Looking for a new toy !!!

[M5MAN]

Im getting more hooked on Photography so looking to upgrade my Fuji S5000
its been good but would like something better.

It takes ages to turn on and would like a better zoom etc etc

SO I think now I will be going buy a body an lenses route + tripod :O)

Have about £1K to spend and then some for lenses etc.

Any recomendations would be much appreciated I do a lot of wildlife photograghy on safari etc.

Thanks

Clive

[coldrain]

Well, the most important thing is the lenses.... not the body.
I do not know what your total budget is, but the longer a tele(zoom?)lens gets to be, the more expensive they are going to get too.

The best "affordable" lens you can get with some tele reach is the Canon 70-300 f4-5.6 IS USM. It is very sharp upto 300mm, and offers IS.

This lens would limit the camera choice to the Canon XTi/400D and 30D.

Maybe 300mm (300 x 1.6 crop factor = 480mm) is not enough for your needs? I do not know.

[Rhys]

Im getting more hooked on Photography so looking to upgrade my Fuji S5000
its been good but would like something better.

It takes ages to turn on and would like a better zoom etc etc

SO I think now I will be going buy a body an lenses route + tripod :O)

Have about £1K to spend and then some for lenses etc.

Any recomendations would be much appreciated I do a lot of wildlife photograghy on safari etc.

Thanks

Clive

I would suggest you decide whether to go for an economy body and good glass or a good body and pretty good glass.

[M5MAN]

Thanks for your replies so far was looking to spend the £1k or about on a body then do lenses after wards.

What is the best make to go for been looking at Nikon the D80
and the Canons when in Tanzania a few weeks back I noiced all the serious guys had big Canons the EOS 1s but they are way out my budget :(

But, is the Canon the better camera on the market??

[longroad]

I suggest posting a thread in the What Camera Should I Buy forum :)

I'm in the same situation as you and have pretty much decided on the Nikon D80.
From all reviews I've read it has less negatives than the 400D.

[Bullitt]

Thinking of upgrading or changing from the Nikon D50 to the D80, is the D80 better and worth the cost of changing or should I be satisfied with my D50? I just have the itch for a new toy, maybe it's the spring air...

[pagnamenta]

Alright, you've got a decent budget for getting into dslr so let's help you out. The most important thing is glass. Both Nikon and Canon offer great bodies but I would recommend looking into their lenses because lenses are most important when making a picture.

I might sound a little biased because I shoot Canon, but I think they have better glass. They offer a great range of lenses and have great contrast and sharpness. Nikon has this as well, but I find their lenses higher priced.

There are many great bodies from both Canon and Nikon. The Nikon D80 and Canon 30D are the ones to look at. Two important things to consider are that Canon has less noise/grain at high ISO and Nikon has a wireless flash system.

You'll hear recommendation for both camera brands but you should go to the local camera store and try them both out. They both offer a different feel. Just remember regardless of which one you go with, they are both great cameras and you can get similar images with both.

Just to easy any worries about those big "pro" cameras, you can get the same results, it just depends how you use the camera and lens. It's the photographer that makes the image.

[pagnamenta]

Thinking of upgrading or changing from the Nikon D50 to the D80, is the D80 better and worth the cost of changing or should I be satisfied with my D50? I just have the itch for a new toy, maybe it's the spring air...

I think if you're satisfied with your D50, you don't have any problems, and it still delivers great results, maybe consider getting some new glass. When I sell someone a D80 in the store, they want it for megapixels but the onlys upgrade are the wireless flash and bigger screen. The megapixels aren't that important if you aren't making huge prints.

[jcon]

Thinking of upgrading or changing from the Nikon D50 to the D80, is the D80 better and worth the cost of changing or should I be satisfied with my D50? I just have the itch for a new toy, maybe it's the spring air...

Stick with the D50 for now, its not that far off from the D80. Save your money until you can afford one of the higher end bodies like the D200 or something along that line.

To cure that "itch", buy yourself a decent lens, that should hold you over til you upgrade your body:D

[coldrain]

Thanks for your replies so far was looking to spend the £1k or about on a body then do lenses after wards.

What is the best make to go for been looking at Nikon the D80
and the Canons when in Tanzania a few weeks back I noiced all the serious guys had big Canons the EOS 1s but they are way out my budget :(

But, is the Canon the better camera on the market??
Better in what sense? On the whole I think Canon has the better lens line-up, so there it could be better. I think the Canons all have better sensors, where the Sony CCDs in Nikon at times give quite coarse results.
But, if you compare the D80 to an XTi/400D the D80 will have the nicer (bigger) view finder. And to most it feels a bit nicer in your hand.

So, it is in what you place the most importance, to which is "better". To me, the Canon XTi is the better camera because of the image quality and lenses available, to others the D80 may be.

The EOS 30D is a great camera too with great handling. What you get extra with an 1D body is the fastest most accurate AF system you can get. An great image quality of course too. But that does not mean that the 30D is not a great camera to have anyway, it is capable of great results and just because pros go for the most expensive should not deter you to get a 30D or even 400D/XTi.

[spddmon]

Im somewhat in the same boat as you are. Im upgrading from a Panasonic FZ-5 to DSLR. I originally intended to get a 1Ds Mk II last year, Then the Mk III was just announced. So now i just went ahead and purchased the 400D with EF 50 1.4 and EF 70 200 4L, just cure the itch. Mine should arrive in a few days :D. I considered the 30D as well but the $500 gap does not justify having spot metering and slightly better higher ISO performance as the only major difference .

Then again my scenario is different than yours being that i will be upgrading my body again in about half a years time.

[mjsneddon]

I am in the US and based on the current exchange rate, a British pound is about two US dollars. Therefore:

A Canon Rebel 400 (called the XTi in the US) costs about $700. Add to that a Canon 10-22mm lens ($700) and a Canon 17-85mm IS lens (500) and you have spent $1,900 or about 950 British pounds.

If you are willing to spend $600 more than this, instead of the 17-85mm lens, get the Canon 24-105 IS lens.

Just my two cents....

Have a good day.

[Djzleite]

I´m with the dilema Sony DSLR-A100W + 18-70mm +75-300mm for 100 euros or
Nikon D80 + 18-135mm for 1300 euros.
I´m tempted for the Sony wich i have already 2x 4GB sticks and brings the 300mm lens, on the other hand i ear many people talking of D80.
If i go to Sony i´ll pick D80 next year :D
Sony W100 and H5 were fine but only bring jpg format, my aim is to take long range fotos and zoom them even more on the computer, jpg looses definition very fast.

[wrestlingreport]

Better in what sense? On the whole I think Canon has the better lens line-up, so there it could be better. I think the Canons all have better sensors, where the Sony CCDs in Nikon at times give quite coarse results.
But, if you compare the D80 to an XTi/400D the D80 will have the nicer (bigger) view finder. And to most it feels a bit nicer in your hand.

So, it is in what you place the most importance, to which is "better". To me, the Canon XTi is the better camera because of the image quality and lenses available, to others the D80 may be.

The EOS 30D is a great camera too with great handling. What you get extra with an 1D body is the fastest most accurate AF system you can get. An great image quality of course too. But that does not mean that the 30D is not a great camera to have anyway, it is capable of great results and just because pros go for the most expensive should not deter you to get a 30D or even 400D/XTi.

From the guy that claims sigma is better.
The difference between Canon and Nikon has been a no win aurguement since the 60's
They are both great cameras.
BUT Canons line isnt even close to Nikons overall product line.
Thats why Canon owners look at Sigma.

[Prospero]

From the guy that claims sigma is better.
The difference between Canon and Nikon has been a no win aurguement since the 60's
They are both great cameras.
BUT Canons line isnt even close to Nikons overall product line.
Thats why Canon owners look at Sigma.

LOL, your posts are starting to get funny :D

Nikon users also look at Sigma trash. So do Pentax, Sony, Fuji, Olympus and Samsung users. It has nothing to do with the quality of the brand lenses available for each system. Each of the brands has an excellent line-up of lenses. The problem is that these lenses are expensive and that the difference in quality is small. Sometimes third party lenses are even better. Sometimes third party lenses allow you to do things that can't be done with brand lenses.

Take the Sigma 10-20. On a Nikon lens body this is the only lens that can get you as wide as 10mm, which is quite a lot wider than the Nikkor 12-24 can get you. That's one of the reasons why I bought the Sigma.

Now saying that Nikon's line-up is so much better than Canon's line up is just nonsense. So is saying the opposite. Both have great lenses in their line-up. In some areas Canon is better, in others Nikon. Ultimately it depends on what a user requires of his equipment which system is best.

[Bullitt]

Stick with the D50 for now, its not that far off from the D80. Save your money until you can afford one of the higher end bodies like the D200 or something along that line.

To cure that "itch", buy yourself a decent lens, that should hold you over til you upgrade your body:D

But, but, but.... The D80 sounds like it has in-camera editing for B/W and Sepia in which I do a high percentage of my photos. This may save a lot of editing on the 'ol computer... And, this Tamron lens I use seems to take pretty good shots so I can't think of any other lens I would want to spend money on that would improve quality...

[Rooz]

But, but, but.... The D80 sounds like it has in-camera editing for B/W and Sepia in which I do a high percentage of my photos. This may save a lot of editing on the 'ol computer... And, this Tamron lens I use seems to take pretty good shots so I can't think of any other lens I would want to spend money on that would improve quality...

in camera editing is tedious and i have found yields substandard results compared to NX. significantly so aswell i may add. you have to download the images to PC anyway so there isn't any time saved IMO.

i agree with jcon here. get some nice glass which will keep you occupied for now and will follow you for the body upgrade ride later on. the d50 is a great little body, save your cash for a d200. the d200 is a true "leap" from the d50. the d80 is a baby step.