Please help me make the right camera choice

[divine]

Originally Posted by Matblack

Please bear in mind that if I thought you were doing the right thing going dSLR I would be supporting you all the way, I am not jelous, I have no reason for persuading you not to buy one other than I feel it will not give you what you want or it will but at a huge investment of time, money and compromise.

A refreshing attitude. One of the things that began to put me off photography forums was the blind recommendation to all and sundry that they should buy an SLR even when they posted pretty much describing a compact to a T as their wish list.

An SLR is not for everyone. They're big, expensive, harder to use, can be harder to get good results from, they're heavy, they're hugely impractical.

But if you have a desire for the best and can live with that compromise then they make a great tool.

Totally random comparison - pizza. A proper fresh dough stonebaked pizza with nice cheese and good tomato sauce will always taste a thousand times better than a frozen oven cooked pizza. Most people will get by fine with frozen pizza and it would massively impractical to have your own stone pizza oven unless you really really loved making pizza. Actually, that's a crap comparison, all ive done is made myself hungry.

[Matblack]

Originally Posted by LeperousDust

Sounds amazing, and i truly would but i don't really sensibly have the money to invest (even in £100 bridge as bad as that sounds). I mean i've got money but i can't justify it to myself just yet, need a bigger disposable income before i do...

Speak to Stan, his Fuji is likely to become redundant soon and he might let you have it for a good price

MB

[Stan_Lite]

Originally Posted by Matblack

Speak to Stan, his Fuji is likely to become redundant soon and he might let you have it for a good price

MB

I was just about to post the same thing.

Assuming I get on well with the 300D, I'll be parting with my S6500fd soonish. I'll happily hold on to it for you until you have the cash if you want Alex.

[LeperousDust]

Sounds interesting I've got cash to go really if i reaaaally think i should, which i kinda do Hmmmmm

[Mark]

It's a good plan Alex, coming from another person who has done the transition at least as far as Bridge. I've seen enough to know you can't go wrong with the Fujis, even though I didn't get one myself.

Been out hunting today. No money spent. Canon still the frontrunner in terms of its viewfinder, but not convinced about the grip yet. Wasn't the cheapest, and wasn't the most expensive either. Much more detail in my TP thread.

Lens hire hadn't even occurred to me. Bloody good idea and one I hadn't considered, but it could backfire by making me lust after whatever I hire. Camera comes first, however.

Now I really need to find out what's 'out there' secondhand. TP doesn't seem to have much and having recently been stung by eBay I'm a bit reluctant to go letting loose with a fair amount of cash over there.

[LeperousDust]

Reading the trustedreviews review of the 6500 really makes it sound pretty damn awesome, i'm really at two minds totally, i have so much money pouring out of me really, arg...

[Mark]

Don't do what I did and let it spiral out of control. If you can't afford, you can't. The end. It got to £25k with me. Three times. Never, ever again.

PS - for the concerned, I'm currently at £2.8k outstanding with half of that sat in my bank account right now. Only reason I haven't paid that half off is because I don't have to (interest free period). Even if I do get a new camera all of that will be gone before 2010 happens (unless of course my roof situation is much worse than I expect it will be - in which case the camera idea goes away first).

[LeperousDust]

No i'm (don't take this wrong) not that stupid I have desires and i'm pretty good at just doing lots of research and looking into things until i really do fall over an amazing deal. Remember it took me a year to choose my watch (and i didn't even choose it in the end ). I'm happy in the knowledge i'm sensible to a certain extent.

[Mark]

Originally Posted by Matblack

Buying a 40d is a false economy, buy a 450d second hand and spend the money on glass, if this has to be able to cope with airshows as you have indicated else where and you are now happy to frame using the eye piece rather than 'live view'

As I know you've seen the thread, you might know I mentioned this point over at TP (without naming you). They pointed out the faster shooting (and bigger buffer) on the 40D, which is a very good point in the circumstances.

Doesn't make me want to buy one though. Spend more on the body = 100% framed shots only fit for the bin. Spend more on the glass = 50% framed shots that are usable. Easy peasy.

Of course, I'm still not even committed to Canon yet.

[lostkat]

I have to say, I've been following your camera choice threads with interest Mark and I agree with everything MB has said. You really need to think long and hard about whether an SLR will really give you what you want. It's not a given that they will deliver perfect photos and you will make a huge leap backwards at first if you decide to get one because they're much much harder to get results from. However, you already know this and say you've taken it into account. So if you still think it's the right choice, go for it.

Originally Posted by divine

A refreshing attitude. One of the things that began to put me off photography forums was the blind recommendation to all and sundry that they should buy an SLR even when they posted pretty much describing a compact to a T as their wish list.

An SLR is not for everyone. They're big, expensive, harder to use, can be harder to get good results from, they're heavy, they're hugely impractical.

But if you have a desire for the best and can live with that compromise then they make a great tool.

Spot on! I feel the same about people who upgrade with every new model that comes out. OK, some leaps are worth making (300D to 40D for example), but I am amazed at the amount of money people chuck down the drain just to say they have the latest model. I think a lot of it is a "boys and their toys" thing.