DSLR Recommendations

[Hammer]

Took a walk into town to see if I could play with some cameras. Jessops are sold out of 510s and aren't getting them back in stock (piss poor customer service as well, though I suppose it is a Friday afternoon and the guy probably just wanted home), while the assistants in John Lewis all seemed pretty busy and I got fed up waiting.

[MBiehn]

Originally Posted by fallen_nemesis

i didn't think it doubled. I thought it increased it by a factor of 1.5. Hence you'd only get a 300mm telephoto when you get above 200mm.

That fact I can only use MF too is killing me. That and I keep forgeting that the 50mm prime is now about a 75mm prime. Which is...bizarre.

Actually it is the double. If you have 50-200mm lenses it wil produce 100-400mm on the 4/3 system (35mm equiv). If any of you have doubts you have great sites like dpreview.com or do the search on goolge for "zuiko lenses" and you'll find professional answers to your questions.

[Bobzilla]

Originally Posted by fallen_nemesis

i didn't think it doubled. I thought it increased it by a factor of 1.5. Hence you'd only get a 300mm telephoto when you get above 200mm.

That fact I can only use MF too is killing me. That and I keep forgeting that the 50mm prime is now about a 75mm prime. Which is...bizarre.

Your thinking of the APS-C sensors that the Canon and Nikon use. The 4/3's senser is smaller still so it gives a 2x increase in focal length rather than the 1.5 your used to.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ImageensorSizes.png

[fallen_nemesis]

i seeeeeee. I'm used to it being 1.5. go go gadget me not reading posts properly!

[Hammer]

Stupid question time now: when it comes to buying Compact Flash cards, am I better buying a couple of smaller (2 or 4Gb) cards that I'll probably fill up, resulting in the whole card wearing out more quickly, or get a larger one (8Gb) which I might not fill up as often?

I'm planning to get an XD card as well.

[Potatojunkie]

Apply a well-known saying regarding 'eggs' and 'baskets'.

[fallen_nemesis]

Originally Posted by Hammer

Stupid question time now: when it comes to buying Compact Flash cards, am I better buying a couple of smaller (2 or 4Gb) cards that I'll probably fill up, resulting in the whole card wearing out more quickly, or get a larger one (8Gb) which I might not fill up as often?

I'm planning to get an XD card as well.

hm. My camera uses SD as opposed to compact flash. I was under the impression though that compact flash cards don't write quite so quickly the bigger the size. You might also not be able to use bigger cards in your camera, although they all exist they don't all take them. I was told it was something to do with the file writing system, checked wiki and it seems to suggest this might be the case too. It's not something I know much about though.

I know my camera doesn't take anything over 2GB either in SD cards. It's a few years old though and things might have changed.

I prefer lots of 2gb cards anyway. I think it's a psychological thing knowing that if something goes wrong with one or I lose one I still have 2 or 3 I can stick in the camera. It's great being able to put the memory write switch down too so I can't accidentally format them either. ( you can't do this with compact flash though, ner ner! )

I also wouldn't really say your card will run out. My nikon used SD, but the pro cameras in the range use Compact flash I think because it's pretty much indestructible and really reliable. Short of you putting in your pocket next to rough things and not carrying it in it's wee plastic case it should last you a long time!

[Hammer]

Cool. Prices on Amazon would seem to point me in that direction as well.

Originally Posted by fallen_nemesis

I also wouldn't really say your card will run out. My nikon used SD, but the pro cameras in the range use Compact flash I think because it's pretty much indestructible and really reliable. Short of you putting in your pocket next to rough things and not carrying it in it's wee plastic case it should last you a long time!

I was under the impression the CF's read/write cycle 'life' was a good bit lower then SD, XD, MemoryStick etc.

In the region of 100,000 rewrites as opposed to around a million in most of the others.

[Potatojunkie]

Originally Posted by fallen_nemesis

It's great being able to put the memory write switch down too so I can't accidentally format them either. ( you can't do this with compact flash though, ner ner! )

Hands up anyone who's enough of a dinlow to have accidentally formatted a memory card. Anyone?

[djtoast]

Originally Posted by fallen_nemesis

hm. My camera uses SD as opposed to compact flash. I was under the impression though that compact flash cards don't write quite so quickly the bigger the size. You might also not be able to use bigger cards in your camera, although they all exist they don't all take them. I was told it was something to do with the file writing system, checked wiki and it seems to suggest this might be the case too. It's not something I know much about though.

I know my camera doesn't take anything over 2GB either in SD cards. It's a few years old though and things might have changed.

With SD cards there's a different file system for cards over 2Gb than there is for cards under that size; there's different definitions for the number of bits used to define the allocation blocks. Cards above that size need to meet the SD High Capacity standard, and to see the extra space cameras need to be aware of the SDHC standard... so it's not backwards compatible with the original spec.

CF cards over 2Gb need to use the FAT32 standard rather than FAT16, but this has been about for over a decade so I'm pretty sure most DSLRs will cope with big cards easily - my 10D is five years old (gasp!) and writes to 4Gb cards, certainly.

As for life span - 100,000 writes is quite a few - say you'll fit 1,000 pics on the card, how soon do you reckon you'll have taken a hundred million pics? I take your point about using the same bit over and over but you can avoid that if you're really concerned by not deleting photos til the card is getting near full... in practice I don't think it need be a huge concern, by the time your cards wear out you'll be able to bt 4Gb cards for 50p anyway

[fallen_nemesis]

Originally Posted by Potatojunkie

Hands up anyone who's enough of a dinlow to have accidentally formatted a memory card. Anyone?

*coughs* whilst drunken yes *cough*

[KJ_UGS]

I bought a Canon 400D body only for really cheap and the money I saved I bought a Canon 50mm 1.8 for £50 and a Sigma 10-20mm for, errr, just under £300. But it's damn well worth the money!

Some example shots

Panorama with the Sigma 10-20 (3 shots)


Processed image with the 10-20mm


50mm 1.8



It's a good setup to get you started, although I'm still in the process of looking for a general purpose lens.

[Potatojunkie]

Originally Posted by KJ_UGS

It's a good setup to get you started, although I'm still in the process of looking for a general purpose lens.

The Sigma AF 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC macro is a good shout.

[0x21]

Originally Posted by Hammer

Stupid question time now: when it comes to buying Compact Flash cards, am I better buying a couple of smaller (2 or 4Gb) cards that I'll probably fill up, resulting in the whole card wearing out more quickly, or get a larger one (8Gb) which I might not fill up as often?

I'm planning to get an XD card as well.

I'm pretty sure 2x4Gb (£41.98 *) cards usually works out cheaper than 1x8Gb (£49.99*) each card, in which case theres really no point getting an 8Gb.

Benefits of smaller cards:
Can be loading one onto a laptop whilst using the other
Can put different things on different cards (i.e. keep night out photos seperate from tourist photos).
Less risk of losing all your photos due to card failure.

Benefits of bigger card:
You don't need to change card / store spare cards.
You'll get a marginally bigger capacity due to less fragmentation (there will be a small amount of space on each card you can't use because its not big enough; the more cards you use the more wasted space - But this will realistically add up to 1-2 photos out of about 900 so isn't really worth worrying about).


*Sandisk Extreme III's on mymemory.co.uk.

[KJ_UGS]

Originally Posted by Potatojunkie

The Sigma AF 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC macro is a good shout.

I've been looking at that, along with Canon's equivalent. Probably be going for a Sigma lens though as I'm quite happy with the build quality with my wide angle. I'm going to see if I can hire that lens from somewhere.

Talking about the memory card issue. I find keeping a small size card in your camera bag is a good idea because so many times I've left my memory cards in or around my computer and gone out shooting and realised i'd left my card at home.