Camera advice for newbies

Mmm, you ever worked offshore before? Weight and size are a large consideration… Add to the fact you are usually at work, so have the camera in one of your coverall pocket!:)

Or compact. 😀

But surely, some kind of damping system would be better than a tri/monopod on a moving platform, such as a ship at sea. Something like the system professional movie makers use to hold the camera while they are walking/running, etc. Not cheap, I know.

Mmm, you ever worked offshore before? Weight and size are a large consideration… Add to the fact you are usually at work, so have the camera in one of your coverall pocket!:)

A Friend with a D50 told me that he views the D40 as a lower-spec camera than the D50 (hence the lower monicker) But I can’t recall what the 2 key features he mentioned that were lacking?

Some of the specs of the D40 are actually better than those of the D50. The most important limiting factor of the D40 is that it only accepts AF-S lenses (with built-in focus motor). See this site for a comparison between the two camera’s. http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond40/

A Friend with a D50 told me that he views the D40 as a lower-spec camera than the D50 (hence the lower monicker) But I can’t recall what the 2 key features he mentioned that were lacking?

The D40 only autofocuses with the AF-S Silent Wave Motor lenses, whereas the D50 should (in theory) work with AF lenses

http://www.europe-nikon.com/product/en_GB/products/broad/1111/overview.html

http://www.europe-nikon.com/product/en_GB/products/broad/1050/overview.html

To be honest, I do not have a lot of experience shooting aircraft, but I used to take plenty of photos at sea on ships and rigs, and the movement on them used to mean I had to take every means available to steady before I shot a picture. A tripod or monopod makes all the difference, and can assist in your panning effects

But surely, some kind of damping system would be better than a tri/monopod on a moving platform, such as a ship at sea. Something like the system professional movie makers use to hold the camera while they are walking/running, etc. Not cheap, I know.

One thing that a lot of people overlook when thinking of buying a camera is a tripod. To be honest, I have used a point and shoot digital camera to just a great effect as an SLR (film or digital) provided I use some sort of stabilizing device.

Image stabilization is ok on a lens, but on most cameras it is only going to allow you to shoot 2-3 stops slower. Therefore a tripod (or a monopod – easier to use at airshows!) can be considered vital, even if shooting with IS on. This gets more vital when at full zoom of a camera (10x optical zoom) or beyond 200mm of focal length on an SLR. Rule of thumb is allow 1/100th of a second shutter speed minimum for every mm of focal length.

To be honest, I do not have a lot of experience shooting aircraft, but I used to take plenty of photos at sea on ships and rigs, and the movement on them used to mean I had to take every means available to steady before I shot a picture. A tripod or monopod makes all the difference, and can assist in your panning effects

As for the DSLR vs Prosumer / Digital compact, I must stick my neck out and say I still prefer my Nikon F4, apart from the weight!

Regards,
Scotty

A Friend with a D50 told me that he views the D40 as a lower-spec camera than the D50 (hence the lower monicker) But I can’t recall what the 2 key features he mentioned that were lacking?

Hi tache3,

I read reviews and visited shops to get some hands on and eventually went for the Nikon D50 which i have been very happy with. This was my first slr and i found it very easy to get to grips with. I have since purchase a second hand D70 as i was fed up with having to change lenses all the time.

It took me a couple of reads to realise you menat a second body as opposed to a replacement – I was wondering, as the D70 has interchangeable lenses as well!!

Look out for good deals on the D50 – now that the D40 is in, you can get new D50s at reduced prices new (I got a D50 plus18-55 and 55-200 for £400).

Went for the D50 rather than the D40 as it’s slightly bigger and suits my big hands!

RobAnt,
my friend has just upgraded from his 5100 to the 6500FD (£190 from eBay) and got it yesterday, he is raving about it as well!
If it is that good I might chop in my FZ5 for it, whilst the Panasonic takes a very nice picture, there is still too much shutter lag, and the Macro feature is not brilliant.

PS I always enjoy a good tug in the morning….:D

Tache3

If you still haven’t made your mind up, whatever you do, don’t buy a stock factory fresh Fuji.

To replace my bust S5600 I ordered a refurbished S6500fd direct from Fuji, and :

1. It arrived next day
2. It is absolutely pristine
3. It easily outperforms any camera I have every used in the past, including my Minolta film SLR.

The autofocus is absolutely bang on. It is practically noise free – I took a few pictures at full 10.7x optical and 2x digital – what’s that 21.4x – and even those are as good as anything my S5600 ever took. I must say I’m more than pleased with it.

I’m going to Yeovilton tomorrow, and no doubt I’ll get some aviation related pics there, however I took this (I’m sorry it’s not a plane, but it only arrived today) today, only a couple of hours after I got it in my sweaty paws.

Click Here. It’s not aviation based (it’s a tug actually), so I wont defile the forum with the image.

what I need now is recommendation for a book on basic techniques that I can carry to read on the way to work etc there seems to be hundreds of these, how can a chap make a decision without flicking through them all? I don’t need one with loads of numbers and formula at this point…can anyone help

Hi There,

I can’t recommend any books personally because I’ve never really read any on photography, but someting you could try is asking for recommendations on a photography-specific forum. There are a good few potographers on this forum, but obviously many more on photography forums, so you may have more luck with this question there. Two you may like to try are:

www.photography-on-the.net That’s a forum specifically for photographers using Canon digital cameras. And:

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/ Which is a general photography forum.

It may be worth doing a quick search of those forums first. That’s probably the kind of question that’s asked fairly regularly, so there may be a thread already that might be of use.

Hope that helps.

Paul

So it took a little longer to find the cash than I thought but I went for the Canon Powershot S3 eventually. Still in the manual reading/mistake making phase at the moment and I’m still waiting for a free weekend to go out roaming with it. I’ve found loads of useful resources online but what I need now is recommendation for a book on basic techniques that I can carry to read on the way to work etc there seems to be hundreds of these, how can a chap make a decision without flicking through them all? I don’t need one with loads of numbers and formula at this point…can anyone help

Shutter speed and other things!

This is all great advice, thanks to everyone for posting. It seems like one of the prosumer range would be within my budget, even though my old mum used to say “if you buy cheap you buy twice”…

Anyway, two further questions-

How useful is image stabilization to getting good shots of aircraft in flight? Will this help in keeping the object in focus or will it end up spoiling any sense of speed? Also what is its effect on prop blur?

What about software for dealing with the results- are the programs that come with the bundle any good? I suppose there is no point buying at the top of my budget if I don’t have software that will do the results justice. But if the shots are good in the first place then they shouldn’t need any b*ggering about with, yes?

Image stabilization is not a must, but to be honest I would not buy a Zoom lense without it, it does help with the shaky hands but I think its most useful asset is in giving you an approximate ‘two stops’ benefit. It does in a sense help keep the aircraft in focus, however ultimately how well focused an aircraft is, is going to depend on the camera auto focus system if on one of the automatic settings. If the camera is on manual then it is down to skill and a little bit of luck.

Prop blur is simply down to shutter speed, the higher the speed setting the less blur, fast enought and you can defy the laws of the known universe and stop the aircraft, no prop blur no sign of forward motion. however remember that you will need to trade off shutter speed against aperture to get the depth of field you want for your next masterpiece.

As to image software that which is supplied with the camera will get you started, beyond that you cannot go far wrong with ‘Adobe Elements’.

The two ‘747’ pictures were taken with an Eos 20D, using a 75 – 300mm IS lens, as was the Ryan and Skyraider.

The aircraft formation is were dept of field can become really important see the attached taken at this years Legends.

Happy picture taking!

Cheers

Eric

I

This is all great advice, thanks to everyone for posting. It seems like one of the prosumer range would be within my budget, even though my old mum used to say “if you buy cheap you buy twice”…

Anyway, two further questions-

How useful is image stabilization to getting good shots of aircraft in flight? Will this help in keeping the object in focus or will it end up spoiling any sense of speed? Also what is its effect on prop blur?

What about software for dealing with the results- are the programs that come with the bundle any good? I suppose there is no point buying at the top of my budget if I don’t have software that will do the results justice. But if the shots are good in the first place then they shouldn’t need any b*ggering about with, yes?

Robant, P51,
Thanks for the advice, there is no doubt that I will go for DSLR in the future, and probably a Canon as I understand that I can re-use the lenses from my EOS300?

At the moment I am looking for something that gives me near-SLR results with the simplicity and lack of bulk of a point & Shoot, the Prosumer seems to fit that nicely, and mean that I only need to take one mid-sized camera to Airshows/Weddings/other events, rather than 2, and when you have a 3 and 6 year old in tow, the last thing you need is to be carrying unnecessary cr*p!

What I might do is borrow my friend’s Fuji S5500 for the Wedding next weekend and see how I get on with it, they have good optical zoom and are selling for around £90 on eBay at the moment, much less than the Canon/Olympus equivalents (£120-160)

Wessex Boy – if you’re taking photos of aircraft in flight – whatever you finally choose make sure it has a 10x zoom at least (note that 10x means slightly different things to different manufacturers, but not enough as makes a real difference).

You can pick up a decent Prosumer for about £200. The minimum you’ll pick up an equivalent performing DSLR for is going to be £600+, by the time you’ve got a lens good enough and big enough to cope.

However, I don’t deny that you MIGHT want to go onto DSLRs later.

Taken with a FinePix S5000 Prosumer:

I would save your money and go for a DSLR as it`s what you will want in the near future. most on here are either canon or nikon users so you won`t go wrong with either one.

poor,. punct’uation!

Just to add to the discussion, I have a Casio EX S500 point and shoot and a Canon EOS300 35mm. (with 28-90+75-300)
Having just been to a wedding with the Casio and having totally disappointing results, I have decided to buy an intermediate camera, as a friend with a Fuji Finepix achieved fantastic results.
My question is what to buy? I am looking to buy 2nd hand from eBay for £70-100.
My choices come down to:
Canon Powershot S2
Canon Powershot S3 (is this that much better than an S2?)
Olympus SP500
Fuji Finepix S5500/5700/602 or similar
Praktica 4008
Panasonic Lumix FZ20

Any thoughts/experiences please!! or any other choices.

I have owned Praktica and Olympus SLRs before and get on well with the EOS, and don’t want to lose a decent film camera yet

I knew there was something else – but that’s not to say you can’t get accessories – like, as I say, wide angle and teleconverters. These will continue to make it useful long after you’ve emptied the bank on a super-duper multi-billion dollar dSLR.

If you’re not sure you want to invest loads of money in cameras yet, but still like something that might be useful if you do get the bug, then I have found that any of the Prosumer cameras, with a good long lens is a great place to start.

I use a Fuji Finepix S5600 myself – which has a 10x zoom, in conjunction with a teleconverter, giving a maximum 15x. That combination won’t come anywhere near breaking the bank. It has all the attributes a beginner needs – yet it’ll be something you can keep hold of later for less demanding work.

Of course a prosumer lacks in some areas (it isn’t a true SLR for instance – you have to rely on the resolution of the viewfinder LCD) – but it is as fully manual, or fully automatic, as you like – allowing you to learn how to use all the various settings.

I am in total agreement with Rob, a Prosumer would seem to fit the bill, the down side is that not a lot of upgrading is possible, if you want something better then it will be back to square one and buy an SLR!

Mind you whatever you buy is superseded almost as soon as you buy it!