How I answered the question “Which DSLR (Disgital SLR) camera should I buy?”
For a while now, I’ve been thinking of learning how to take better photographs. I’ve got a decent compact digital camera – the Fuji FinePix F810 – but I wanted something with more flexibility. A few friends of mine have gone down the DSLR route recently so I started to think about it again. Then I noticed my wife looking at DSLRs and we figured we might as well get one since we were both interested!
As usual, I started off with some internet research. What sort of prices were we looking at, what was available, what would give us the ability to start simple but get more advanced – that sort of thing. Very soon, however, it became apparent that there were three main contenders that deserved more investigation – the Canon EOS 450D, the Nikon D60 and the Sony Alpha A350.
Here’s what I discovered and how I decided which camera to buy:
Nikon D80: Nikon’s a big name in cameras, been around for a while, but I figure that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re the best any more. The D80, whilst the same level as the other two, is older, and ‘only’ 10 megapixels. Now, I know that for 4×6 prints that’s more than enough, but I’d rather have the ability to crop my images and still have a decent resolution. The D80 has 11-point autofocus, which beats the Canon which has ‘only’ 9 points. You’ll notice me using ‘quotes’ a few times – that’s because I think of some points as relative; for example, ‘only’ 9 AF points still beats the one I am used to using! Anyway, the Nikon also doesn’t seem to have any form of image stabilisation. All the reviews I can find rate it very highly – often the best – in terms of actual results, though. This seems to be the best camera judged on images alone. However, it does have some flaws in my eyes, namely no sensor cleaning facility and no image stabilising. Nikon also has a heeee-uge range of lenses to choose from when the time comes to expand.
Sony A350: Sony? What do Sony know about decent cameras? Well, it turns out they know quite a bit! The A350 looks very tempting – the first things that jumped out at me were the sensor-cleaning, 14 megapixel count and image stabilising which works with any lens. It also has a colour LCD screen which flips out from the body, so you can take photos (via the sceren) with the camera held away from your eyes. That could be useful. So far, the Sony is looking good from a gadget point of view. However, some further research shows that the lens selection isn’t as good.
Canon EOS 450D: Canon? Again, what do they know about stuff other than printers? Well, apparently, quite a bit. For starters, everyone else I know who has boufght a DSLR has bought this one. But they could all be wrong, so I’ll make my own decision. The Canon is 12 megapixels – which was my mental benchmark – and has sensor cleaning. Image stabilisation is available, but only in certain lenses – one of which comes with the camera. It also has sensor lockup – apparently this would be useful for trying to get super-sharp images as it reduces vibration. There are also more lenses available for it. It has a massive LCD panel, and can do 3.5fps if required. It’s also much smaller than the other two, and that surprised me. Finally, it seems to have more control flexibility, meaning that as I learn more, it will still keep up with me – I won’t be wanting to upgrade too soon.
So, in the end, I bought the Canon EOS 450D. I’m sure I would have been just as happy with the results from the other two, but on paper the EOS 450D made more sense. It was a decent price – less than £500 with a zoom lens from Jessops (after £50 cashback, which just arrived today). I’ve already bought my first additional lens – a Canon EF 50mm f1.8 MK2 – and I’ll write more about that in another post.
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