Help me pick my camera

[Muzikman]

I have owned both P&S Sony's and a pusdo SLR (D770) and was not impressed with either. Though these were older systems and the D770 was way a head of it's time, it just did not live up to the Canon and Nikon P&S's.

The other problem is that Minolta never even made a decent digital camera, so even if Sony bought them, it's not like it increased their ability and technology 10 fold or anything.

[going_home]

Well how then ?

My general rule of thumb is: If it stores images via Memory Stick, don't bother with it.

Sony may have purchased their way into thirsd place in a market that has two very strong players: Canon and Nikon. They are not going to put a noticable dent into either company's market share.

I'm not saying no one will buy a Sony DSLR, just no one that is well informed will.

If not with memory then how do you store the images ?
I KNOW you cant mean film.

Oh by the way, heres a green mag for you:

http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b195/going_home/?action=view&current=555f029a.jpg

[Muzikman]

If not with memory then how do you store the images ?
I KNOW you cant mean film.

Oh by the way, heres a green mag for you:

http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...t=555f029a.jpg

He was talking about the Crappy Memory-Sticks that Sony uses. He wan't real digital media like Compact Flash.

[Cameo]

Sony has aquired Konica Minolta's SLR assets.
So say what you want about their point and shoot's
(I cant speak for those, Muzikman did though),
but they are going to be 3rd in SLR's if not 2nd immediately.

Anyway I bought a Nikon D50 and I love it.
Dont waste your time and money on a camera you ultimately wont be happy with.
Go ahead and get a serious camera, you wont be sorry.
The D50's were the same price new on Ebay as they were at the local Ritz Camera
so I got it there, and it came with 18 digital camera/printing/Photoshop classes.
They are the only place I know that offered total replacement insurance.
Its only about 100.00 a year. If they cant fix it, they replace it, no matter what happened
to it (except loss of it).

Picked up some really nice lenses on Ebay for very good prices.
Just went to the Caymans this past weekend and took over 700 pics.
I am a Nikon believer, awesome photos.
So get an SLR, you will be glad you did.

Nikon are ok.. but the lenses you get for them are CRAP cheaply made. plastic. ect..... and iso ranges suck!!!. ?sure they are 100 less then the cannon, but you can get much better quality lenses for the cannon at resonable rate (in comparison to the nikon)
take your d50 and go into any indoor low light situation.. you will wish you were super de duper in photoshop or you will wish you bought a cannon...

[Muzikman]

Canon and Nikon lenses are so comprable (sp?) now that one is just about as good as the other, they almost cost the same too. The difference is Canon always comes out with the better stuff first. Canon had better glass than Nikon, then Nikon got better glass. Canon had IS first, then Nikon came out with VR. It's all the same. The trick is to stay with Canon or Nikon glass. When you start to stray into the Sigma, Tamron, etc.. lenses you start to see less quality glass. Now that all being said, sure you can get plastic barrel Nikon lenses, but Canon also makes cheap lenses, so again, all evens out in the end.

Now, Canon does have one over on Nikon when it comes to sensors. The Canon CMOS is much better at high ISO than the Nikon CCD.

Canon also has the edge when it comes to bodies. Canon is always one up on Nikon, the only thing is, when Nikon releases their comparable body, they always add that one little feature Canon should have had.

Also, Nikon is now GPS compatible where Canon is not and as far as I know, they don't plan on it any time soon, which bums me out.

[Hexis]

If not with memory then how do you store the images ?
I KNOW you cant mean film.

Memory Stick Wiki entry
CompactFlash Wiki entry

They are quite different. SD is ok for some things, but pretty limited capacity. There is a new SDHC standard which allows for capacties of great than 2GB. SD has one nice feature: no pins. The only real bad aspect of CF is the pins in the camera.

I have heard horror stories of a pin that breaks off in a big CF card, (since the pins are in the camera, that camera is not functional). Then that card with the pin broken off in it goes into the backup camera, bending the corresponding pin, also taking out that camera. Ugh. I think that's a pretty rare possability situation. I would love to see a CF2 standard that had a slightly longer slot, and some sort of adaptor you could put on CF cards and make them work. Maybe add a few pins so you can address more than 137GB.

[Hexis]

Nikon are ok.. but the lenses you get for them are CRAP cheaply made. plastic. ect..... and iso ranges suck!!!. ?sure they are 100 less then the cannon, but you can get much better quality lenses for the cannon at resonable rate (in comparison to the nikon)
take your d50 and go into any indoor low light situation.. you will wish you were super de duper in photoshop or you will wish you bought a cannon...

Are you comparing Nikon's low end glass with Canon L glass? They have pretty compariable lineups on the Pro end. If you look at only the mid/low end stuff, it's pretty similar. Some differences, but for the most part quite similar in cost, build quality and resolving power.

Canon is quick to market with new technology. Nikon tends to wait a bit and offer a more refined version later. I can appreciate both approaches. I ended up making the switch to Canon from Nikon because there is no sign of a Nikon full frame sensor camera ever. It was a not that big of a deal since I didn't have a large collection of Nikkor glass.

At most sporting events you see a lot of white (Canon L Teles) glass.

[topazpaintball]

wow, this got into some intense discussion... Only on AO

Anyways, I'd like a lot of manual features, so i'm leaning towards the S80 right now.

[Hexis]

I don't know if I would call that a ProSumer camera, but it looks like a good model. Prob among the best that have a fully retractable lens that is covered while off.

[Indignant]

I have to say that I really love the feel and general ease-of-use I love my Pentax *ist DS. It's a great camera for not very much money. But if I had to choose over I might go with Canon because of the economics, and the lens prices and selection are good.

[Hexis]

I took a quick look at the Pentax lenses. Do they really not have any glass longer than 200mm? And no primes above 100mm?

[Steelrat]

At most sporting events you see a lot of white (Canon L Teles) glass.

There is a reason they make the L zooms white, and you just pointed it out.

From what I've read, Canon L series are better lenses than anything put out by Nikon. I made my decision to purchase a 20D partly because of the quality of the lens offerings. The other reason is because of Canon's EXCELLENT customer service.

[Hexis]

I have not used high end Nikkor glass on my 5D or anything, but from what I have read the Pro gear on both sides is pretty comparable. Canon has IS in all the fast tele primes. Nikon's longest VR prime is 300mm. That's a big deal to sports folks.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Canon fan. Love my 5D. Love the 1Ds mk2. Love the L glass I own, need more. I just think Nikon deserves a fiar shake. It's not like any of the lenses are strong enough for the current sensors. On the 5D you are pushing the lenses ability to resolve detal (on all except the highest end primes). On the 1Ds mk2, it's beyond pretty much all of the lenses except a couple primes in their ideal apertures. If the 1Ds mk3 (or whatever is announced in Sept) is really 22MP, I would expect to see a totally new line of L glass that can actually resolve well over 30MP.

[Indignant]

I took a quick look at the Pentax lenses. Do they really not have any glass longer than 200mm? And no primes above 100mm?

I've got a 70-210mm Pentax sitting on the shelf behind me.