New camera advice

It’s weird how so many people slate Tamron lenses and yet my 28-300 (the most commonly slated lens) gets me perfectly acceptable, sharp, clear results, and it gives me them consistently. It’s also given fellow forum member Adam Spalding consistently good results when he borrowed it for his recent travels in the US. One thing I have noticed about the basic Canon 75-300 is it can suffer from quite dramatic chromatic abberation, which is something I don’t see to anything like the same degree on the Tamron. The Canon is perhaps a tad sharper than the Tamron but it does suffer in other ways. The 28-300 actually spends most of its time on my EOS 10 film SLR where it performs admirably and I have to say, I find the build quality to be very reasonable and solid. Ahh well… All interesting stuff!

Paul

I must have had a Friday afternoon one!

A few of my test shots I have taken, Nothing aviation here though.

Thanks for all the advice guys, I picked the camera up Thursday evening from Jessops as Old Shape said, The price was around £200 cheaper than anybody elses which for obvious reasons swayed my decision.

I have done some test shots using it around my home and in local park and on Sunday i took it along with the wife and 2 friends to Richmond park and managed to get some pretty nice shots of the Fallow Deer there.

I am still getting used to the camera and playing about with settings so can’t yet judge how I feel with the Tamron lense, If it does turn out not to be too good at airshows then I will have to invest more money by end of the year(something i will need beg the wife for I fear). At the moment I am just spending what time I can either reading manual or practicing.

I will post some shots on this thread later, Not really done anything aviation wise yet, Just a shot or 2 at a BA 747 and Virgin A340 at Richmond park.
Now
I am just looking forward to a nice long summer to use the camera in fingers crossed.

Anyway, I would have said don’t get the Tamron. I found it cheaply built and there was an uncomfortable softness of the pictures (I tested it with a Canon and the difference was so marked it was unnaceptable IMO

It’s weird how so many people slate Tamron lenses and yet my 28-300 (the most commonly slated lens) gets me perfectly acceptable, sharp, clear results, and it gives me them consistently. It’s also given fellow forum member Adam Spalding consistently good results when he borrowed it for his recent travels in the US. One thing I have noticed about the basic Canon 75-300 is it can suffer from quite dramatic chromatic abberation, which is something I don’t see to anything like the same degree on the Tamron. The Canon is perhaps a tad sharper than the Tamron but it does suffer in other ways. The 28-300 actually spends most of its time on my EOS 10 film SLR where it performs admirably and I have to say, I find the build quality to be very reasonable and solid. Ahh well… All interesting stuff!

Paul

Damn.
I didn’t see this thread until now.

Last year (Exactly 12 months ago) I bought the 450D plus the same stock lens AND the Tamron 70-300…..I guess you are using Jessops? I shopped around like crazy but Jessops had the best deal at the time, to my annoyance.
Anyway, I would have said don’t get the Tamron. I found it cheaply built and there was an uncomfortable softness of the pictures (I tested it with a Canon and the difference was so marked it was unnaceptable IMO (Even for the vast price difference). The softness grew worse toward the edge of lens (Which is common).
Fork out a little more and get a Sigma, or for out even more and get a Canon.

Martin
The only thing I would add to Pauls good advice is keep the manual in your back pocket.
Simon:cool:

Thanks for your advice, Camera is booked and will be collected tommorow feeling pretty happy as price dropped by £60 since Monday so All is looking good so far.
I must admit I am looking forward to a different challenge in photography, I have had now 3 bridge cameras in the last 6 years and from each I gained a bit of experience but also feel with the last one Fuji S8000 i basically threw money but that’s another story.

The only thing you really need (apart from a good bag to carry it all in) is lots and lots of practice! The two lenses you’ll have will cover most of what you want to do, so you shouldn’t need to get anything else too quickly. A few general pointers:

Firstly, read the manual cover to cover and when you’re done, read it again. Even if you’re not sure what all the functions actually do, if you’re at least aware of them they can be explained either on here or by searching the internet.

If you’re wanting to get the best out of the camera, never use it in Auto. Allowing the camera to guess what you want it to do will never give results as good as those you’ll get when you tell it exactly what you want it to do, so learn about the modes and how they work (Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority are generally considered the most useful for shooting aviation and I rarely leave these two modes for any kind of shooting except occasionally using full manual).

Don’t be disappointed with poor initial results. Bridge cameras are designed to give good images straight out of the camera, and hence by default they generally add saturation and sharpness, whereas DSLR’s don’t generally apply any processing whatsoever and it’s widely accepted that doing all processing on DSLR images after you take them gives the best results. Processing afterwards allows you to tailor the image to look exactly how you want. Some consider it better to get everything as right in camera but again, the camera is only guessing how you want the final image to look if you apply processing when you shoot. The two most critical things to nail when you actually shoot are getting a sharp image (done by ensuring your shutter speed isn’t too slow), and getting the exposure right so the image isn’t too dark or light, but sharpness and saturation can be added afterwards. Because you have more quality and clarity in the image from DSLR’s, the way you add that processing becomes more critical to getting the most out of your work and it will probably be a while until you consistently get results you’re entirely happy with, so don’t be disappointed if the first few weeks or even months don’t produce JP-standard results. It will come in time and practice.

Fill the frame as much as you can with your subject. The smaller the subject is I the frame and the more you have to crop in, the more of your resolution is lost, so try zoom right in so you don’t need to crop as much.

Lastly, practice lots! Shoot as much as you can and shoot as many varied subjects as you can. Shoot anything; plants in the garden, contrails going overhead, planes, trains, people, cities, landscapes… Anything you can. The more varied the subjects you shoot, the more you’ll learn about your camera and how to get the best out of it, so try not to limit yourself to just shooting one type of image. Even if you don’t particularly enjoy shooting other things, you’ll learn new techniques that will help regardless of what you’re shooting.

Hopefully that helps a little. Post a few images when you get your camera and let us know how you’re getting on! Feel free to drop me a PM if I can help in any way. 🙂

Paul