Newbie DSLR questions...

[redbull2075]

Hi all,

Having spent the last 8 years owning a number of Sony compact cameras (current model T700) I am looking to move into DSLR territory and I must admit it is rather daunting !!

Having read many, many reviews, forum posts etc etc I am pretty much set on the Sony A350 with 18-70mm Lens Kit as I believe that this will provide me with a great entry level unit

I know there are a few other DSLR that I could also look at but I just need to get one now otherwise I will always be sitting on the fence instead of taking photos !!

My questions for those in the know....

1) Where is the best place/price to buy brand new lenses for the A350
2) What other manufacturers lenses can I use ?
3)Are there any negatives in not using Sony lenses - any lost functionality ?
4) Would you recommend Ebay ?
5) As a user moving from Compact digi camera what lens should I make my first purchase ?

Looking to photograph family and friends and general days out with Family ?

Finally any links that explain what lenses are best for what situations would be great !!

Any thoughts on my choice would also be welcome

Thanks in advance

[subbu68]

Hi

I was swinging between Canon 450D and Sony A350 when i struck upon this article.

AnandTech: Sony A350: Full-Time Live View at 14.2MP

You can see the review of both at this website. What attracted me to A350 was its fulltime Live View so that my wife could also use it with ease. But the remark about the optical viewfinder deterred me. My wife too said she had used my old Minolta film SLR without any problem so LV is not a must.

The Canon is supposed to be a good camera - see www.alatest.uk it is the top ranker but bit more costly too.

But the little A200 is catching up. It has pushed out 1000D and is now at 11 I suppose just one below A350.

Finally took the plunge and got A200.For entry into DSLR i think it is a good choice for the money you would spend. i did not read the manual yet and i took some decent photos. easy to understand camera.

trust this would help you or did it add to the usual confusion of a newbie to DSLR?

[leaky5]

One of the best web sites to see all the various lenses in Warehouse Express. Not the cheapest, for example the Tamron 55-200 is £136, you can pick this up for about £70. This will give you an idea of the lens range.

Then the Dyxum site Minolta Sony alpha lens database - Dyxum.com lens database will give you an idea of how good they are. I tend to only look at lenses with a score of 4.00 or above. There are usually sample photos as well.

Lots of people go for the Sigma 70-300 APO as a good budget zoom, around £140-150. The better zooms start at around £500 for the Sony 70-300 G SSM

To replace the kit lens ( which some people don't rate very highly, I am not one of them ) you then start to move up the price range to lenses like the Tamron 17-50 f2.8 (£280), the Sony 16-105 (£360) or the Sony CZ 16-80 (£480).

I think the only function you will lose with Tamron or Sigma lenses is the ADI flash function with dedicated Sony flash units. Sony lenses with the DT prefix are the only ones that work with ADI.

You only asked about new lenses, Minolta AF lenses from the mid 80's onwards also work on Sony cameras. There are lots of great lenses there, again all on Dyxum. Ebay is the best place for these, you just need to be careful and ask lots of questions about the condition.

First lens wise either a 55-200 or 70-300 would probably be OK, I only tend to use my 70-300 when I really need the extra reach. I seem to use my 35-105 and 100-200's the most.

[p1tse]

i've got the sony 18-200

i.e w w w .b4udirect.com/index.cfm?course=/home/product/00073426/SONY/SONY&bhcp=1

great walk around lens, due to the zoom range

[pumbaa]

Its general advice as I'm not familiar enough with Sony's camera and lens range to comment specifically.

Buy the best quality lenses you can afford at the outset. When I bought my 350D three years ago, I went for focal length range (i.e. covering wide angle to zoom) without paying much attention to the quality of glass per se. I regret that decision now. Thats not to say what I bought was bad - it isn't - but had I done a bit more research, I could have bought better quality glass for roughly the same outlay. Look towards get lens with a constant f/2.8 aperture; it'll be worth it in the long run.

Sigma and Tamron both make very good quality lenses, and offer better vfm in most cases against Canon stuff. I personally can't make the same comparison with Sony, so good advice is go and try stuff out in the store.

[Pirate!!]

Ahoy!

I'm assuming you know what you need, rather than what you want. Do you need the extra megapixels and live-view? If so, A350 would meet the need, as would other dSLR with LV, like the Olympus E520. If LV isn't such a big deal, A200 would be just fine.

Clearly, there are numerous lens choices for the Alpha. That said, it's a risk buying from eBay. Could easily be a poor copy. Rather buy from another Alpha owner from AVF classifieds or via Dyxum website.

Next lens(es) . . . now that's a tough one. What do you want to shoot, or what is the intended purpose. The variants are plenty. Tamron 55-200 would suffice as short/mid range zoom, Sigma 70-300mm APO DG Macro as a long zoom/macro. These are budget lenses.

Makes for the system: Tamron, Tokina, Sigma, Sony, Carl Zeiss and Minolta. Remember, all lenses are stabilised in-body. Nothing lost from any of them.

Where to buy new lenses? That's a personal choice. Do your homework and research, decide what you need, make a shortlist and come back to us.

Your going to need:

More than a kit lens. A spare battery. Possibly an external flashgun and tripod. A decent bag, lens filters. A card reader and a decent capacity CF card (say 4Gb).

Frankly, unless you are on a very tight budget, I would get the best quality lens that you can afford. No point in 'making do', as there's no comparison to IQ in terms of lenses. There are some excellent lenses out there that will give exemplary image quality at affordable prices. You need to tell us what your requirements are. Dyxum.com is our bible website. Research the heck out of it in the lenses section.

[loz]

most reviews seem to suggest the A300 is a better buy than the A350 because it doesn't have such a noisy sensor - and is cheaper, and faster.

[jonnymorris]

Here's something I sort of knew already but was advised on by an expert in a camera shop - don't be lured by megapixels. If you're just out for casual family photos then you really don't need to worry, 5mp or greater is all you will ever need for regular prints. The only advantage of more megapixels for you may come if you decide that you want to do a lot of cropping, then you can keep the detail in a smaller crop area once it gets printed. Certainly do not go paying extra just for more megapixels.

Having said that, printing may soon be a thing of the past for many people anyway as they move to digital photo frames, in which case most of the image data gets dumped anyway as it's only for screen display (typically a single photo would be about 80k ~ 150k file size, instead of about 2MB or more).

I just got a Canon 1000D myself and am very happy with it so far. I've played around with the basic modes and they seem to work very well, making casual shooting a snap. The 18-55 kit lens has image stabilisation which is very impressive indeed - it's easy to do hand-held shots at the maximum zoom setting indoors without any blur or noise.

I would advise you to go into a proper camera shop and have a look at the cameras for yourself, hold them and try them out, see which fits your hands and which you feel you could use the easiest, as that's what it comes down to really at the end of the day - it could take the best photos in the world but if you can't use it then there's no point. I would also buy from said camera shop (or shop around if you like), then you will have a physical point of contact should you need help or to return the camera.

Good luck!

[anthony566]

As most people have covered all of your questions on what and were to buy I thought i would give you some feed back on the A350.... I have just picked up an A350 with an 18 - 70 mm & a 75 - 300 mm ( both Sony ). i have used this for over a week so far and find this to be a very easy to use dslr, the images are first class and the live view is the best i have seen in a dslr ( and i did look at a lot ) even my kids picked this up and just used it with great results. I hope this helps.