[Arcam_boy]

I've been considering buying a digital SLR for a while but didn't know if I really needed to or not really.

I was at a wedding last weekend and my girlfriend and I where posing for a picture and the wedding photographer came behind and took a quick picture. I asked him if it would be possible to buy the picture and he's just kindly e-mailed it to me for free. He was using a Canon 5D so I was expecting it to be pretty good but the quality blew me away. Now I know some of you on here take superb photo's all the time but this has totally made my mind up and this weekend I will be going to buy myself a new Canon 400D as the 5D's a little out of my price range.

Just one quick question do you all mainly use Macs or Windows based PC's for editing your pics etc?

Thanks.

[jamesbryan17]

I'm on a PC mate

[allymac123]

There's plenty that use each I think. A mac's probably better if its all you use it for but I use a PC perfectly fine.


Don't mean to burst your bubble but just so that you don't expect results like the image you posted as soon as you pick it up I'd offer this piece of advice "The camera is only as good as the person looking through the viewfinder". I don't doubt that after a couple of months you will be able to take shots like that if you take the time to learn about aperture, ISO, shutter speeds, composition, lighting etc etc.

Anyone with enough meney can buy themselves a Pagani Zonda but only a few who put in the hard graft, training and experience will be able to drive it at its limit. Saying that, your more likely to put in a faster lap time in a Zonda than you are in a Nissan Micra 1.0

Nice one though and we look forward to seeing some of your stuff

[Gordon @ Convergent AV]

I'm on a laptop PC...after buying my 5D I can't afford a real PC....

[stuart07970]

I switched to a mac and just keep wishing I'd done it years ago.

I'd just like to echo allymac's comments, you're not buying a gadget, you're buying into a long journey of learning and discovery!

But so worth while!

Check out the portrait and learning thread, there are some truly amazing pictures on there!

[richard plumb]

Originally Posted by allymac123

Don't mean to burst your bubble but just so that you don't expect results like the image you posted as soon as you pick it up I'd offer this piece of advice "The camera is only as good as the person looking through the viewfinder". I don't doubt that after a couple of months you will be able to take shots like that if you take the time to learn about aperture, ISO, shutter speeds, composition, lighting etc etc.

Anyone with enough meney can buy themselves a Pagani Zonda but only a few who put in the hard graft, training and experience will be able to drive it at its limit. Saying that, your more likely to put in a faster lap time in a Zonda than you are in a Nissan Micra 1.0

Nice one though and we look forward to seeing some of your stuff

I'm going to unburst his bubble :P - don't want to put him off just yet.

Yes it takes a while to get really good results consistently, but you could get a nice portrait like that fairly easily. You'd probably do with getting a 50mm f1.8 lens (cheap and a worthwhile buy), bung it in Av mode, twiddle the aperture to about f2, pop up the flash to fill in, and press the button.

Not quite that straightforward, but I bet you'd be surprised how good it'll look.

[Radiohead]

Originally Posted by richard plumb

I'm going to unburst his bubble :P - don't want to put him off just yet.

Yes it takes a while to get really good results consistently, but you could get a nice portrait like that fairly easily. You'd probably do with getting a 50mm f1.8 lens (cheap and a worthwhile buy), bung it in Av mode, twiddle the aperture to about f2, pop up the flash to fill in, and press the button.

Not quite that straightforward, but I bet you'd be surprised how good it'll look.

Works for me

[Arcam_boy]

I understand like everything its not just all about the equipment and I'll be the first one to admit I know very little about anything really to do with taking pictures, editing etc but I'm hoping to learn all this stuff and hopefully be pretty good before next July when we go to the Maldives on Holiday and for the Waddington Airshow.

I have just been and bought a copy of Digital Photo so will have a good read through that over the next day or two.

I think for now I will be buying just the Canon 400D plus a 18 - 55mm lense and then all the other little add ons like bigger memory/battery pack etc in the future although I think a decent carry case would be a worthwhile investment

Thanks for all the replies.

[Steve Zissou]

Buy your memory from Play.com - £17.99 for a 2GB Sandisk Extreme III is excellent.

[mucca_D]

Originally Posted by richard plumb

You'd probably do with getting a 50mm f1.8 lens (.

like this one?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Canon-EF-50mm-...QQcmdZViewItem

[senu]

Originally Posted by richard plumb

I'm going to unburst his bubble :P - don't want to put him off just yet.

Yes it takes a while to get really good results consistently, but you could get a nice portrait like that fairly easily. You'd probably do with getting a 50mm f1.8 lens (cheap and a worthwhile buy), bung it in Av mode, twiddle the aperture to about f2, pop up the flash to fill in, and press the button.

Not quite that straightforward, but I bet you'd be surprised how good it'll look.

That is infact true.. But despite wanting to start with the Kit lens , I would strongly urge you to get the 50mm ( as linked below) as well ,. It is a very cheap way of getting sharp images very early on.

Originally Posted by mucca_D

like this one?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Canon-EF-50mm-...QQcmdZViewItem

Yep!

[richard plumb]

Originally Posted by mucca_D

like this one?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Canon-EF-50mm-...QQcmdZViewItem

yep. Good price too.

If you're not particular on the 400d and just want something to start you off, there are often 350ds in the non-AV sales section here. I'd mention I'm selling one but that might be indiscrete (with a 1GB card thrown in too!)