• 01-31-2008, 12:18 AM
    agtaylor
    Too many options...some advice?
    Well I made a similar thread a while ago but held off until I knew more and shot with the p&s some more. I think I know a little more now but I think that just confuses me sometimes. I think I have saved up enough and think Im getting a little help for my birthday. Anyways...

    What I want to shoot: Action is number one priority. After that landscapes and general outdoors photography. Then people. Specifically skiing and mountain biking.

    Where: Well all the ski shots will be in the cloudy northwest so low light comes into play some. A chunk of mtn biking ends up being low light just because you are in the woods. Since I will be shooting skiing and biking it would be nice if the camera could handle a little water/dirt and maybe a hit or two.

    Camera body: Of course Ive been going through the classic canon vs nikon debate and tossed olympus in there for a while. Im leaning heavily towards canon now for a couple of reasons. I started to rule out olympus because it seems that there is less room to grow with the available bodies/lenses? Of course there is some but I will be buying into a system I would like to stick with for many years. Then Canon or Nikon. I lean towards Canon in part because....well Im not really sure how Ive ended up leaning towards Canon. Ive narrowed it down to the Canon 30d, 400d or the Nikon d80 or d40x. I think Im leaning towards Canon because the 30d seems to be the best fit for action and what Im looking to do? If I were to buy tonight I would most likely get a 30d body with an 18-50 F2.8 Sigma EX DC. I know that glass will make a larger difference than the body and have heard multiple times to get good lenses the first time around. If you have any recommendations in that area that would be great. Im sure I left something out but any advice is much appreciated and youre actually still reading this I probably owe you a beer.
  • 01-31-2008, 04:52 AM
    Medley
    Re: Too many options...some advice?
    Actually, you'd be surprised how some of those overcast days lead to very bright scenes. I'm just south of you in Oregon, and shoot some of the same conditions.

    If you haven't already done so, go out and handle the cameras you're considering. If you are going to shoot action, you won't have much time to set your shots up. So you'll want a camera that seems intuitive. When you handle the cameras, check out the location of the buttons and switches. Try to find the one that makes the most logical sense to you. Nikon and Canon have different setups, and they're both good systems. The layout was my biggest deciding factor in going with Canon.

    - Joe U.
  • 01-31-2008, 08:44 AM
    deckcadet
    Re: Too many options...some advice?
    And layout/feel was my biggest factor in going with (and going back to) Nikon.

    You might also want to consider a D200, with the way prices for that body have gone. immaculate hardly used bodies are going for $950 or less.
  • 01-31-2008, 09:49 AM
    gahspidy
    Re: Too many options...some advice?
    The 30D and the lens you are considering looks to be a worthy set-up for your needs. If it were at all possible for you to lay out another $400, the 40D offers alot of improvements to help in the sports and low light needs. FPS is higher as well as improved High ISO image quality. If money is an issue ( and it is with most of us) then your 30D is a very good choice and is a very good body.
  • 01-31-2008, 02:42 PM
    agtaylor
    Re: Too many options...some advice?
    Thanks for the responses guys. I looked into the 40d and d200 which are both rather tempting now.

    I found a like new d200 for 850 which I could pair up with a sigma 28-70 f/2.8 Ex dg for 330 to get a similar set up to the canon option I was looking at. However I lose some of the wide angle with that option. Total there would be right around 1200.

    Then to complicate things b&h put up a used 30d for 660 today. If I matched that with the 18-50 f2.8 sigma ex dc for 290 the total would be somewhere around 950 which is appealing. That could leave some room for accessories and another lens in the future faster. I also have more a wide angle there which would be nice.

    The cheapest 40d body I can find is right at 1000 which combined with the same lens I would get with the 30d would be somewhere around 1300 and the most expensive option.

    They all seem to be very comparable bodies and lenses. I've played with my friends d80 some and it felt good. I have a little but of time with an xti but think that the 30d or 40d would likely feel very different. So I should probably go try to handle a d200 and 30d.

    Any arguments for nikon d200 vs canon 30d? Would I notice much difference between 18-50 and 28-70? Considering one of the next lenses would be a 70-200 would I rather have a 10mm gap on one end or a 20mm gap in the middle? Is it just me or are nikon lenses a little pricier than canon?

    Thanks for the help.
  • 01-31-2008, 08:29 PM
    deckcadet
    Re: Too many options...some advice?
    You would notice the difference, but you can always get the Nikon mount version of the Sigma 18-50 or Tamron 17-50.
  • 02-01-2008, 09:39 PM
    Squidward
    Re: Too many options...some advice?
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by agtaylor
    Is it just me or are nikon lenses a little pricier than canon?

    Maybe it's me but I seem to feel that Nikon lenses are more reasonable than Canon lenses. Maybe it's because my cousin is always complaining that the lenses he's looking at to put on his 40D are expensive. Thing is, he's looking at the larger, faster lenses and those cost more. For action photography, though, those are the lenses you need. Me? I have been looking at the lower range of Nikon lenses to use with my D70 and they are not all that expensive. The faster lenses are more expensive, though.

    Something you may want to consider is that Nikon has been making lenses with the same lens mount since about 1960. Most lenses made since about 1977 through today will mount right on to a modern DSLR, albeit without autofocus and most autoexposure settings. I can mount my old 55mm f3.5 Micro lens from about 1975 (modified to the newer AI metering system some time ago) on to my D70 and I can, and have, take pictures with this combo. I lose the metering ability and I have to focus it myself but the fact is that I can use it. This came in really handy recently when I was helping a friend take pictures of food that he wanted to make posters from for the restaurant he is opening. None of the autofocus lenses that we had would focus close enough for a few shots that we wanted so I swapped my Micro on to my D70, took a few test shots to dial in the exposure (something we could not do with his professional-level F4, BTW) then started taking pictures. One of those pictures ended up being printed at 24 X 36" and, from what he has told me, it looks fantastic. Had I attempted taking this same photo with the kit lens I would have had to have cropped the final image before being printed and the result would have been noticeably pixelated. The pictures I took with his F4 didn't turn out, mostly because of operator error (my fault!).