Digital SLR Recommendations?

[Mr Awe]

And Arrgh, The T2i looks enticing, if not almost out of my price range. It barely sneaks in under a grand in Canada.

Gah...I love love LOVE my D7 (the bigger brother of the T2i) and have to assume that the T2i is equally awesome.

Seriously, start buying those $3 TV dinners for a month to save money. Stop going to the movies and buying DVDs...whatever it takes...just save some money to get that camera!

ESPECIALLY if you want to do video. The advances in these new models on that front are super fantastic. I'm shooting video on my D7 and mixing it in with footage from my work's $8,500 Sony HD camera and I can't tell the difference between the two!

Oh, wait...I take that back. I'm getting better shots with the D7 because of the different lenses I can use!

(Just remember...no auto-focus on DSLR video...you've got to know what you're doing! There are other idiosyncrasies...you end up using ISO to control brightness more than you use aperture. It's kind of like re-learning video all over again. Everything's just a little bit different. But it's worth it...look at this photo. I can get video that has that kind of depth of field. You are NOT gonna get that on any video camera that you can afford!)

EDIT: Here, I uploaded another sample clip. It was shot in 1080p, it's been sized down to 720p here. (You should probably right-click and save it instead of playing it your browser unless you have a big monitor!) You just can not get that shot with most regular video cameras. Not gonna happen.

If by D7 you mean the Canon 7D, I heartily agree. I think it is slighly out of T'Biao's price range but would agree that it's worth saving up for.

Mr Awe

 

[Guartho]

I always want to refer to it as the D7 too. I think it's a Trekkie thing.

 

[Arrqh]

SLRs are redefining HD video on the cheap, but their audio capabilities are sorely lacking. Professional use of dSLR cameras generally requires a completely independent audio recording system... and of course all that other stuff you mentioned. Still, if it makes the big boys up their game... only a good thing.

On that topic, check out this camera rig they used for 24.

 

[Guartho]

T2i in my hand right now.

 

[T'Baio]

I just came on to post the exact same thing!

 

[Arrqh]

Sweet, now lets talk about lenses!

 

[T'Baio]

Okay! *starts saving more money*

But seriously, I wanna' thank everyone for the help provided. I wouldn't be as happy with my new camera without you guys!

Cheers!

 

[Guartho]

A photographer friend has just lent me 3 lenses... The wife and I are off to play with them, but I shall report.

 

[T'Baio]

Well, I still only have the kit lens, but what I'm experiencing so far is amazing.

I know I originally wanted an SLR for photos, but I have to admit, mainly due to my film background, I've been experimenting more with the HD 24fps video. And let me tell you, it looks AMAZING! I've even been able to get pretty decent sound out of it because of all the equipment I have already, so I've been able to hook two XLR boom mics into it...wow. What a great investment.

I'll be doing more straight photography in the next little while. It's just been raining here for days, so I haven't really been able to get it out in the open and see what it can do.

Look forward to your report Guartho!

 

[Guartho]

My wife commandeered the camera and lenses to shoot stills for fun tonight. I only got a few video clips shot. I was really happy with the ones I got tonight though. I'm hoping to have a little camera test reel cut by the end of the weekend.

I've been blown away by this f 1.4 50mm prime lens I'm borrowing.

 

[Arrqh]

Heh, yeah the first time you use a fast prime is always great. I have a 30mm f/1.4 and its ability to gather light and to control DoF is just amazing. I personally like the 30mm on a crop camera better then a 50mm, but that's just my shooting habits.

For anyone on a budget, I highly recommend the Canon 50mm f/1.8 II lens... it's Canon's cheapest lens (I think it retails for ~$90USD) and for that price the quality on it is still great. A lot of people starting out combo it with the kit lens, which is what I did when I got my T1i a year ago.

 

[T'Baio]

What do you mean by a "crop camera" Arrgh? Do you mean how the sensor isn't full 35mm?

 

[Guartho]

Yeah, that's the way I took it.

My photographer friend told me to avoid the "white square" lenses like the kit lens (he called them digital lenses, I think they're officially called APS-C) because they'll hamper you if you ever upgrade your body to a full-frame body. The ones he loaned me were all full-frame compatible and their alignment marker is a red dot instead of a white square. He recommended I invest in lenses that will allow me to easily upgrade my body in the future.

 

[Arrqh]

Yes, the Rebels, x0D's and the 7D are all crop frame cameras. They have a crop factor of 1.6x, in other words a 30mm lens is equivlent to ~50mm on a 35mm/full frame camera in terms of field of view. That's why I like the 30mm better... on a crop camera, 50mm goes from being a normal lens to a light telephoto.

I sort of disagree with the "no EF-S lens" policy... there's some very good budget lenses in there and some good high quality ones (most notably 17-55 f/2.8). On the used market, the good EF-S lenses still retain most of their value just like good EF lenses so it probably wouldn't be a huge hassle to just sell any EF-S gear if you do ever upgrade to full frame. And I don't consider what I might or might not do in the future to be as important as getting the gear that I want to use now. That's my take on it anyway, but I know there's strong opinions on both sides!

 

[Guartho]

Yeah, it's the kind of advice I'll take if the prices of the two equivalents are 'close enough.'

When I buy gear though, it's almost always budgeted as entirely the expense of a given project, so stuff isn't purchased unless I have a deposit from somebody else to pay for it. So, I usually buy the cheapest (while still suitable quality) gear that meets the needs of the project I'm buying it for. Sometimes I do keep other upcoming projects in mind when choosing, but not when budgeting.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Got a Canon 7D in January when Henry's had a Canon sale. Love it. Great camera. My Dad and I use it for astrophotography.

Pictures can that we took can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47539183@N04/

 

[Guartho]

I managed to pry the T2i out of my wife's hands a few times over the weekend for some "available light" testing. I have cut a little 3-minute reel that I'll probably get put up sometime tomorrow.

Got a busy day, but I'm not waiting up for this thing to export tonight.

 

[T'Baio]

Looking forward to seeing it, Guartho! I've been studying for a midterm I have this week, so I haven't been able to spend as much time with the camera as I've been aching to, but what I have done I love!

 

[Guartho]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaS6eM3lEJk[/yt]
Some of the outdoor footage is a little staccato because I had no ND filters so I ramped up the shutter to allow me to experiment with a wide-open iris.

 

[Lindley]

I have a Nikon D50. Now, I don't know as much about its manual settings as I'd like, and if it has a way to do video I haven't found it. But for automatic still pictures, it's superb.

I was at an air show last weekend. Here's a picture I captured of an F-22 screaming by perhaps 300 feet away. You can tell from the vapor cone that it's just short of Mach 1, and you can bet I was swinging the lens around to track it fairly fast. No blur at all.....