Nikon D5100 or Canon EOS 600D

Stockholm

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Nikon are currently offering a rebate of £40 for this camera. I have £400 or just a touch over if the Canon is the better camera and have also looked at the D3200 but prefer the D5100 over it owing to the tilt screen and additional features.

The Canon has Magic Lantern and from reading comments on other forums this transforms the camera's capabilities as a video camera. Video isn't my main priority but I do like the flexibility ML offers. Some of the videos I've seen that have been shot with the 600d using ML are stunning - real professional looking videos.

A few things that put me off the Canon are the noise the lens makes as it focusses, the lack of continuous AF in video mode and it's slightly more expensive than the Nikon with a basic lens kit. Also, in Live View the Nikon achieves AF quicker than the Canon. That seems better.

I'd be buying either with the basic lens kit. If it was you which camera would you buy? Which one is it easier and cheaper to buy additional lenses for in the future?

Edit - Actually, with the £40 rebate it might be better to get the twin lens kit that gives you the same 18-55 lens and an additional 55-200mm VR lens, which normally costs £100 on its own.
 
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Nikon has better kit lenses and the 35mmF1.8 is a good starter too
 
Thank you for commenting, Dolby Dan. I appreciate the advice.

After doing lots of reading and research I'm almost certain that I'll be ordering the D5100 with the basic lens kit. Even with Magic Lantern I prefer the pictures taken with the Nikon. They seem balanced and well exposed.

The best guide was the review and comparison shots in RAW/100 on the dpreview website. Once I've got used to using the basic lens that comes with the camera I'll probably look into buying the 35mm prime lens and then another >100mm lens.

Sad to have missed out on the deal John Lewis were offering for the D5100 and twin lens kit just after Christmas. Off the top of my head I think they were selling the twin lens kit for £419 and then there was a £90 rebate from Nikon. Such a good deal.
 
I personally would dodge the kit lens and get the Tamron 17-50mmF2.8.

Exceptionally sharp lens that also goes down to F2.8 throughout the zoom.

Then when your after a long zoom look at the Tamron SP 70-300mm again very sharp and the VC is incredible!!

Comparable to the top Nikon equivelent lenses, some people prefer them, I got them coz they're miles cheaper!!
 
I'd love to buy a Tamron lens like that but I don't have enough money just now to buy that and the camera, and I think I'd be too impatient to buy the body and then wait a month or two to buy the lenses I'd like.

Apparently the basic lens isn't too shabby and works quite well with the D5100, although I'd love to have got my hands on the JL twin lens kit deal as it would have given me the 200mm lens on top of the basic one for the same price as the one I'll be buying next week.

Can anybody help me to understand what I'll be missing out on by not having a wireless flash receiver/sync feature inside the D5100? You get it with the Canon 600d and D7000 but it's a feature that is missing from the model I'm looking at. Does this mean I'll eventually need to buy a more expensive Speedlight or be unable to take certain kinds of shots?
 
Right I can help with this. HSS high speed sync, is used for a fill flash or bokeh effects in bright back sunlight. Basically the camera has to restrict the speed of how fast the shutter closes when using a flash in normal mode typically 1/200th of a second, HSS uses trickery to get 1/1000th of a second+ (downside it dramatically weakens the flash power). To be honest unless you are doing wedding pro photos you wont miss this feature.

Wireless depends if you want to use more than one flash off camera, easily overcome by buying flash that has a commander function.

D7000 is a great buy and if the funds are there I would recommend it. I own the D7100 and D5100, SD700 and SD400 flashes
 
Thanks for that Dolby Dan. After discovering the missing feature in the D5100 I went and did a search to see what the downside will be. Seems that there are ways round it anyway. I don't think it will make much of a difference to me so I'll probably just stick with the D5100 as there's quite a price difference between the D7000 and it. I'll also get a rebate from Nikon if I buy the D5100.

Looking forward to learning how to use it properly.

I've started reading Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure and will look to pick up some additional books about DSLRs and how to use them.
 

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