale, I'd say Canon are the better camera as they usually deliver better results in automatic mode. Cheaper Nikons really need more manual setup to get the best results.

The major difference which you should consider is how usable the camera is to you. I have a Canon and find everything really intuitive and easy to use. Give me a Nikon and I'm completely stumped and can't work anything out! A few of my friends use Nikon and they have the opposite problem, Nikon is easy to use and Canon just makes no sense! I think what it comes down to is how your brain works, some people will naturally find the Canon more usable while others will prefer the Nikon.

My advice would be to get the one that YOU prefer (i.e. not the one I prefer or some random bloke in a camera shop!). Get yourself down to a local camera shop and have a good play with both cameras to see which you find easiest to use. Both manufacturers generally stick to the same layout and setup functions, so if you upgrade, the new body will already feel familiar.

Canon

The current entry level Canon is the 1000D which is an amazing camera for the price. You should also still be able to pick up brand new 400D's and maybe even 350D's (both discontinued) which are both very capable DSLR's and now offer a great entry level for DSLR's for around the same price as that Samsung! If you can stretch to a 500D, then you'll finally get the ability to shoot video - Not really something you need on a DSLR, but a nice feature to have in your pocket!

Nikon

Nikon's current entry level is the D60 which should be comparable to Canon's 400D. To be honest, I don't really know so much about the various Nikons to really advise you!

In both cases, you can buy the camera's in 'Kit' form, where you get the body and a basic lense included, which probably gives you the best starting point.

[stum450n]

you'll probably be best off looking into the canon eos range - you can get some fantastic results with just the inbuilt settings.

To give you an idea, these where taken with a Canon 1000D using a combination of the auto settings and a few levels tweaks when importing from RAW:

Now I'm no photographer and the options where easy enough to select and combine - much more so than anything I had used in the past so in my [limited] experience, I would happily recommend the Canons!

[bmwhere?]

Here's a few of my shots taken with a Canon EOS 450D.

Believe it or not, this shot was taken around 13:00 on a (mostly) sunny winters day - You can see the sun obscured by one of the towers on the left of the picture.

The following two shots are actually fully automatic, taken from around 50m from the cars using a 200-400mm (very large) Sigma lense.

These two are taken with the same Sigma lense with manual settings to get the best results in the conditions. The jumping Ford on rally finland is not really perfect, but was taken from around 150m from the jump!

Edit to say: No post processing on the above pictures other than resizing and the jump picture is also cropped!

Edited November 25, 2009 by BMWhere?

[bmwhere?]

A slightly different shot of the P1 above was used in Total Impreza magazine