camera gurus - time to buy a digital SLR?

[bob tilton]

i made the mistake of visiting the local mac store which had a canon rebel digital SLR, the $1k model. well - i think i want one.
BUT is the quality there yet? going to an all digital platform would be at best conveinent. i still question the optics.
has anyone made this leap yet? i am not talking about the point and shoot digital cameras. those are great and i have a 4mp canon digital elph. i consider this my "documentary" camera but prefer my nikon fe2 film camera to take those "artsy" shots.
i'd like to hear feedback from people shooting in the field who are shooting pics of our favorite subjects.
i work in the graphics industry and have noticed the transition from film to digital. it seems like when the shot is important that people are still using film. all else is mostly digital.

[cegerer]

Bob, I use a digital camera daily as part of my business. (does that make me a professional photographer????? haha). I have several cameras but my main ones are a Fuji S1 (SLR based upon a Nikon platform and accepting all Nikon lenses and speedlights) and a micro Sony DSC-U20 (2 megapixel). The Fuji allows use of all of my existing 35mm Nikon lenses and speedlights. On a daily basis however, the Sony gets used 90% of the time. It is so much more convenient!! I can wear it like a necklace. And the 2 megapixel size if more than adequate for 8x10 photos.

The Fuji??? I rarely set it at its full quality mode - highest quality = 25 Mg file for a single photo!!!!!!!!!!! Even at 2 or 3 megapixels, the prints are outstandning!!! Unless you are doing 11x14 or larger, digital is the only way to go.

[evren]

the new Nikon D70 is supposed to be very nice.

[campbellcj]

Are the SLR's markedly better in low light?

That issue, plus limited optical zoom capabilities, are the main reaons I've seen to move beyond the integrated compact digicams.

[Moneyguy1]

Nikon has a 8 meg SLR now for the famous price of $999. We have a 5 right now and love it. That, and a new HP 7960 printer make for a great combo..

[cegerer]

"Are the SLR's markedly better in low light?"

Low light without flash?? Yes, depending upon the lense it is much better. You could for instance use a 50mm f1.8 and have tremendous lo-light capability.

But one of the main reasons I went to an SLR was the extremely limited flash of the 'point-and-shoot' type digital cameras with builtin flash. Almost all of them are limited to 15 feet or so. My Nikon speedlight will go 60 feet and can focus in total darkness. Lense options were the other reason. Few digital cameras have anything close to a 'wide angle' lense. I've got a Nikon 18-35 ED zoom that is great. However, as with all digitial SLR's the focal length changes by 1.4x or so and is equal to around 24-50 in this case - still fairly wide. That's because your CCD (the digital 'film' per se) is smaller than 35mm film.

[bob tilton]

thanks for the feedback guys. now i am in research mode. the nikon d70 is not yet available, right?

[DByers]

Bob, You might email or PM Sam (swbsam) on the board. He is in the business and really knows his stuff. Might be able to help you out. He doesnt frequent the Off Topic Forum.

[DanTheCat]

My friend has a Canon 10D ($1500) and it is an awesome camera. Even though I'm a Nikon person (8008s and 4500) I don't know much about the Nikon digital SLR's. The quality and resolution from the 6MP 10D is good for probably 98% of my photo needs. (still waiting for that perfect shot to turn into a giant poster...)

If I had the extra money, I most likely would have already bought one. You'll have to let us know what you decide. They can't do everything film can do, but they can also do some things that film can not (like shooting 150+ photos without stopping to reload anything!)

Dan

[Jeremy Cottrell]

Anybody out there using Canon digital. I have an A2E film body and EOS lenses. I assume the EOS series lenses work on the digital bodies.

[swbsam]

the age old question, what camera should I buy ? in my almost 40 years in in the retail camera biz ( boy' did I just type almost 40 years, it doesn't seem that long) I must have been asked that question a million times, as all of you know cameras have changed and they will continue to change new models come out so fast now that we only stock what we can sell in a week because when the new model hits no one wants the old one and I mean no one, the average mark up on cameras is about ten percent, that rebel that your looking at costs the dealer 879.95 not much markup when you consider what it costs to run a business today but thats just the way the camera business is, as for that camera or any other removable lens digital camera there are some things to keep in mind the CCD sensor is behind the mirror and when you remove the lens if anything and I mean anything gets on that sensor you will see it in every picture, and if you try to clean the sensor you could ruin it, the only interchangeable lens camera to address this problem is the Olympus E1 and I am currently testing one of those I'm taking it to Daytona with me to, the other problem is when you put a lens that was designed for use with a 35MM camera you don't get full wide angel unless your using a canon 1DS ( which costs $8000.00 for the body)since the CCD sensor is smaller than the 35MM film size so if you like very wide angel lenses (like I do) you will find it will get very expensive to put some nice wide angel glass on a camera like this, probably more for the lens than the camera costs, and then lets talk about that tiny little flash thats built on these types of cameras, pretty much worthless, a descent clip on flash will cost you about $220.00 to $400.00, now lets talk about power, just like with video cameras if your battery goes dead you can just put the camera away so at least an extra battery , lithium ion rechargeable's about $50.00 and you would be better of with the clip on battery pack that holds two batteries, now lets talk memory cards, since you now have this wonderful six megapixel camera your going to need a much bigger and faster card lets say a 512 40x or even a 1gig card somewhere between $200.00 and $350.00, and how big did you say your hard drive was on your computer ?, and lets think, we go on a trip, we fill up our memory card, if you don't have a lap top computer to down load our images to or an item called a digital wallet you had better have more memory cards, other than these little facts and that the new model will have more features and cost less Hey why not !!

well......you did ask

[island911]

Great post, swbsam.

fwiw, bob, I went for the middle of the road "SLR" Minolta dimage . . has a fixed, but bright (big) lense, which can take filters, doublers, ect.
THe big downside to the slr types, is they are chunky. ..you can't slip a big lens/camera into your pocket. (well, without looking like your happy to see. . .)
Anyway, I think you can find them for ~$600.

On memory cards, the 40x or whatever rating, is often marketing BS. check out this link for card times


example: here's a shot I took today (Mark Wilsons duck)
It's been cropped down, shrunk 50%, and jepg compressed way down (to fit under 100k limit)