Learn me digital SLR's

So my wife has been making comments recently about how she would really LOVE a digital SLR one day. We have a few friends that have them and when we get pictures from them, generally, they are amazing. I'm thinking that I may start saving some money and get her one for Christmas.

The downside is I know nothing about them. What do I need to know? Brands, capabilities, what lenses to also buy, external flash, etc? I know you magazine-type folks use swanky high-end ones...any advice for novices?

And is there a legitimate market for used ones? I would think they would depreciate like stones.

I am curious about this too, as I have been looking for one myself. The only thing I have really gathered so far is that it is generally better to put my money in the lenses vs. the body, and I like the feel of the Canon bodies in my hands, which are kinda small.

Brands: Nikon, Canon, Sony, Olympus. Nikon and Canon tend to have the widest selection. Don't just buy based on the camera body, buy based on the system of lenses, flashes, etc; as you will keep the lenses much longer than the body.

Most entry level DSLRs are 8-10 megapixel, but a few are 6. Once you get above 6, it doesn't really matter, unless you are blowing photos up to above an 8x10"

As far as lenses go, most cameras come with something like an 18-55mm lens. The zoom rating on compact cameras is a multiplier, like 6x, but on an SLR it is told by the focal length of a lens. The 18-55mm lens would be called a 3x zoom on a compact camera.

One of your eyes has the same field of view as a 50mm lens. However, that is based on a film camera. DSLRs have sensors smaller than a piece of film, so there is a "crop factor" when using a DSLR For example, Nikons have a crop factor of 1.5x, so the 18-55mm lens would give you a field of view equivalent to a 27-82.5mm lens on a film camera. This means that the included lens goes from fairly wide angle to somewhat zoomed.

I'd suggest sticking with the included lens for a while, then buying a new one only when you are ready. When you are ready, I'd suggest a moderate telephoto, like a 55-200mm

The same advice goes for flashes. Wait until you are ready. Don't go out and buy a ton of equipment in the beginning. The advantage of an external flash is the increased power and ability to bounce the flash off of the ceiling. This gives your photos a warmer, more natural look.

Capabilities: depends on your budget.

I would suggest a Nikon D40, only because I have one and love it. The best way to choose a camera is to find a few in your price range, go to a REAL camera store (not circuit city) and hold them all in your hands, play with the buttons, etc. Some won't feel right in your hands, others will fit like a glove. Then, buy one on ebay. You can usually find refurbished or "salesman's samples" for $75-$100 off the new price. A good resource is www.kenrockwell.com

One more thing: Don't use the Auto mode, use Program mode. It's better to learn how to do it yourself, Auto mode is just a crutch.

Well I can advise on the Nikon end of things. First off what exactly do you want to take photos of? Just family, friends, pets, things like that? Or do you want to go out take pictures of wild life and nature or what? That answer will be what tells us what lenses to focus on.

So for now we will focus on the body. Now you have said that this will mostly be for your wife, but I'm sure you will use it as well. So one of the main things you will want to do is go out and handle the bodies to see what feels the most comfortable in both of your hands. In the Nikon line for the "novice" the main focus will be the D40/60 line, however also take a serious look at the D80 body as well as they have come down in price significantly with the introduction of the D90.

The D40/60 line of cameras is VERY capable, and I know many professionals that picked up a D40 to use as their personal body while saving their more expensive bodies for their work. For the most part I seriously doubt that you will be able to justify spending the extra money on the likes of the D90 or D300. The main thing about the D90 or the D80 for that matter is the ability to autofocus with regular AF lenses. The D40/60 line does not have a built in autofocus motor so you neef to get AF-S of motorized lenses that have the motor built into the lens. This really isn't much of a problem anymore as the new Nikon lenses coming out are AF-S and more and more of the third party lens manufactures are building motorized lenses for the Nikon cameras.

If you do get her a kit for christmas (body and lens) if the D60 is to both of your liking I would suggest getting that with the 2 lens kit, it will cover a wide range and will have the vibration reduction lenses.

Also be very careful where you buy your equipment there are TONS of scammer websites out there that offer great deals on camera equipment. Online the two main companies I buy from are http://www.adorama.com and http://www.bhphotovideo.com. For used equipment I look at keh.com.

As Tommy said the lenses are what you will end up keeping as you replace bodies. I have lenses that are from 30 years ago that I still use today.

Tommy gave really good advice. In case you missed this part: GO TO A REAL CAMERA STORE. It's well worth the slightly increased price. I'd go to an independent if I could find one, but I've also had reasonably good luck with Wolf, although they were better before they merged with Ritz.

(Incidentally, about a year ago I was in a Ritz because I was out of town and needed something and happened to find a saleslady who had been with Wolf. She shared my view of the merger, and was one of the most helpful people I'd found in a Ritz store.)

As for brand, I'm a Canon guy for legacy reasons, but you can't go wrong with Nikon. (I also have an inexpensive Nikon point and shoot.) If I were starting all over from scratch today I'd probably go Nikon, but I have too many lenses and whatnot from my film days when I started out with a Canon.

As for the body, I'd get a fairly entry level body. You can always upgrade as your skills (or your wife's) justify it. I'm a moderately competent photographer, and I still use entry level bodies.

Well there are many schools of thought on this, and just as many opinions. I will third the advice to go into a real store and handle each body to see what fits best. this is a good reviews site, not as biased as Ken Rockwell.

I first had a Pentax K100D (currently called K200D), a great entry level camera. I sold it recently because I found a sweet deal on an old Canon XT, and I prefer Canon's color rendition to Pentax's, and Canon lenses ironically are much cheaper than Pentax.

If I were buying a do-anything camera that's easy to take on vacations, I would look at the Olympus E-420, because it's small and Oly packages them with the best kit lenses in the business, period. Super-sharp.

Olympus and Panasonic are even coming out with a new format called "Micro-4/3rds" that is even smaller, about the size of a compact camera but with interchangeable lenses. I'm holding out for that on my next camera purchase. Actually, Panasonic already has their camera in that format, the G1 coming real soon.

AS far as accessories, I'd just stick with the kit first. Learn how to use it, learn what you're missing, and buy that later.

And used cameras, they're pretty good deals. I sold my Pentax K100D about 2 years later for $300, when it cost $800 new. There are many great reliable sources for used digital cameras, like KEH, Cameta, etc.

rebelgtp wrote: Well I can advise on the Nikon end of things. First off what exactly do you want to take photos of? Just family, friends, pets, things like that? Or do you want to go out take pictures of wild life and nature or what? That answer will be what tells us what lenses to focus on.

Mainly family, friends, pets, etc. I'd like the ability to do a good job of capturing action shots...my son playing soccer, motorsports, etc. There will probably be some outdoor/nature shots, but those would be secondary.

rebelgtp wrote: The main thing about the D90 or the D80 for that matter is the ability to autofocus with regular AF lenses. The D40/60 line does not have a built in autofocus motor so you neef to get AF-S of motorized lenses that have the motor built into the lens. This really isn't much of a problem anymore as the new Nikon lenses coming out are AF-S and more and more of the third party lens manufactures are building motorized lenses for the Nikon cameras.

Can you explain a little more about AF and AF-S? Those are new terms to me.

Thanks for the advice so far...I knew I could depend on the GRM community for help!

They refer to the autofocus. AF lenses only have the connections for auto focus, and must be driven by a motor in the camera body. Until recently, all Nikon SLRs had a motor in the body. The newer AF-S lenses have a motor built in, and generally focus faster and are quieter. The D40, D40x, and D60 (and maybe a few others) do not have a focus motor, so you will have to focus AF lenses manually.

dyintorace wrote: Mainly family, friends, pets, etc. I'd like the ability to do a good job of capturing action shots...my son playing soccer, motorsports, etc. There will probably be some outdoor/nature shots, but those would be secondary.

Ok for those purposes (aside from the motorsports) I would stand by what I said earlier, if you get the D40 or D60 get them with the kit lenses. For the D40 it will be a 18-55 and most of the time these days the 55-200 VR. For the D60 it would be the 18-55 VR and the 55-200 VR. VR can be very useful once you get use to working with it as it does take a second for it to lock in. These lenses are considered to be "slow" meaning that they are a variable aperture that starts at around F4 and goes up to F5.6 as you zoom in. This means that these lenses will not be the best for indoors (without flash) or darker conditions. If you have a "faster lens" like one of my favorites the 50mm F1.4 I can shoot indoors, with virtually no light and no flash if I wanted. However with the "faster" lenses expect to spend more money. For instance a 70-200mm F2.8 lens costs over $1000.

Now for motorsports you will also want a little more reach in most cases as you will be in the stands, I would suggest something in the 70-300mm lens category, I personally use the Sigma 70-300 for that spot in my kit.

Another lens to consider for low light/indoor shots and also great for the family shots is the Nikon 50mm 1.8D, it can be had for around $100 new and can produce beautiful shots. However it would be manual focus with the D40 series cameras.

dyintorace wrote: Can you explain a little more about AF and AF-S? Those are new terms to me. Thanks for the advice so far...I knew I could depend on the GRM community for help!

Ok the difference in the AF and AF-S lens can be summed up fairly simply. On a regular AF lens the motor that drives the focus of the lens is housed in the camera. On an AF-S lens the focus motor is housed in the lens itself. This actually allows for a couple things, first is it allows for a lighter, smaller camera body (like the D40 and D60). The second thing that this allows is for the focus to in general be faster because the motor is more tuned to the lens itself instead of just a general motor in the body to try and focus all lenses. A problem that occurs on some of the older AF cameras is that when you would put on one of the bigger, heavier lenses the focus would be very slow because the motor couldn't handle moving so much weight.

So what does all this mean? Well a camera that is speced for AF lenses can use either or lens type and have auto focus. However if the camera body is speced for AF-S lenses it does not have a focus motor in body so it can only autofocus with an AF-S lens. You can still use AF lenses on an AF-S body they just won't auto focus and you will have to focus manually.

Don't forget you can get Sigma HSM lenses to autofocus on the D40.

ignorant wrote: Don't forget you can get Sigma HSM lenses to autofocus on the D40.

This is correct because the HSM is Sigmas version of AF-S however Sigma also makes lenses that are simply marked as "motorized" because they do not have the same motor as the HSM models (HSM is the faster quieter version). Tamron also makes motorized versions of some of their lenses.

Here is a link to the list compiled by the folks on the Nikonian forum of lenses that are fully supported by the D40 and D60.

http://www.nikonians.org/forums/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=152&topic_id=13319&mesg_id=13319&page=

Oh and be careful of some of the sellers online, I have seen some of them (that are supposedly reputable sellers) matching the D40 and D60 in "kits" with lenses that will not auto focus with those bodies.

http://search.live.com/cashback/products/offerings/18003/5373723

Use live cashback to save mo dollars

I am in the market for a Nikon.. I don't like canon's, too much emphasis on MP and flash in their branding which turned me off. So I'm looking for a D40, but wouldn't mind a Rebel XS or XTI if the price were right.

Trying for $400 for the kit(thats the budget actually). Before the baby shows up I will add a fast shallow depth of field lens and a bouncable flash for the hotshoe will be my purchases. No big deal if I don't get some mega long rage deal just yet.

I bought my D40 kit for $365 from Cameta Camera on eBay. They had a lot of cameras.

Tommy Suddard wrote: They refer to the autofocus. AF lenses only have the connections for auto focus, and must be driven by a motor in the camera body. Until recently, all Nikon SLRs had a motor in the body. The newer AF-S lenses have a motor built in, and generally focus faster and are quieter. The D40, D40x, and D60 (and maybe a few others) do not have a focus motor, so you will have to focus AF lenses manually.

explain? My D40x adjusts the lens automatically.

it has the AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm lens

I would be careful with Cameta, they are actually the company I was talking about earlier. I had a problem with an order from them as well. They are also the ones that I have seen place regular AF lenses in D40 kits and not mention in the auctions at all that then lenses will not auto focus with the cameras. Just seems a bit shady and dishonest.

Finding a D40 kit for around $400 should not be a problem at all. For a very nice budget lens with a shallow depth of field look at the Nikon 50mm 1.8D I mentioned earlier, you will have to manually focus but you will get some BEAUTIFUL results. Another very nice lens that will autofocus with the D40 is the Sigma 30mm 1.4 HSM.

Grtechguy wrote: explain? My D40x adjusts the lens automatically. it has the AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm lens

That is because the focus motor is in the AF-S lens itself.

If you decide to buy online, MAKE ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN YOU'RE BUYING A CAMERA WITH A US WARRANTY. You do not want to get stuck with a gray market camera. Ask about this point, don't assume.

I have a D200 and I like it, but it's fairly bulky. D40 and D80 are both great Nikon cameras.

Don't buy off-brand optics, either.

Yeah I hang out on Slickdeals a ton and everyone keeps bantering about all the great "deals" they are getting with 25-30% off live cashback. I'm not sold.

rebelgtp wrote: Finding a D40 kit for around $400 should not be a problem at all. For a very nice budget lens with a shallow depth of field look at the Nikon 50mm 1.8D I mentioned earlier, you will have to manually focus but you will get some BEAUTIFUL results. Another very nice lens that will autofocus with the D40 is the Sigma 30mm 1.4 HSM.

To continue my education, a Nikon D40 "kit" would contain the body and 2 lenses? Would those lenses be AS or AS-F? Would the 50mm 1.8D and the Sigma 30mm 1.4 HSM be in addition to the 2 lenses in the kit? And would it make sense to purchase the 50mm and 30mm or would they (mostly) be redundant?

How much do you know about aperture and how much light a lens can collect? Have you heard the term "fast" lens before?

Very little, no and no.

Lenses have the aperture, which is a ring that controls how much light enters the camera. We rate the size of an aperture in something called an f stop, shown by this symbol: f/.

The smaller the number, the bigger the aperture. For example, f/22 is a smaller hole than f/3, so the f/3 would let more light in.

Most kit lenses have about an f/3.5 maximum aperture at the widest angle, but as they zoom in, the maximum aperture drops to f/5.6. That would be considered a "slow" lens, because it doesn't let much light in.

"Fast" lenses, like the 50mm f/1.4, are great for low light photography, because they can open up, and accept a lot of light. With an f/1.4 lens, you probably won't need a flash. Lenses with this big of an aperture tend to be expensive, though. Unless you do a lot of low light photography, a very fast lens isn't necessary.

Aperture also affects another aspect of your photos, something called depth of field. This is how much of the photo is in focus. A large aperture, like f/2, will give you a short depth of field, while a small one, like f/22, will give you a long depth of field.

Short Depth Of Field: Only one area of photo in focus.

Long Depth Of Field: The whole picture is in focus.

Note: I took both photos with my D40.

Makes perfect sense. So if I decide that I'd rather have a "fast" lens, would I avoid the kit and just buy a body and the lens I want? Or would the lenses within the kit be good to have as well?

Now I want an amphibious car as well as a digital SLR! Crap, this is getting expensive!

furiously writing down notes over here Keep the advice coming, I am learning a ton