Used Digital SLR

[MTBMaven]

In an effort to respect Guero's request for no non-bike related content in the Market Place I'm posting in the Pub. I am in the market for a used digital SLR for an upcoming trip to South Africa. I want something with interchangeable lenses not one of the prosumer quasi DSLRs on the market. If anyone has something they want to sell please let me know. Thanks!

[Kid A]

Originally Posted by MTBMaven

In an effort to respect Guero's request for no non-bike related content in the Market Place I'm posting in the Pub.

hmm. smells fishy to me

SOLD!!! non-mtb_200 Gallon Fish Tank

j/k bret - btw is intenion to get all non bike sell/buy stuff out of marketplace alone or off of str site???

Not suggesting an issue with op here but really just curious as in addition to the bike stuff I have posted in the past i have also posted a truck for sale as many other have as well). dont want to wash out this post but sticky in market place is closed...sorry

mtbm - sorry no help with camera. best of luck on trip and camera find

[MTBMaven]

I know a lot of non-bike related stuff is still posted in the market place but I'm trying.

[DownHillPhil]

Originally Posted by Kid A

j/k bret - btw is intenion to get all non bike sell/buy stuff out of marketplace alone or off of str site???

Not suggesting an issue with op here but really just curious as in addition to the bike stuff I have posted in the past i have also posted a truck for sale as many other have as well). dont want to wash out this post but sticky in market place is closed...sorry

+1.

why not just make a NBR market place sub forum

[tkblazer]

Originally Posted by DownHillPhil

why not just make a NBR market place sub forum

that would mean more work for george who is already busy enough with school, working full time and trying to manage an ever growing STR community

[EBasil]

What's the DSLR budget and have you looked at brand-new Nikon D40 or D60 kits?

[el_d00der1n0]

I'm talking to a buddy about his Rebel XTi, and he's pretty happy with it. It's only about 600 brand new.

[guero]

its george's call really...

[DownHillPhil]

Originally Posted by tkblazer

that would mean more work for george who is already busy enough with school, working full time and trying to manage an ever growing STR community

"work harder not smarter"

time for georgie to delegate some shiet!

[Abstrakt77]

Originally Posted by el_d00der1n0

I'm talking to a buddy about his Rebel XTi, and he's pretty happy with it. It's only about 600 brand new.

There's always tons of great deals on the XT and XTi's w/ lens on Craigslist.

[MTBMaven]

Originally Posted by EBasil

What's the DSLR budget and have you looked at brand-new Nikon D40 or D60 kits?

That's a good question. I have money but it's a matter of what I want to spend given the market. I have nothing to base my answer on. No much help I know, sorry. I'm having a custom DeSalvo on the way and the trip costs so $800 on a camera is going to be hard. I will look at the Nikon D40 and D60 kits.

[jeffj]

If $800 is tough to swing on the camera body, what will you do for lenses?

That's where the real investment comes in and it's not cheap to get a few chunks of worthy glass.

I understand you wanting quality output, but you may want to reconsider two things:

1) Taking a DSLR and complement of lenses on a trip to South Africa.
- Unless you're pretty confident about security in the areas and circumstances under which you'll be travelling, lugging around a sack of relatively expensive camera gear could be asking for trouble.
- Lugging around a relatively bulky DSLR and requisite sack of glass is a PITA when doing the tourist thing.

2) Investing more into a camera body than the lens(es)
- If you're not going to invest in decent lenses, I think there are better alternatives to a DSLR in many if not most cases. The exceptions being the need for extreme focal lengths or aperture size and maybe the need for some specific manual control that a particular compact digital may not have.

Just curious what it is that a camera like a Canon G9 (and available accessories) would not provide for you, that you feel you need for your trip?

I recently spent 10 days in the South Carribean and left all my DSLR's and expensive lenses at home. In hindsight, I am really glad I made the decision to do so. It would have taken a lot of the fun out of the trip having make the outings more about the camera than the trip itself and I felt the camera I brought (Canon SX100) performed very well in most circumstances.

Just something to consider...

Have fun on your trip.

[ocrider]

Go on Ebay. I got my canon rebel xt for three hundred and some dollars brand new! they retail for 600 $. sealed in the box. I realy like it. Theres a ton of rebel xts and xtis going for nothing on ebay.

[MTBMaven]

Originally Posted by jeffj

If $800 is tough to swing on the camera body, what will you do for lenses?

That's where the real investment comes in and it's not cheap to get a few chunks of worthy glass.

I understand you wanting quality output, but you may want to reconsider two things:

1) Taking a DSLR and complement of lenses on a trip to South Africa.
- Unless you're pretty confident about security in the areas and circumstances under which you'll be travelling, lugging around a sack of relatively expensive camera gear could be asking for trouble.
- Lugging around a relatively bulky DSLR and requisite sack of glass is a PITA when doing the tourist thing.

2) Investing more into a camera body than the lens(es)
- If you're not going to invest in decent lenses, I think there are better alternatives to a DSLR in many if not most cases. The exceptions being the need for extreme focal lengths or aperture size and maybe the need for some specific manual control that a particular compact digital may not have.

Just curious what it is that a camera like a Canon G9 (and available accessories) would not provide for you, that you feel you need for your trip?

I recently spent 10 days in the South Carribean and left all my DSLR's and expensive lenses at home. In hindsight, I am really glad I made the decision to do so. It would have taken a lot of the fun out of the trip having make the outings more about the camera than the trip itself and I felt the camera I brought (Canon SX100) performed very well in most circumstances.

Just something to consider...

Have fun on your trip.

All very good questions. My wife and I have done a lot of international travel since getting married almost 4 years ago. We both have used point and shoot 10MP cameras on the last two trips (Peru and China). We have a small collection of amazing photos, but plenty of so so photos. Lack of wider angle lens, polarized filters, etc. have limited our ability to take better pictures (not to mention we are pretty inexperienced photographers). I realize by simply buying a DSLR camera is not going to make us mr and ms Ansel Adams but I would think it would help? Part of me doesn't want to miss a killer photo of a lion or elephant because all I have a point and shoot digital Casio camera. Does this sound like correct (or at least reasonable) logic?

[katonk]

Would you really be willing to carry around all those heavy lenses to the far corners of the world? Personally I'm getting less tolerant of lugging things around in my old age. Have you seen the pictures from a Canon Powershot G9?

[jeffj]

Originally Posted by MTBMaven

All very good questions. My wife and I have done a lot of international travel since getting married almost 4 years ago. We both have used point and shoot 10MP cameras on the last two trips (Peru and China). We have a small collection of amazing photos, but plenty of so so photos. Lack of wider angle lens, polarized filters, etc. have limited our ability to take better pictures (not to mention we are pretty inexperienced photographers). I realize by simply buying a DSLR camera is not going to make us mr and ms Ansel Adams but I would think it would help? Part of me doesn't want to miss a killer photo of a lion or elephant because all I have a point and shoot digital Casio camera. Does this sound like correct (or at least reasonable) logic?

I understand and sympathize with your dilemma. But here's what I think you should consider:

The lens required to take a killer shot of a lion or elephant that is merely 100yards away will probably need to be at least a 300mm or 400mm focal length lens. I'll speak to the Canon brand since I know it much better, but it's likely to be similar no matter the brand.

The very minimal lens that would take a shot worthy of lugging a dslr setup over a high quality compact setup like the Canon G9 would probably be the Canon 70-300 IS which costs about $540. It's a decent lens, but it's not "L" quality in either output or build quality. At it's longest focal length, the max aperture will be f/5.6 which is likely no better than you'll get with a point and shoot and at 100 yards with a 300mm lens, you will still significantly crop a shot of elephants, let alone lions.

Now you'll need something in a more normal zoom (unless you want to get a few primes, but that'll cost even more) and $400 to $500 is the minimum that will make it worthwhile over a G9. The Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 comes to mind. Excellent optics with OK build quality and autofocus performance.

The 17mm wide end of that zoom coupled to the 1.6x (0r 1.5x on a Nikon) crop factor of the camera bodies you are looking at of a so-called normal zoom will get you to a 28mm equivalent focal length of a regular 35mm film camera. The G9 is equivalent to 35mm at the wide end (*more on this later). That is close, but definitely noticeable in social situations, however it still does not really give you true wide angle capabilities.

That will cost you another $400 to $500 at a minimum.

The G9's zoom is the equivalent of a 35mm to 210mm and has an aperture range from f/2.8 at the wide end to f/4.8 at the long end. Canon makes both a wide converter ($150) and a teleconverter ($110) and they require an adapter ($22) to attach them. Most of the time you would not be using the converters, but I don't see them being any less convenient to use than an interchangeable lens on a dslr.

So, in a nutshell, for a G9 ($480) and another $282 for a total of $762 you get a far more portable setup with similar output in almost all situations compared to over $2000 to cover a similar focal length range and much bulkier and conspicuous to boot.

Of course, I would still recommendan extra battery or two and as well as extra memory cards which would be a similar cost regardless of camera if you shop around.

I think you would find the output of a G9 at least on par with a dslr with average lenses and it has a slew of manual controls as well as RAW capability. It has a hot shoe for a flash just like a dslr.

The dslrs you are looking at do have an advantage of being able to shoot at 3fps rather then at 1.5fps on the G9, but honestly, most killer shots don't come from bursts for most travel photographers.

Another to consider is that a small camera is much less conspicuous and easier to use in getting more candid shots of people being people and keeping them at ease. When they see the big guns come out, they may clam up a bit.

Of course, I have had situations where the big white lens will get you courtesy too.

Just one guy's opinion.

Whatever you do, when you return, please make us aware of where we can view some pics from your trip. I'd like to see them if you don't mind sharing.

[kanji]

Originally Posted by jeffj

I understand and sympathize with your dilemma. But here's what I think you should consider:

The lens required to take a killer shot of a lion or elephant that is merely 100yards away will probably need to be at least a 300mm or 400mm focal length lens. I'll speak to the Canon brand since I know it much better, but it's likely to be similar no matter the brand.

The very minimal lens that would take a shot worthy of lugging a dslr setup over a high quality compact setup like the Canon G9 would probably be the Canon 70-300 IS which costs about $540. It's a decent lens, but it's not "L" quality in either output or build quality. At it's longest focal length, the max aperture will be f/5.6 which is likely no better than you'll get with a point and shoot and at 100 yards with a 300mm lens, you will still significantly crop a shot of elephants, let alone lions.

Now you'll need something in a more normal zoom (unless you want to get a few primes, but that'll cost even more) and $400 to $500 is the minimum that will make it worthwhile over a G9. The Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 comes to mind. Excellent optics with OK build quality and autofocus performance.

The 17mm wide end of that zoom coupled to the 1.6x (0r 1.5x on a Nikon) crop factor of the camera bodies you are looking at of a so-called normal zoom will get you to a 28mm equivalent focal length of a regular 35mm film camera. The G9 is equivalent to 35mm at the wide end (*more on this later). That is close, but definitely noticeable in social situations, however it still does not really give you true wide angle capabilities.

That will cost you another $400 to $500 at a minimum.

The G9's zoom is the equivalent of a 35mm to 210mm and has an aperture range from f/2.8 at the wide end to f/4.8 at the long end. Canon makes both a wide converter ($150) and a teleconverter ($110) and they require an adapter ($22) to attach them. Most of the time you would not be using the converters, but I don't see them being any less convenient to use than an interchangeable lens on a dslr.

So, in a nutshell, for a G9 ($480) and another $282 for a total of $762 you get a far more portable setup with similar output in almost all situations compared to over $2000 to cover a similar focal length range and much bulkier and conspicuous to boot.

Of course, I would still recommendan extra battery or two and as well as extra memory cards which would be a similar cost regardless of camera if you shop around.

I think you would find the output of a G9 at least on par with a dslr with average lenses and it has a slew of manual controls as well as RAW capability. It has a hot shoe for a flash just like a dslr.

The dslrs you are looking at do have an advantage of being able to shoot at 3fps rather then at 1.5fps on the G9, but honestly, most killer shots don't come from bursts for most travel photographers.



Just one guy's opinion.

jeffj has a good point,

If you're looking into getting a DSLR choose your choice wisely, once you get into a certain brand i.e. Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sony, and etc. You will start to acquire the interchangeable lens that you will need to do the right job for the right shot you're looking for.

I shoot with Canon XTi, with batter grip and 2 lens. The two lens that I have is Tamron 28x300mm f/3.5-6.5 XR Di Zoom lens and Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di Wide angle lens.
Also matched it with a Canon Speedlight 430EX flash.
My Tamron 17-50mm has a f/2.8 from 17mm thru 50mm, great for portrait shots and low light shot without using a flash.
I've decided to buy canon by trying out other camera's at a local Photography store and how it feels and how easy to operate either automatic or manual settings. Since you wanted a DSLR and you're looking at your friend's Canon XTi, more likely you may get a canon similar to your friends. I suggest you getting a good all around lens. Either Canon or a third party i.e. Tamron or Sigma lens.

For good all around lens if you're in a budget, get a Tamron Super Zoom lens 28x300mm f/3.5-6.5 XR Di lens, its a good all around lens, wide enough to get the shot and it has a good super zoom, since the Canon Xti has the APS-C senson all lens are maginified by 1.6x, 300mm is actually 480mm compared to a 35mm film. If you're looking to get a Canon lens, I recommend the 24x105mm f/4L IS USM lens. It has Image stability built in or a non L series lens from Canon, Canon EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM for a good all around walk around lens. Its all up to you..my 2cents

[Marshall Willanholly]

.....

[MTBMaven]

Jeff, Kanji, and Marshall. Thanks for taking the time to post such helpful information. Very much appreciated. I will start looking into the G9, but wow $750.

Marshall, I'm not sure I can point to anything specific but I feel as if I notice a difference between the photos taken with the Rebel versus the G9. Not sure if I was biased by knowing what photos were taken with what camera. There is something about the Rebel photos, something feels warmer.