So my wife’s getting into photography, so we’re thinking about getting a dSLR. She’s into goofy creative type stuff, pics of people, that sort of thing. Not “set the camera on a tripod, position everything just right, set up a sun shade over there, blah blah blah.”
I’m thinking either Nikon D40x or Canon Rebel XTi. I could get either one for under $600 for just the body, or about $700 with a lense. Anything else I could/should look at for that price range?
I’ve read that the 18-55mm lense that comes with the Canon isn’t that sharp. So for about the same price as the $700 dollar kit I could buy the body and then get something like either of these:
For either, I’d be very tempted to get the 50mm f1.8 lens. Well built and sharp as a razor. Just learn to deal without zoom…
I haven’t used either of those cameras personally. I like Nikon build quality (judging based on the D70, D70s and D200), but it seems that Canon is extremely popular with most consumer-level photographers. Either is capable of producing great images.
www.dpreview.com - better information than anyone on here could give you.
Yeah I’ve been reading dpreview. I’ve read other recommendations to get that 50mm f1.8 lense too. The things under $100 too.
But… (Bear with me, I’m just starting the n00b stage) can you take pics with the background blurred without a zoom lense? She/we aren’t interested in just taking extra sharp pics you can take with a point & shoot…
Yes, the depth of focus is controlled by the f-stop. That is determined by the lens. An f1.8 is extremely small (or large, depending on if you’re talking about the number or the related physical size of the aperture) which means it will have a very small depth of focus.
Basically, if you had a 50’ ruler stretched out from your feet, at f1.8, you’d have a very small section of the ruler perfectly in focus, say from. If you went to something like f18 or f22, you’d have a much larger section of the ruler in focus.
I could go on a long rant about Canon products feel like dog shit until you get to the pro level and they have the full mag cases but I’ll just leave it at that. Nikon passes the “could I beat someone to death and still have it function” test, Canon consumer does not. Canon’s optics are slightly faster, but I tend to prefer the ergonomics of the Nikon (canon has odd button arrangements that are entirely to awkward to make real adjustments). “Quality” depends on what level you buy. If you can spring it, get the D70, gives you a few more options if you get heavy into the addiction and if not it still functions perfectly as a point and shoot.
Another thing that produces a blurred background is a panning shot.
Here’s an example of a blurry background due to using f2.8
You can see how things very near the bottom of the frame (hence nearer to the lens/camera/photographer) are blurry, while in the middle (where the focal point is) is relatively sharp, but then fades to a blurry again towards the top (where things are getting farther away from the camera). The jump between the hose and the far fender is really pronounced, since it was at f2.8 and there is a few feet separating the two.
Here’s an example due to panning with the subject (following the car with the camera as it drives by)
I could go on a long rant about Canon products feel like dog shit until you get to the pro level and they have the full mag cases but I’ll just leave it at that. Nikon passes the “could I beat someone to death and still have it function” test, Canon consumer does not. Canon’s optics are slightly faster, but I tend to prefer the ergonomics of the Nikon (canon has odd button arrangements that are entirely to awkward to make real adjustments). “Quality” depends on what level you buy. If you can spring it, get the D70, gives you a few more options if you get heavy into the addiction and if not it still functions perfectly as a point and shoot.
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The D70’s a bit much. Do you have any input/experience on the D40x?
I have the XTi and mostly only use the 1.8 50mm lens with it.
Do not buy the kit with th lens. The kit lens starts to make pictures look like dog crap after using better lens’s. I like the camera very much and it was worth every penny. Though, I have to say I chose the Canon because my brother has a lot of pro canon lens I can borrow. Otherwise I might have gone Nikon.
If you do get the Xti, I have some kind of cheesey tutorial DVD’s someone gave me you can have for free. They are made for a complete beginner.
Oh, another note. I am not sure of they fixed it or not, but some of the XTi’s has slightly wrong white balance settings in auto mode. I dont care because I never use auto mode anyway.
Gotcha. I guess it’s like anything, gotta pay to play.
I’m leaning towards the D40x. Even dpreview commented on it’s solid build quality. The kit comes with a decent zoom lense, whereas a decent zoom lens for the Canon would be $300 bucks. I could get the 50mm f1.8 lens but (consistent with what Mike’s saying) it falls apart in a year, and my wife’s not exactly easy on things. Plus it takes SD memory which is less than half the cost of compactflash.
So the Canon with a non-zoom lense and a 2 gig memory card would come to like $750, or $950 with a good zoom lens.
The Nikon with a decent zoom lens and a 2 gig memory card is $650 on Amazon right now. Seems like kind of a no brainer.
yea i always use autofocus… ive only used manual focus if you take a picture of umm, stars or somethign like that where u have a lot of time and are really relaxed, but sometimes i switch to manual and trust my eye for fun… but, generally 95% autofocus for me
Cool. It comes with an 18-55 AFS, and I’ll probably get her the 55-200 (also AFS) for her birthday. Doesn’t look like the lack of a drive motor should be a problem.
thats canon with 1 N
and yeah i want a d40 as well but i bought an S3 cause im not rich
so just buy my s2 for her to start with until you make you up your mind
