just bit the bullet and bought the nikon d50

beachy

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well after a few weeks of considering buying a dslr, i went into jessops on saturday and took a look at a few they had on offer, i had never really picked one up and had a play before but i have to say i was quite amazed, particularly at the speed of them, just no comparison to my panny FZ20, anyway in the end i went for the nikon D50 with the 18-55mm kit lens, mainly because i liked the way it felt in my hands grip etc, and from reading quite a bit on here theres not a great deal to chose between the D50 and the canon 350D, so i went back to jessops and picked it up today after getting the currys code from somewhere else on here they priced matched for me and i picked it up for £363.80 the best deal i had seen on the web, so the battery is on charge as i write.

so now i guess the expense begins with the lenses :) what do i intially go for ? well i'm looking for a good allround lens to start, i looked at 2 in jessops the tamron 70-300mm with macro and sigma 70-300mm with macro, both £99.99 at the moment, the sales guy in jessops said he went for sigma lenses as they seemed more sturdier, but he did say this was a personal preference, so any thoughts and advice you guys might have would be much appreciated.

cheers :thumbsup:
 
Hi beachy,
Congratulations on your decision to get a D-SLR - I wish I could make the same decision.
Like you I have the panasonic DMC-FZ20 at the moment but have had my eye on the D50 for some time now.
But I keep on thinking along the lines that I would miss the IS and the lovely12x optical zoom Leica lens.
Also, I would need to buy and carry more lenses about with the D50 and I'm not so certain I would like that - it may mean that I wouldn't carry it with me as often as I do with the FZ20.
I hope you will be happy with your D50 - I'm sure you will, once you get used to it especially if you are going to get a 70 - 300mm lens as well as the kit lens.
Happy shooting.
 
Hi beachy

Good choice on the D50 (although I may be somewhat biased as a fellow owner!). With respect to lenses, two questions spring to mind - what sort of budget are you looking at, and what subjects are you looking to shoot (landscapes, wildlife, sport, people, bit of everything?)

Cheers
Dave
 
Out of those 2 70-300 lenses...

If the Sigma is the APO version, get that. It's a smart lense and at £99.99 it's performance to cost ratio is stupidly high.
If it's just the standard version and it's the Tamron LD (Equivalent of APO - I know this is available for £99.99 in Jessops at the mo), then get this.

Both have superior optics to the Nikon 70-300 G lense, and almost reach the heights of the £350 Nikon 70-300 D lense, but at a much cheaper price (The biggest trade off is possibly the slower AF compared to the D Lense). The Sigma and Tamron are almost identical image wise (edge goes to Sigma), but I'd have to agree with the Jessops man. The Sigma, looks and feels a bit better.

Only other difference is that the Sigma has a 58mm filter and the Tamron has a 62mm filter. This may or may not make a difference to you.

At £99.99 these lenses are close to a £350 lense quality wise so shouldn't been seen as a cheap alternative. Infact, with the Macro capability, some would say it's a BETTER lense than the Nikon 70-300D for someone who is starting out and wants to try new things on a budget. Reasonable lenses for an excellent price = Good lenses in my book.

As mention the slow AF is a slight hastle, but i've never found it so bad i missed pictures in my experience with them.
 
Magslad said:
Hi beachy

Good choice on the D50 (although I may be somewhat biased as a fellow owner!). With respect to lenses, two questions spring to mind - what sort of budget are you looking at, and what subjects are you looking to shoot (landscapes, wildlife, sport, people, bit of everything?)

Cheers
Dave

thanks dave,my budget is'ent that high about £100-£130 at the moment as i want to buy one at the weekend and the camera has just taken up most of my budget , although i will be looking to buy another lens in a couple of months.


i'm looking to shoot a bit of everything really but would like to start concentrating on people in the near future, as i am always massively impressed by bristol petes shots, although i don't think i have his bottle in going up and asking strangers if i can take there photo :) , i think i may go with the tamron that valleyman mentioned (thanks valleyman) as the sigma is'ent the APO version but the DG version, and as at the moment i have'nt got a clue about lense's i'm happy to take advice and knowledge from you guys, many thanks to you all :thumbsup:
 
The good thing with not spending too much on a lens is that when you (invariably) upgrade at some point in the future you won't lose too much on it either, as there's always a second-hand market.

On a lower budget I agree with steering clear of Nikon, you only start to get 'bang for buck' in general with the more expensive lenses (with notable exceptions such as the 50mm 1.8D prime). The budget Nikon G series zooms especially can be somewhat dodgy for optical quality, so if you can get a Sigma or Tamron APO for £99.99 this looks a pretty good starting point.

Only final point I would make is that, if you are looking to start off with photographing people, you might want to consider investing in a prime lens rather than a zoom (such as the Nikon 50mm 1.8D, which you can get for well under £100) as this is likely to give you far better results. Of course, this would mean getting relatively close to people, which as you say needs some bottle! If you were looking at using a 70-300mm lens at it's upper ranges (200-300mm) you'll probably find you need a tripod/monopod to get decent results (unless you have incredibly steady hands), which makes you stand out a bit more if you're looking to take more candid shots of people. Just something to consider.
 
Magslad said:
Only final point I would make is that, if you are looking to start off with photographing people, you might want to consider investing in a prime lens rather than a zoom (such as the Nikon 50mm 1.8D, which you can get for well under £100) as this is likely to give you far better results

He speaketh the truth. Anyone with even a slight interest in portraits or low light photography should have the Nikon 50mm f1.8 in their arsenal. Unless of course they can afford the f1.4 at 2-3x the price.

Magslad said:
If you were looking at using a 70-300mm lens at it's upper ranges (200-300mm) you'll probably find you need a tripod/monopod to get decent results (unless you have incredibly steady hands), which makes you stand out a bit more if you're looking to take more candid shots of people. Just something to consider.

With the summer we've been having? Haha :) . It's doable to keep above 1/400 at 300mm in good light, which will give even the shakey-ist people blur free pics. Fair enough in dim light it'll suffer more, but with the D50s acceptable noise at high ISOs there is no need to feel self concious of a tripod if you're just starting out with the candid shots. If noise becomes an issue, weigh up the benefits of tripod vs handheld, but personally if you're shooting in B&W for candid photos then i don't find noise to be that much of an issue.
 
beachy said:
well after a few weeks of considering buying a dslr, i went into jessops on saturday and took a look at a few they had on offer, i had never really picked one up and had a play before but i have to say i was quite amazed, particularly at the speed of them, just no comparison to my panny FZ20, anyway in the end i went for the nikon D50 with the 18-55mm kit lens, mainly because i liked the way it felt in my hands grip etc, and from reading quite a bit on here theres not a great deal to chose between the D50 and the canon 350D, so i went back to jessops and picked it up today after getting the currys code from somewhere else on here they priced matched for me and i picked it up for £363.80 the best deal i had seen on the web, so the battery is on charge as i write.

so now i guess the expense begins with the lenses :) what do i intially go for ? well i'm looking for a good allround lens to start, i looked at 2 in jessops the tamron 70-300mm with macro and sigma 70-300mm with macro, both £99.99 at the moment, the sales guy in jessops said he went for sigma lenses as they seemed more sturdier, but he did say this was a personal preference, so any thoughts and advice you guys might have would be much appreciated.

cheers :thumbsup:

Good work. Cracking camera. Welcome to the next level :thumbsup:
 

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