anti_analog
09-19-2006, 02:50 PM
I've been enjoying taking pictures for a couple years with my little 5 megapixel Minolta F300 because I can do all kinds of manual control stuff, usually shooting shutter dependant, manual white balancing, some minor exposure compensation. The problem is, it's a small crappy old digital camera that takes very noisey pictures, even on IS064, and they're also blurry, and there's some bad pixels (dust on the CCD?).
Anyway, being an artist as a hobby and a profession with photography playing some role in that (but I'm not a professional photographer myself obviously), I've been looking at the prosumer DSLRs.
So, to be productive and compliant with the forum policies, here's that survey thingy
Budget
I'm willing to spend around $1000, but the cheaper I can get the features and quality I want, the better.
Size
I do already have a small camera, so size isn't a big issue. Though I do also carry around a lot of stuff, so if a camera and lenses make for a bulky case, that could inhibit my willingness to use this camera that I've possibly spent a lot of money on.
Features
How many megapixels will suffice for you?
I think I'm looking for 10 megapixels, but the quality of the pixels (color, noise) is more important than the quantity of them. For work purposes, however, detail is important for reference and texture map photography.
Do you care for manual controls? YES!!! I almost always shoot shutter priority, after a manual white balance and occasional exposure compensation.
General Usage
This camera will be used for taking pictures of clouds and other atmospheric and sometimes space phenomna, random things around the house, cars in about a bagillion different situations from studio shots, to detail reference, to car shows, also parties and trade shows. I don't do much action photography, and I don't need computer control capabilities, but I'll end up doing many many other things. I also do some minor storm chasing when I can.
I don't make large prints of my photos, but that's mostly out of laziness and that I almost always have a good screen nearby to look at my photos. I do need the quality for work and for my own personal satisfaction however.
Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos?
Yes, I love shooting at night in low light or indoors with natural light. I do a lot of long exposures, and since I can't always keep a tripod with me image stabilization is an important feature to me. Greater than 30 second exposures would be fun, but it seems only the evolt 330 offers that (8 minutes! great for taking pictures of northern lights or the space station flying by or stuff like that).
Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos?
Probably not a lot, so that's not a high priority.
Miscellaneous
Are there particular brands you like or hate?
I know a number of professional photographers and Canon seems to be the weapon of choice for Detroit area photographers. But they use 10D and 1DS and stuff that's way out of my price range.
Are there particular models you already have in mind? Yes, the upcoming Pentax K10D and the Canon G7 have caught my interest, more on that debate after the survey.
(If applicable) Do you need any of the following special features? (Wide Angle, Image Stabilization, Weatherproof, Hotshoe, Rotating LCD)
Image stabilization, self cleaning CCD, SD memory car are all Big plusses. I don't use much flash so I don't care about hotshoe, rotating LCD sounds nice, but I have no percieved need for it. Weatherproofing will be great for storm chasing, not that I get the time to do that very much.
So, beyond the survey now, the recent announcements of the Canon G7 and the Pentax K10D (I was already sorta looking at the K100D) have really caught my interest. Both use SD cards, which is a big plus since my laptop reads SD (nothing else, oddly enough), and I already have SD cards. Both offer image stabilization which is great for all of my random low light shooting, and my modest desdain for the front lit look of flash photography. I think both have self cleaning CCDs, also a plus, and they're both seem as if they should offer good quality in 10 megapixels.
The G7 is attractive because of it's relatively low price, it's claimed (unless I'm misunderstanding) ability to focus at 1cm in macro mode, movie shooting cababilities and what I assume will be a relatively compact overall package to carry around. I'm not sure if not being a real DSLR is too bad for image quality, the lack of RAW shooting isn't the greatest thing ever (I do use HDRI and 16 bit per channel a lot at work), and obviously I can't completely change lenses. My photographer friends and most reviews seem to be quite fond of the Canon way of doing things, though some of that is because of developing software and available lenses, which doesn't apply here.
The Pentax K10D is obviously an impressive DSLR package for the price. Being a DSLR it doesn't have movie capabilities and I can't compose in the LCD screen like I am accustomed to. I'm not sure how the versatility of the stock lense (as far as range of field of view and ability to focus close) compares to the apparently fairly capable lense in the G7, though obviously I can buy more lenses if I'm really motivated to, but that's more cost. I can't really see myself buying many lenses, maybe a wide, or a macro, maybe a super telephoto... But, I can buy lenses if I want, probably a good number of used ones. I can shoot in RAW, and the weatherproofing could certainly be handy in certain storm related situations.
I guess what I'm debating is whether the interchangable lenses, possible gains in image quality, RAW shooting and weatherproofing of the K10D are worth the increase in price of $400(?) over the G7, not to mention little features like movie mode, possible superior macro capability out of the box, familiar LCD based composing and likely much more compact traveling dimensions.
And I suppose it's possible that there's a camera out there that does what I want that I'm not considering too.
Thanks to those who've read my entire long winded post, and extra thanks for those who reply to my possibly difficult to quantify problem (especially since neither camera is out yet).
Those wishing to gain a better idea of my somewhat pointless shooting habits can look at my flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pe_tor/).
Anyway, being an artist as a hobby and a profession with photography playing some role in that (but I'm not a professional photographer myself obviously), I've been looking at the prosumer DSLRs.
So, to be productive and compliant with the forum policies, here's that survey thingy
Budget
I'm willing to spend around $1000, but the cheaper I can get the features and quality I want, the better.
Size
I do already have a small camera, so size isn't a big issue. Though I do also carry around a lot of stuff, so if a camera and lenses make for a bulky case, that could inhibit my willingness to use this camera that I've possibly spent a lot of money on.
Features
How many megapixels will suffice for you?
I think I'm looking for 10 megapixels, but the quality of the pixels (color, noise) is more important than the quantity of them. For work purposes, however, detail is important for reference and texture map photography.
Do you care for manual controls? YES!!! I almost always shoot shutter priority, after a manual white balance and occasional exposure compensation.
General Usage
This camera will be used for taking pictures of clouds and other atmospheric and sometimes space phenomna, random things around the house, cars in about a bagillion different situations from studio shots, to detail reference, to car shows, also parties and trade shows. I don't do much action photography, and I don't need computer control capabilities, but I'll end up doing many many other things. I also do some minor storm chasing when I can.
I don't make large prints of my photos, but that's mostly out of laziness and that I almost always have a good screen nearby to look at my photos. I do need the quality for work and for my own personal satisfaction however.
Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos?
Yes, I love shooting at night in low light or indoors with natural light. I do a lot of long exposures, and since I can't always keep a tripod with me image stabilization is an important feature to me. Greater than 30 second exposures would be fun, but it seems only the evolt 330 offers that (8 minutes! great for taking pictures of northern lights or the space station flying by or stuff like that).
Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos?
Probably not a lot, so that's not a high priority.
Miscellaneous
Are there particular brands you like or hate?
I know a number of professional photographers and Canon seems to be the weapon of choice for Detroit area photographers. But they use 10D and 1DS and stuff that's way out of my price range.
Are there particular models you already have in mind? Yes, the upcoming Pentax K10D and the Canon G7 have caught my interest, more on that debate after the survey.
(If applicable) Do you need any of the following special features? (Wide Angle, Image Stabilization, Weatherproof, Hotshoe, Rotating LCD)
Image stabilization, self cleaning CCD, SD memory car are all Big plusses. I don't use much flash so I don't care about hotshoe, rotating LCD sounds nice, but I have no percieved need for it. Weatherproofing will be great for storm chasing, not that I get the time to do that very much.
So, beyond the survey now, the recent announcements of the Canon G7 and the Pentax K10D (I was already sorta looking at the K100D) have really caught my interest. Both use SD cards, which is a big plus since my laptop reads SD (nothing else, oddly enough), and I already have SD cards. Both offer image stabilization which is great for all of my random low light shooting, and my modest desdain for the front lit look of flash photography. I think both have self cleaning CCDs, also a plus, and they're both seem as if they should offer good quality in 10 megapixels.
The G7 is attractive because of it's relatively low price, it's claimed (unless I'm misunderstanding) ability to focus at 1cm in macro mode, movie shooting cababilities and what I assume will be a relatively compact overall package to carry around. I'm not sure if not being a real DSLR is too bad for image quality, the lack of RAW shooting isn't the greatest thing ever (I do use HDRI and 16 bit per channel a lot at work), and obviously I can't completely change lenses. My photographer friends and most reviews seem to be quite fond of the Canon way of doing things, though some of that is because of developing software and available lenses, which doesn't apply here.
The Pentax K10D is obviously an impressive DSLR package for the price. Being a DSLR it doesn't have movie capabilities and I can't compose in the LCD screen like I am accustomed to. I'm not sure how the versatility of the stock lense (as far as range of field of view and ability to focus close) compares to the apparently fairly capable lense in the G7, though obviously I can buy more lenses if I'm really motivated to, but that's more cost. I can't really see myself buying many lenses, maybe a wide, or a macro, maybe a super telephoto... But, I can buy lenses if I want, probably a good number of used ones. I can shoot in RAW, and the weatherproofing could certainly be handy in certain storm related situations.
I guess what I'm debating is whether the interchangable lenses, possible gains in image quality, RAW shooting and weatherproofing of the K10D are worth the increase in price of $400(?) over the G7, not to mention little features like movie mode, possible superior macro capability out of the box, familiar LCD based composing and likely much more compact traveling dimensions.
And I suppose it's possible that there's a camera out there that does what I want that I'm not considering too.
Thanks to those who've read my entire long winded post, and extra thanks for those who reply to my possibly difficult to quantify problem (especially since neither camera is out yet).
Those wishing to gain a better idea of my somewhat pointless shooting habits can look at my flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pe_tor/).