I'm gonna pull the trigger and get a DSLR...

Been lusting for one for quite sometime. My wife's laptop has been on life support for quite some time and last night it finally kicked the bucket. Best Buy has a 18 month no interest offer on anything storewide $429 and up. So I'm going to take advantage and get her a new laptop for her birthday and me a DSLR just because I want it. I think this one looks like the best deal. I know alittle bit about photography but if anyone has any pointers or comments please feel free to chime in. I'll mostly be using it to take pictures of my daughter and probably using it for landscape photos when we go back to China.

welcome to one expensive ass hobby.. my condolences


might be a better deal for ya..

fwiw.. go there and see how it feels and shoots with a card in it.. made the mistake of buying one once and the time it took to write to my CF2 card was too long for my use..

tips.. dont use Automatic!! shoot P-M learn the camera settings.. without having to look..

Dont get that for 600 you could get the T3i

I use it regularly for both videos and stills and its wonderful.

My friend has a d5200 (i think, cant keep track of all the numbers.) and it tends to be over saturated and doesnt perform too well in low light.

So if you want the same thing except a higher megapixel count as well and a few better tweaks id go with the Canon T3i

it sucks youre buying it from best buy because theyre so much cheaper other places.

i got mine for $525 with a canon bag and the kit lens

def a good hobby to get into. especially if growing is one too because then you can have high res stills and videos of your plants! haha

Thanks for the input guys.

I think I have made up my mine on getting this one. I've been doing research for acouple weeks now and the price seems pretty competitive, this has 2 lenses that got pretty good reviews. It's probably more camera than I need. The T3i is definitely a better camera but from looking at Amazon I see a package deal with 2 lenses is atleast $120 more than this one and I need to have a budget.

Thanks for helping. Any other comments, suggestions are welcome.

no problem! the kit lenses they sell with them arent anything fancy and if you get into it they will quickly be replaced haha.

check ebay or craigslist too

Ebay has some barely used ones with a couple different lenses for real cheap.

heres from the canon direct store

http://shop.usa.canon.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_10051_10051_283207_-1

its refurbished but id almost want that more because it means its already had that 1 in 1000000 chance of being defective and theyve fixed it fully to canons standards.

best of luck either way! post some pictures once you get it

I refrained from bashing Bestbuy.. nuff said

look into best buy price matching. heard they were going to do it. just not sure how soon. in stores and some online sites.

Lens > Body

Also don't get ripped off buying it from a chinese seller offering it for half of everywhere else...

neosapien said:

Been lusting for one for quite sometime. My wife's laptop has been on life support for quite some time and last night it finally kicked the bucket. Best Buy has a 18 month no interest offer on anything storewide $429 and up. So I'm going to take advantage and get her a new laptop for her birthday and me a DSLR just because I want it. I think this one looks like the best deal. I know alittle bit about photography but if anyone has any pointers or comments please feel free to chime in. I'll mostly be using it to take pictures of my daughter and probably using it for landscape photos when we go back to China.

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That camera is good but I would recommend a Canon Rebel T3 or T3i for around the same price to $100. When buying a camera most are going to need a 18-55mm lens so I would recommend getting one with that kind of lens. I will also have to add that I do not recomend buying used or referbished ones because the warranty on them aren't going to be as good or as long compared to a brand new one.

This is the camera I would recommend if you wanna spend the money on the right camera the first time around
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Canon+-+EOS+Rebel+T3i+18.0-Megapixel+DSLR+Camera+with+18-55mm+Lens+-+Black/1980124.p?id=1218304066943&skuId=1980124

gioua said:

welcome to one expensive ass hobby.. my condolences

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That I can agree on. When you start to keep the stuff on the memory card then it becomes more costly.

Toolage 87 said:

That camera is good but I would recommend a Canon Rebel T3 or T3i for around the same price to $100. When buying a camera most are going to need a 18-55mm lens so I would recommend getting one with that kind of lens. I will also have to add that I do not recomend buying used or referbished ones because the warranty on them aren't going to be as good or as long compared to a brand new one.

This is the camera I would recommend if you wanna spend the money on the right camera the first time around
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Canon+-+EOS+Rebel+T3i+18.0-Megapixel+DSLR+Camera+with+18-55mm+Lens+-+Black/1980124.p?id=1218304066943&skuId=1980124

That I can agree on. When you start to keep the stuff on the memory card then it becomes more costly.

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The refurbished ones i was talking about come from the Canon Direct store. So they run diagnostics on the camera and swap out any parts that havent been operating correctly and then put it through the same tests and scrutiny that they put their other products through.

Also everyone refurbishing is a licensed builder of the canon company. So its like theyre grabbin one that hasnt worked or was an open box or display model at a store and replace any broken or high use parts like the shutter and mirror, and clean the sensor under clean conditions, as well as other simple to replace parts.

But yes i agree with the canon t3i.

i own one and theyre the best bang for your buck.

Bouta get a tokina 11-16 for them WIDE ANGLES.

So it pretty much comes down to this... For $600 I can get the D3100 with the stock 18-55mm lense and an extra 55-200mm lense. Or I can get the T3i with just the stock 18-55mm lense. I'm literally just going to go down there and feel which one I like better. I'm still leaning towards the D3100 because of the extra lense but I'm open to having the T31 sway my opinion if ergonomically I like it better. I've seen the world of photography is much like the world of computers. You have your different camps and fanboys. Linux vs Mac. Nikon vs Canon and the like. But in all honesty I think either is more camera than I need and I'm such a novice that any real differences I wouldn't even notice. Anywho I do appreciate everybody's help and I'll surely take a bunch of naked pictures of my wife and share them as your reward. Just kidding.

haha for sure thats what it comes down to in the end.

Im a canon fanboy but its mostly because i use them for video and in that race there really isnt any competition between nikon and canon.

Nikon is over saturated and under megapixeled (if thats a word)

Also youll probably rarely use the 55-200 and the extra money could be put towards a 50mm 1.8 lens ($75-$100) which is IMO (and alot of pros opinions) the best starter lens period.

So either one you choose id suggest gettting a 50 mm lens ASAP! hahaha

take some pictures of your lady plants!! haha

budbro18 said:

haha for sure thats what it comes down to in the end.

Im a canon fanboy but its mostly because i use them for video and in that race there really isnt any competition between nikon and canon.

How is Canon better for video? In the reviews I've seen that's not one of the points listed, and most reviews actually give the edge to the 3100 because it has autofocus for video while Canon does not. Also why do all cameras only record 10 min?

Nikon is over saturated and under megapixeled (if thats a word)
Is that true or is that the fanboy talking? I haven't heard that mentioned either

Also youll probably rarely use the 55-200 and the extra money could be put towards a 50mm 1.8 lens ($75-$100) which is IMO (and alot of pros opinions) the best starter lens period.

There wouldn't be extra money because they're the same price. What would one use the 55-200mm for? I'll look into that lense those thanks for that tip!

So either one you choose id suggest gettting a 50 mm lens ASAP! hahaha

Definitely

take some pictures of your lady plants!! haha

I will, cruise on over to my journal in my sig in acouple days and I'll show you some of my ladies!!

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[FONT=Tahoma, Calibri, Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]Im not so much a fanboy as a realist. As soon as canon comes out with a shitty product i wont buy it. haha same goes for apple and all the other company vs company fanboy battles.

I checked all the sources and watched several reviews on everything months before i decided to get my camera. So i was pretty confident in what i got.


Let us begin.



If youre making cinematic movies/ videos you will never use autofocus while recording. I understand you arent planning to do this, but the autofocus really cant even track someone walking away or towards the camera.

And even the best DSLR autofocuses are shitty. Theyre just not consistent enough for video like a panasonic HVX (DVX) would be because theyre not a "camcorder" its a dslr.

The still image autofocus might be faster but i dont know because i rarely use the autofocus.



There are a few reasons DSLRs only run 10 minutes or so.

First, is for tax reasons. If they run over 15 minutes then they have to be scheduled as a "camcorder" and get another tax on top of the DSLR tax

Second, is because of the sensor. Where a camcorder has a 3.1-8 mp sensor and is made to be ran continuously, a DSLRs sensor has a high MP count and is usually only exposed for fractions of seconds.

So the continuous recording on a DSLRs sensor can wear it out or even fry it right then and there.


But there is a firmware update called magic lantern that is basically like jail breaking your camera. It unlocks a bunch of functions that Canon would have to charge/get charged extra for and it is free.



As to oversaturation, it is just a fact that nikon is more saturated. And for cinematic video/movies you want a more even dynamic range so that you can change more in post production.

And to add to the oversaturation the low light performance of Canon is better than nikon. So when you turn up the ISO (gain) you get less of those RGB pixels everywhere.



When it comes to lenses and money i was using the price from the refurbished canon store link. IMO id rather have something thats been tested thoroughly, fixed, then tested again by the original manufacturer.

But kit lenses are very soft around the edges and dont do well for video recording either.



In the end theyre both good cameras. But in a general opinion of the pros out there Nikon are more for a photographer and canon are for a videographer.



I just like the fact that my t3i is a DSLR built to shoot video, as opposed to a DSLR that has the option to shoot video.


haha sorry i got so technical and long.








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budbro18 said:

could be put towards a 50mm 1.8 lens ($75-$100) which is IMO (and alot of pros opinions) the best starter lens period.

So either one you choose id suggest gettting a 50 mm lens ASAP! hahaha

take some pictures of your lady plants!! haha

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hehe I'm on my 2nd one after busting the first. Cheaply made but for the price it's the best. I have a $300 35mm prime F2 and it's not nearly as sharp as the 50mm. I broke my first 50mm 5 mins after taking this pic from the car window heh:


I was so bummed but I definitely replaced it.

I use to have a camera made by Sony but when I see alot of people using canon for photography while going to car shows. I figured I would buy a T3 and see if it works for what I need it for or not and I loved how it feels in my hands and I have had alot of people thinking I was running a Nikon or Sony camera witch is nice to hear.

I have a 75-300mm lens and I very very rarely use it. You have to do alot of long range photographs in order to make the lens worth it. 99% of the time for me I use my 18-55mm lens.

I will highly recommend buying a UV filter for your lens(s) because it will help save you from having to buy a $200+ lens if it gets scratched. If the lens filter gets scratched then its only $20 to $30 and not $200+ witch to me sounds alot better. Also make sure to pick up a memory card for it if you don't already have one.

If you want a camera to record video use a camcorder. They are build for it and if you ware one out then oh well because it cost you $200 to $300 before tax for a camcorder that does 1080p videos and records directly to a Flash memory card like the DSLR cameras.

In the end for me I will only buy a product if it passes what I want out of the gear and has more to offer then I want.

I think the universe is telling me to wait...

So I went to BB but apparently their T3i got STOLEN that morning right off the damn display rack! And they weren't getting another display til next week. So without being able to physically hold the 2 I decided to wait on buying anything.

Then on my way home the "check engine" light came on in my truck and my inspection is actually tomorrow.

I really think the universe just talked to me.

You can get the exact same camera and I believe same or comparable extra lens here for 150 less. Or maybe I just don't know shit about camera, could be I think.

http://www.amazon.com/Nikon-14-2MP-Digital-18-55mm-3-5-5-6/dp/B003ZYF3LO

Alright, well fuck. My truck needs too much work to pass inspection, so a new dslr is out of the question. But I went on craigslist and found the cheapest, used, still working dslr which was a Nikon D50 with a newer 18-55 lens, 3 batteries and a charger for $140. The guy was really cool and (rich) I could tell he kept good care of his shit. He showed me his D7000 he just bought which is why he was selling this. He showed me how to use the camera and we took some practice pictures inside and out. It was a success all the way around. Feeling bummed about my truck but in hindsight I think this was a good route to go, getting myself introduced to the world of dslr. Thanks again to everybody that helped me.