[buaya]

I would say the image quality of those 3 lenses are similar..

personally felt the image quality is quite mediocre.. however, for a starter, it maybe a relatively affordable piece of longer reach glass to play and practise with.

Go for whichever is cheaper for now.. wait till you are really serious at going longer range, and desire for something of better quality, then you upgrade

But if you just want to get a lens with good image quality once and for all, then be prepared to spend anything from $900 second hand, to $1.3k new for 70-200 F4L or 70-300 F4-5.6 USM IS or appprox $1.8k for 70-200 F4L IS.

[totoro17]

those star buy means what? brand new or 2nd hand?

do u recommand a newbie to buy 1st hand DSLR or 2nd hand DSLR?

cause i have intend to buy a nikonD40x to start.n i tink nikon lens have a wide range of choices.

[NIghtz]

Hey guys where can i get a good second hand lens?

Great information. Really helpful for a newbie like me. Planning to purchase my very first professional camera.

Thanks for the post.

[AsuraN]

Great, this is next for me !

[RimBlock]

Nice rundown of the equipment basics.

Coming from the Canon side through the 350d -> 5d over the last 3->4 years there are a couple of observations I have seen which may also provide to be helpful to someone.

POS, sorry, P&S cameras will usually allow you to switch to a manual mode. Try playing with this to get the basics of apeture, DOF, speed, ISO and how they all inter-relate whilst saving / trying to decide what camera to buy. Some shots I still use today were taken on a Canon powershot 430 (US name I believe as it was bought from there).

There really is very little between the quality of the camera manufacturers unless you are going to a high professional level and you are likely to be pretty happy with whatever choice you make. Dont worry too much......

The two main brands are Canon and Nikkon with Canon usually having less buttons and being more menu driven and Nikkon prefering more buttons. Play with the camera and it's menus before choosing which to get. Ease of use for you is more important than the name and looking like a pro. What goods all that stuff if your pics come out looking crap.

One of the next considerations would be the lens system. As previously noted the systems are not usually interchangeable. Look at the lens ranges, prices. No good getting a body and finding out it doesn't support the lens you want at a price you can afford.

For the 350d I tended to use the 28-135mm IS USM f3.5-5.6 as a walkabout lens. I also used the 50mm f1.4 and the 85mm f1.8 lenses mostly for portrait work. Filter sizes are worth checking before buying lenses as getting two or more with the same size will allow you to use a single filter and swap between them. On the 350d these lenses did pretty well but the 350d showed up a few issues within the enviroment I wanted to shoot. Using a home studio with limited space the APS sensor and non EF-S lenses (only a couple of the EF-S lenses were available at the time) caused difficulty in getting enough distance from the subjects and with the studio flash, a shallow DOF cause the shots to be too bright thus requiring a ND filter.

Stepping up to the 5d showed the limitations of these lenses. Most of the shots came out soft. Stepping up to the 24-105mm F4 IS USM was a great choice for what I was doing. The 5d having a full frame sensor removed the 1.6x crop with the non-IS lenses on the 350d and allowed for full body shots within the limited space. F4 was fine using studio lighting. Only regret with this lens is the limitation F4 puts on it but for the price I would highly recommend it.

Whilst my photography has taken a back seat for the time being (I like photographing pretty women and my wife seems to take exception to me inviting them for a photoshoot for some reason , new baby recently arrived etc) I am looking to get the 70-200mm f2.8 IS USM at some point (heavy lens though).

I have been cataloguing my journey with photography since Oct 2005 here. Everything from equipment to home studio setup to lighting to calabrating monitors to finding models and working with them to post processing........... Hope it can be of help to others here.

RB

[Kyogre]

Just wondering, where is a good a cheap photoshop to develop 4R photos?

[RenesisX]

hihi i'm new to getting a DSLR cam... was considering on the few models and need some recommandations.. thanks all for the help!

Canon EOS 450D
Sony Alpha A300K/N (Due to it's unique colour)
Sony Alpha A350K
Nikon DSLR D60

i'm looking for something not heavy but good (best have something like sony's live view easy for my family usage) non of my family or relatives using DSLR so will be a new start off..

budget wise $1200-$1500 on set only. (if have second hand no harm considering too) or maybe any older models which fit in my catagory would be good too.. =)
while lens i jus need 2-3sets on different scenes.

I just want a DSLR cam that suit my catagory =) thanks bro and sis out there.. =)

[buaya]

450D is currently selling at $1270 with EF-S 18-55 IS lens, 4GB card and some other stuffs.

with $1500 budget, u can get the 450D for $1270 and a EF 50 1.8 lens for about $130.

Total: $1400. Balance $100 - probably enough to get u a Slik tripod @ Cathay Photo. May need to top up a little though

[RenesisX]

Originally Posted by buaya

450D is currently selling at $1270 with EF-S 18-55 IS lens, 4GB card and some other stuffs.

with $1500 budget, u can get the 450D for $1270 and a EF 50 1.8 lens for about $130.

Total: $1400. Balance $100 - probably enough to get u a Slik tripod @ Cathay Photo. May need to top up a little though

hmm nice so 450D would be a better choice of others?

[JustRaied]

or u can get a 2nd hand 40d body for about 1.2 or so and spend the balance and get the 18-55 IS

[buaya]

yup.. i think the 450D set up would fit the budget best

[RenesisX]

okay let's say we don care about the budget but for the catagory that fits on to my needs is 450D a choice too?

[buaya]

ur need is rather simple.. either a 450D or a 40D would be good enough