What to get...

[tlong3234]

Hi! I am hoping you folks can give me some advice. Several years ago, I bacame interested in photography and bought some old, manual 35mm's to learn on. Then, I tinkered with a medium format, and early digitals. I currently use an N65 and a Canon a70. I lean heavily to the digital, though and rarely if ever use the 35mm anymore. The bottom line here is that I don't really know much about good photography-just enough to be dangerous!
The A70 used to take very nice pictures, but I think I have about worn it out if that is possible. It has ridden in my kids' diaper bag since I bought it and I have taken about a zillion pictures with it. The pictures now look flat to me and the prints are very noisy. The colors look like watercolors that have bled, instead of the sharp, saturated images I want. Have I started doing something wrong?
My main objective is to get great pictures of my kids (3 mos. and 19 mos.). If that means buying a new camera, I am eager and willing. I would like to have something with little to no lag time-the kids move fast!- a manual zoom ring, creative controls (both the pre-packaged portrait modes, etc and the shutter priority, aperture priority and manual modes), and sharp, color-saturated pictures that don't require a lot of work in a photo editor.
I love the idea of the D70 since I have a decent collection of Nikon lenses, but am afraid I would get bogged down by it and never have it handy to get the candid shots. The Sony F828 looks appealing, too. Any suggestions or discussion you may have would be greatly appreciated.

[Sebastian]

Hi! I am hoping you folks can give me some advice. Several years ago, I bacame interested in photography and bought some old, manual 35mm's to learn on. Then, I tinkered with a medium format, and early digitals. I currently use an N65 and a Canon a70. I lean heavily to the digital, though and rarely if ever use the 35mm anymore. The bottom line here is that I don't really know much about good photography-just enough to be dangerous!
The A70 used to take very nice pictures, but I think I have about worn it out if that is possible. It has ridden in my kids' diaper bag since I bought it and I have taken about a zillion pictures with it. The pictures now look flat to me and the prints are very noisy. The colors look like watercolors that have bled, instead of the sharp, saturated images I want. Have I started doing something wrong?
My main objective is to get great pictures of my kids (3 mos. and 19 mos.). If that means buying a new camera, I am eager and willing. I would like to have something with little to no lag time-the kids move fast!- a manual zoom ring, creative controls (both the pre-packaged portrait modes, etc and the shutter priority, aperture priority and manual modes), and sharp, color-saturated pictures that don't require a lot of work in a photo editor.
I love the idea of the D70 since I have a decent collection of Nikon lenses, but am afraid I would get bogged down by it and never have it handy to get the candid shots. The Sony F828 looks appealing, too. Any suggestions or discussion you may have would be greatly appreciated.

Well, the D70 is a great camera. The manual focusing ring is something best left on manual focus cameras, today's autofocus systems to a great job, and the P&S digitals really have poor manual focusing methods.

I suggest you look at the Sony F717. SOme places still seem to have a few new ones left over, or you could get used. Much trimmer than the 828 it really takes beautiful pictures. Shot with one for over a year before going DSLR.

I doubt you wore the camera out, reset all the setting to factory to defaults, make sure you have the lowest ISO selected, and then see if you are still having problems.

[tlong3234]

I haven't really had any of my pictures printed, but my Mom has been getting them done at Ofoto.com. I went to the local camera store today to put my hands on some of these new cameras and told him about the problems I am having.He said it was probably a problem at Ofoto. That made sense until I realized that Mom had gotten some of hers done there, too. She also has an A70 and hers were much sharper with better color. I'm going to try to reset all of the defaults as you suggested to see if that helps.
I did a lot more research today and have decided that I like the Nikon 8700 better than the Sony. Now, I have new concerns. For that much money, it seems as though I ought to go with the DSLR (D70). However, I am worried that it would be too bulky to haul around with the kids, and I'm not sure what the best lens would be to use on it.I have a 28-135, 28-200, and a 400. That leaves me without any sort of wide angle. I know the kit lens is supposed to be great, but that's another $200. Also, the zoom would then only go up to about 90 and I like to have a little more flexibility. The 8700 is 35-280 (I think), but my other concern with it is shutter lag. Is it comporable to a DSLR or is it slow like my A70?
Any expertise and opinions are greatly appreciated!

[girlieleep]

I suggest you look at the Sony F717. SOme places still seem to have a few new ones left over, or you could get used. Much trimmer than the 828 it really takes beautiful pictures. Shot with one for over a year before going DSLR.

Weird me too. The bought a D100, now a D70 as a second body.

I would say get the D70 outfit because the lens you can get with it is pretty good and it's an 18-70. It's a gret lens. If cost is an issue for the lens, you can get a Tamron or a Sigma wide to go with it if you really want the wide angle.

Otherwise you can buy the body only. Depending on the size of your 28-200 (if it's Nikon or Tamron or whatever), you'll be pretty close to the 8700 using your 28-200 with the D70 (if you don't want to buy a lens, your 28-200 is a 35mm equivalent 42-300). The 8700 looks about the size of an SLR with a lens on it- if I recall right from glancing at it last time I was at the camera store. The lens on the 8700 though looks pretty fast for a digital with that zoom range though.

I love my D70. I really think you'd be happy with either. If you keep your D70 stored with a lens on it, you probably won't miss any shots. I've never used the 8700 though, but I love my DSLR's.