The other day, I started talking about what to look for when getting into the digital SLR game and had fairly quickly winnowed things down to 2 brands and 1 tier of mega-pixels. You guys must of thought; Wow another Ken Rockwell, cock-sure and dogmatic!
So let me slow down, back up and explain how and why I got to this place so quickly. And working backwards, it comes down to basic economics. I never said that the other brands like Sony, Pentax, Olympus and Samsung weren't any good. What I said was that they didn't hold anywhere near the market-share so they sold less, A LOT LESS of their product......and that means that there's a lot fewer of those models sitting around out there looking to be sold back into the market. Although the Olympus E Series cameras are excellent, and the Sony A Series or heck; the Konica/Minolta Maxxum 7D and 5D were excellent cameras, there is simply a lot less of them out there looking to be sold. Typically this means higher prices. I could draw you some nice charts explaining this, or take a long time to explain, but just trust me on this. When you combine this with the fact that ALL the independent lens manufacturers make their product in the Canon and the Nikon mounts, then the same is true of buying lenses for your new DSLR baby.
So, what's the story with 6 megapixels? Simply put, that's the lowest sensor resolution you can get away with and still get "equivilent to film" results on prints of up to anything reasonable....oh say 11 x 14 or even 13 x 19 inches.
OK, so lets assume that I've convinced you and you're going to focus on getting something in the 6Mp range made by either Canon or Nikon...now what? Well, you then determine what your budget is going to be and devote 2/3 of that to 1 lens; yes, I did say 1 lens. I'll use myself as an example. I had about $1000 to work with and wanted to pick up a DSLR with a good lens to the specs as I described above. In my case, I wanted a lens with what Nikon calls VR (Vibration Reduction) and Canon calls IS (Image Stabilization). I also wanted to rarely/if ever have to change lenses. So, for a 6Mp camera which would dictate an APS-C/DX sized sensor, that means a 35mm film equiv. of about 28mm on the wide end to somewhere around 200-300mm on the long end. Why those numbers?
On a 35mm camera, a 50mm lens is considered to have the angle of coverage which gives a perspective most closely resembling what we see from our eyes. In the typical progression, the most common focal lengths would be 35mm, 28mm, 24mm, 20mm, etc. on the wide end and 85mm, 135mm, 200mm, 300mm, 400mm etc. on the long end. Most photographers would consider 28mm as where "wide" starts and 135mm where "long or telephoto" starts. In order to get the kind of coverage that goes from wide to telephoto you'd need something like a 28-300mm zoom. In the digital world the majority of cameras sold are APS-C/DX sensor size, so using the 1.5x conversion, you'd need an 18-200mm lens.
Therefore in my case, I needed the Nikon 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 VR lens since canon didn't make one in that range which neatly costs around $650 used making it 2/3s of my $1000 budget. Which left me with $350 to buy the camera and the rest as you've hear...."is history".
Next time, I'll get into the finer details of camera/brand selection.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
How to get started with a DSLR.
In honor of my friend Andy who has asked the fateful question: "what should I look for", I'm going to do a series on what to do to get started. To that end, I'll throw some philosophical though for you to chew on. By all means though, take it with a grain of salt! Most of my decision-making has layers of factors, but I'll try to keep my personal biases out of it or point out the cases where it is that.
My personal experience over the years with film cameras have mostly been with Canon and Pentax. Although I must say that I've had and used Olympus, Exacta and Minolta camera as well. My experience with digital right up until I bought the Nikon 8800 was with Kodak point-and-shoot cameras. So I'm fairly certain that don't have a lot of brand-oriented biases.
Much of my thought process has to do with costs. The logic is based on the assumption that the "top dogs" were pretty much even as far as an amateur was concerned. I've read that some 80% of the Digital SLR market is swallowed up by Canon, Sony(previously Konica/Minolta) and Nikon leaving 20% for Olympus, Pentax, Fuji, Sigma, etc. So by sheer logic those would be the camera that'd be cheapest both to acquire and to buy lenses for in the future. Since Sony is a late-comer and by far the smallest of the big 3, and therefore it was eliminated for the same reason.
This leaves Canon and Nikon. The reality is that they are both pretty much going to give indistinguishable results with comparable models. Before I get into the convoluted logic as to how I decided, I'd encourage you to go and find either a couple of friends with competing models that you can lay-hands on or a fairly good sized camera store that has a good stock of used cameras so you can hold both. It'll give you a chance to see what feels better in your hands and how the menu system makes sense. There may simple be something about one brand or another that you either like or dislike, so it's best to find this out early on.
A good place to start is with the Nikon D40, D50, D70(s) and Canon Rebel XT or XTi. All those models can do a decent job as a starter camera that won't cost too much. You might also throw in the Olympus E-410 or 510 as well if you can find it, although it's not really "apple-to-apples" since it's a four/thirds system vs. APS-C in sensor size.
Why is it a big deal with brand with they are all pretty much just alike? Well, the best analogy that I can come up with is that getting into a "system" with a DSLR is like getting married. Once you getting connected with on, it's hard to just into a different one. Oh yeah, you can do it, but it'll cost you....sound familiar?
The fact of the matter is that although, the camera body might seem expensive; in the long run, most of us have way more invested in glass (lenses), flashes and other items than the body itself and all that other stuff is virtually NEVER compatible!
Next episode, I'll get into all the little stuff.
My personal experience over the years with film cameras have mostly been with Canon and Pentax. Although I must say that I've had and used Olympus, Exacta and Minolta camera as well. My experience with digital right up until I bought the Nikon 8800 was with Kodak point-and-shoot cameras. So I'm fairly certain that don't have a lot of brand-oriented biases.
Much of my thought process has to do with costs. The logic is based on the assumption that the "top dogs" were pretty much even as far as an amateur was concerned. I've read that some 80% of the Digital SLR market is swallowed up by Canon, Sony(previously Konica/Minolta) and Nikon leaving 20% for Olympus, Pentax, Fuji, Sigma, etc. So by sheer logic those would be the camera that'd be cheapest both to acquire and to buy lenses for in the future. Since Sony is a late-comer and by far the smallest of the big 3, and therefore it was eliminated for the same reason.
This leaves Canon and Nikon. The reality is that they are both pretty much going to give indistinguishable results with comparable models. Before I get into the convoluted logic as to how I decided, I'd encourage you to go and find either a couple of friends with competing models that you can lay-hands on or a fairly good sized camera store that has a good stock of used cameras so you can hold both. It'll give you a chance to see what feels better in your hands and how the menu system makes sense. There may simple be something about one brand or another that you either like or dislike, so it's best to find this out early on.
A good place to start is with the Nikon D40, D50, D70(s) and Canon Rebel XT or XTi. All those models can do a decent job as a starter camera that won't cost too much. You might also throw in the Olympus E-410 or 510 as well if you can find it, although it's not really "apple-to-apples" since it's a four/thirds system vs. APS-C in sensor size.
Why is it a big deal with brand with they are all pretty much just alike? Well, the best analogy that I can come up with is that getting into a "system" with a DSLR is like getting married. Once you getting connected with on, it's hard to just into a different one. Oh yeah, you can do it, but it'll cost you....sound familiar?
The fact of the matter is that although, the camera body might seem expensive; in the long run, most of us have way more invested in glass (lenses), flashes and other items than the body itself and all that other stuff is virtually NEVER compatible!
Next episode, I'll get into all the little stuff.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
The "New" D70S
Well; it's here. After a week of "expedited" Canada Post and hand-over to their American brothers, it showed up today. Normally, I would have gotten home well after the close of the PO and would have had to beg someone from our office to pick it up for me, but I was home early due to being on the 8th Grade Field Trip instead of teaching and driving the bus route. So, awesome for me! I was able to get down their 10 minutes before they closed and pick the thing up.
Sure enough, it has the exact problem the eBay seller described. Aaaand, just like he said, that's been the only problem I could find; well, except for the blacked out Nikon logo on the penta-prism, but I think I can get that black sharpie ink off with a little elbow grease. I mounted the repaired 18-55mm lens and it takes pictures just fine. So, now what?
I'm thinking if I can get a matching 55-200mm lens for it cheap, I can package it as a set and sell it at a good price, or keep it and use it, while.....wait for it......I sell off the D200! I've lost my cookies right? No, actually, my eBay and Craig's List watching is indicating that the price of D300s are coming down, but the price of D200s are still holding.....at this moment. Soooo, if I can get a decent price for it; like $600-700, I can probably sell the D70s/Kit all for around the price of the upgrade without spending ANY money out of pocket!
That the plan anyway. We'll see how it works out.
Sure enough, it has the exact problem the eBay seller described. Aaaand, just like he said, that's been the only problem I could find; well, except for the blacked out Nikon logo on the penta-prism, but I think I can get that black sharpie ink off with a little elbow grease. I mounted the repaired 18-55mm lens and it takes pictures just fine. So, now what?
I'm thinking if I can get a matching 55-200mm lens for it cheap, I can package it as a set and sell it at a good price, or keep it and use it, while.....wait for it......I sell off the D200! I've lost my cookies right? No, actually, my eBay and Craig's List watching is indicating that the price of D300s are coming down, but the price of D200s are still holding.....at this moment. Soooo, if I can get a decent price for it; like $600-700, I can probably sell the D70s/Kit all for around the price of the upgrade without spending ANY money out of pocket!
That the plan anyway. We'll see how it works out.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Target of Opportunity
I didn't have any intention of buying another DSLR, but here we, are sitting around waiting for the arrival of a Nikon D70s not quite sure what to do with it!?!
It actually started with a broken lens. What, you say? Broken lens; what does that have to do with buying another camera? Convoluted thinking and world-class rationalization, that's how! Anyway, here's what happened; our school has a Nikon D40 and they got a couple of the "kit" lenses with it. One of them (the 18-55mm) was on the camera when it took a spill. And, of course, since it was the "low-end" kit lens, it had a plastic mount instead of the brass ones Nikon puts on the more expensive lenses. The effect was that ones of the mounting lugs got sheared, and the piece that makes electrical contact with the camera lost alignment due to the mount being completely out of whack. After purchasing the newer VR version of that lens as a replacement, they were about ready throw it out.
That's where I came in. It occurred to me that they'd probably want to just throw it out, so I went and asked about it. At that point, I didn't have any idea what I wanted to do with it. In fact, I didn't have any idea of what was even possible to do with it. Of course it sat for days after I got it home, but I finally got around to looking on the internet to see what it'd take to fix it. Not surprisingly, there was a number of sites that talked about these types of lenses that needed a mount replacement. Sure enough, there was a Flickr page that detailed how to replace the mount on this exact lens. Google is my friend!!!
The next obvious step of course was to get on eBay, find a replacement mount for $9 and get it here. Then, get on the Flickr page and follow the instructions. Hold your mouth just right, and 8 screws later, I had a working lens (albiet with a weird rattle inside somewhere)!
So now, the problem is that it got my brain going and the rationalization machinery went into high gear. Now that I had a "back-up" lens, what I really needed a "back-up" camera! In my world, that means that I needed to find a compatible model at an (almost) ridiculously low price.... if it has some issues, that might even be welcome; if it's something I can live with or fix, but otherwise serves to keep the price low. This showed up in the form of a Nikon D70s that had a bad on/off switch and therefore will not turn off without removing the battery. I'm fairly certain that this "issue" kept the price below the $146 that I got it for...which is VERY low for a functioning D70, much less the later "S" version.
The upshot is that, I now have a complete and functioning D70s with a "normal" zoom for less than $165 spent. I'll probably get that switch fixed at some point, but it's certainly not a priority since the D70/D70s have amazing battery stamina and standby ability.
Now the question is; do I really want to keep it as a "backup"? The camera and lens together will easily fetch twice what I have in it at the moment. Does that mean that it's an exercise and an investment to be sold off?
It actually started with a broken lens. What, you say? Broken lens; what does that have to do with buying another camera? Convoluted thinking and world-class rationalization, that's how! Anyway, here's what happened; our school has a Nikon D40 and they got a couple of the "kit" lenses with it. One of them (the 18-55mm) was on the camera when it took a spill. And, of course, since it was the "low-end" kit lens, it had a plastic mount instead of the brass ones Nikon puts on the more expensive lenses. The effect was that ones of the mounting lugs got sheared, and the piece that makes electrical contact with the camera lost alignment due to the mount being completely out of whack. After purchasing the newer VR version of that lens as a replacement, they were about ready throw it out.
That's where I came in. It occurred to me that they'd probably want to just throw it out, so I went and asked about it. At that point, I didn't have any idea what I wanted to do with it. In fact, I didn't have any idea of what was even possible to do with it. Of course it sat for days after I got it home, but I finally got around to looking on the internet to see what it'd take to fix it. Not surprisingly, there was a number of sites that talked about these types of lenses that needed a mount replacement. Sure enough, there was a Flickr page that detailed how to replace the mount on this exact lens. Google is my friend!!!
The next obvious step of course was to get on eBay, find a replacement mount for $9 and get it here. Then, get on the Flickr page and follow the instructions. Hold your mouth just right, and 8 screws later, I had a working lens (albiet with a weird rattle inside somewhere)!
So now, the problem is that it got my brain going and the rationalization machinery went into high gear. Now that I had a "back-up" lens, what I really needed a "back-up" camera! In my world, that means that I needed to find a compatible model at an (almost) ridiculously low price.... if it has some issues, that might even be welcome; if it's something I can live with or fix, but otherwise serves to keep the price low. This showed up in the form of a Nikon D70s that had a bad on/off switch and therefore will not turn off without removing the battery. I'm fairly certain that this "issue" kept the price below the $146 that I got it for...which is VERY low for a functioning D70, much less the later "S" version.
The upshot is that, I now have a complete and functioning D70s with a "normal" zoom for less than $165 spent. I'll probably get that switch fixed at some point, but it's certainly not a priority since the D70/D70s have amazing battery stamina and standby ability.
Now the question is; do I really want to keep it as a "backup"? The camera and lens together will easily fetch twice what I have in it at the moment. Does that mean that it's an exercise and an investment to be sold off?
Monday, May 10, 2010
Little bit of a Weird Day
I'm really not sure what to call this new level of craziness.
Yesterday I drove an hour (each way) to pick up some old cameras......actually 3 old cameras that turned in to 4! The newest was a Nikon FM which is somewhere between 30 and 35 years old, then there's the Pentax Spotmatic SP1000 (Mid to Late 60's), Miranda Sensorex (Mid 60's) and a Konica Autoreflex A (Late 60's) that was thrown in, along with 2 Vivitar shoe-flashes, a bunch of filters and some other random items. It all came to $150 without counting gas. Oh yeah, the Nikon came with a 35-70mm Nikkor zoom lens as well. Yup; Craig's List can be awesome.
So what brought on this orgy of vintage camera buying? I'm glad you asked! I've been teaching a bunch of our middle schoolers photography since last year when they were 7th graders and I'm down to 4 who have not only stuck it out, but also smart and capable. Therefore I've decided to try and take them to the next level by going back to a previous era. I started teaching them about reading light and learning to deal with it via the 3 variables that they have control over (eg. film sensitivity, apeture, and shutter speed). To give them hands on practice, I'm going to make them use film....that's right; I said FILM as in 35mm film, completely manual cameras with ZERO automation. In fact, I'm going to make them use hand-held light meters as well!
What I'm trying to do is to slow them down and learn to deal with the light. I might have bitten off more than I can chew; we'll see.
The other slightly crazy thing that I think has really classified me as a super-geek. It started with me coming home after not only battling the construction, traffic and Chick-Fil-A drive-through, but after a last-minute trip to the doctor where I got a shot directly into my shoulder muscle to try and take down inflamation. So you could say that I was primed to go off. Then I walked into the house to find no one except the crazed pup had been left in by herself and had successfully gotten onto the table and not only eaten the rest of my dinner, but then knocked over a container of strawberries, then proceeded to poop on the floor....in multiple places. In the process of chasing her around and throwing her furry butt out, I also got my thumb snagged on her tooth. Did you know that thumbs bleed profusely?
Oh yeah, did I mention that the reason that the idiot dog was in the house in the first place was that part of the fence had blown down? That'll get fix tomorrow after work.
So, what do you think I did after that? As luck would have it, the new mount I ordered for a broken lens showed up in the mail today. This was the "kit" lens that came with the school's Nikon D40 DSLR that got it's mount busted when a student dropped the camera. So they bought a new one and was going to throw out the old one when I rescued it. After a little Googling, I found a site that showed how to replace that mount so I decided to give it a try. The up-shot is that I took that lens apart, replaced the mount as a destressor....and I really feel a whole bunch better now.
Weird huh?
Yesterday I drove an hour (each way) to pick up some old cameras......actually 3 old cameras that turned in to 4! The newest was a Nikon FM which is somewhere between 30 and 35 years old, then there's the Pentax Spotmatic SP1000 (Mid to Late 60's), Miranda Sensorex (Mid 60's) and a Konica Autoreflex A (Late 60's) that was thrown in, along with 2 Vivitar shoe-flashes, a bunch of filters and some other random items. It all came to $150 without counting gas. Oh yeah, the Nikon came with a 35-70mm Nikkor zoom lens as well. Yup; Craig's List can be awesome.
So what brought on this orgy of vintage camera buying? I'm glad you asked! I've been teaching a bunch of our middle schoolers photography since last year when they were 7th graders and I'm down to 4 who have not only stuck it out, but also smart and capable. Therefore I've decided to try and take them to the next level by going back to a previous era. I started teaching them about reading light and learning to deal with it via the 3 variables that they have control over (eg. film sensitivity, apeture, and shutter speed). To give them hands on practice, I'm going to make them use film....that's right; I said FILM as in 35mm film, completely manual cameras with ZERO automation. In fact, I'm going to make them use hand-held light meters as well!
What I'm trying to do is to slow them down and learn to deal with the light. I might have bitten off more than I can chew; we'll see.
The other slightly crazy thing that I think has really classified me as a super-geek. It started with me coming home after not only battling the construction, traffic and Chick-Fil-A drive-through, but after a last-minute trip to the doctor where I got a shot directly into my shoulder muscle to try and take down inflamation. So you could say that I was primed to go off. Then I walked into the house to find no one except the crazed pup had been left in by herself and had successfully gotten onto the table and not only eaten the rest of my dinner, but then knocked over a container of strawberries, then proceeded to poop on the floor....in multiple places. In the process of chasing her around and throwing her furry butt out, I also got my thumb snagged on her tooth. Did you know that thumbs bleed profusely?
Oh yeah, did I mention that the reason that the idiot dog was in the house in the first place was that part of the fence had blown down? That'll get fix tomorrow after work.
So, what do you think I did after that? As luck would have it, the new mount I ordered for a broken lens showed up in the mail today. This was the "kit" lens that came with the school's Nikon D40 DSLR that got it's mount busted when a student dropped the camera. So they bought a new one and was going to throw out the old one when I rescued it. After a little Googling, I found a site that showed how to replace that mount so I decided to give it a try. The up-shot is that I took that lens apart, replaced the mount as a destressor....and I really feel a whole bunch better now.
Weird huh?
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Misc. Ramblings
It's that time..... The time in between benchmarking our 8th graders to see what they know (or don't know) and standardized state testing. Which of course if HIGH STRESS time for all teachers!
So, what do I do to relieve stress? Glad you asked! I dabble in technology of course. There's been an unexpected round of computer work which paid for and got me started on a parallel round of computer upgrades around the house. I've been writing about my desktop and server upgrades, but this is not about that.
It started out as a simple call to help a co-worker's husband with a laptop that he'd been given. It was an old 133mhz bus, PIII little laptop that he wanted to get going, but wasn't worth enough to invest any real money into. To make a long story-short, that machine died very quickly and he ended up with a far better replacement; a Dell Latitude D610 which was an older, but still very usable Pentium M based machine that just needed some upgrades. We ended up putting about $150 into it, which included a new WD 250Gb HDD, 2Gb of RAM, and a complete reload. In the end, he was VERY happy and going to town on his new wireless ecstasy.....right up until his desktop developed a catastrophic failure that very week!
So then, it was off to the races: 2 different HP desktops with integrated video that showed to be failed "southbridge" chips, 2 laptop purchases, and a sold battery later, I made enough (with a little bit of added luck) to have enough to do some personal upgrading as well. Let me explain:
So, what do I do to relieve stress? Glad you asked! I dabble in technology of course. There's been an unexpected round of computer work which paid for and got me started on a parallel round of computer upgrades around the house. I've been writing about my desktop and server upgrades, but this is not about that.
It started out as a simple call to help a co-worker's husband with a laptop that he'd been given. It was an old 133mhz bus, PIII little laptop that he wanted to get going, but wasn't worth enough to invest any real money into. To make a long story-short, that machine died very quickly and he ended up with a far better replacement; a Dell Latitude D610 which was an older, but still very usable Pentium M based machine that just needed some upgrades. We ended up putting about $150 into it, which included a new WD 250Gb HDD, 2Gb of RAM, and a complete reload. In the end, he was VERY happy and going to town on his new wireless ecstasy.....right up until his desktop developed a catastrophic failure that very week!
So then, it was off to the races: 2 different HP desktops with integrated video that showed to be failed "southbridge" chips, 2 laptop purchases, and a sold battery later, I made enough (with a little bit of added luck) to have enough to do some personal upgrading as well. Let me explain:
- While I was looking for a machine for a client, I came across an IBM T43p (yes, that's a "p" on the end of the T43), on Craig's List for $250.... maxed hardware specs, and Windows 7 loaded! So this replaced my resurrected T42 with the 15" Flexview screen which went...
- To Josh to replace his A31 which went to......
- Camille's Uncle Dean who needed something to replace his REALLY aging A22m. In the meantime, the machine that I had bought to go to him, but killed in shipping, gave up some parts to go to a "barebones" T42 that was sold to a client and ended up partially paying for the T43p that started this whole mess! Make sense?
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
IT'S DATA TIME!!!
This morning while I was at work, UPS dropped off the last parts to my file server.....2, 2 Terabyte hard drives! So I was more than a little excited to get home. Of course, they look like any 3.5" hard drives, but good grief! Just the idea of it is a little mind boggling. In the end, I went $100 over budget, but I think it'll be worth it.
The price of 2Tb drives dropped to around $150 to 170 a few weeks ago, so I began to agonize. My original plan was to buy 2, 1Tb drives, mirror then and "call it a day" as my boss would say. But the more I thought about it, the more I reconsidered my original plan. 1Tb costs around $70-80 and the 1.5Tb drives were about $90-120, so the jump to the 2Tb drives just wasn't that much more for double the capacity when the various retailers dropped the Hitachi drive to $150. And since I'd plan to mirror for the best fault-tolerance, I wanted as much as I could get.
So in the end, the file server will cost just under $400 of which $300 was for the drives alone. But in the end, I'm pretty happy that I'll have all the capacity I'll want or need for some time. It's really hard to believe when I think back to the first PC that I built myself had a 120Mb drive in it!
I am; OH SO READY FOR THE DEATH OF SNEAKER-NET!!!
The price of 2Tb drives dropped to around $150 to 170 a few weeks ago, so I began to agonize. My original plan was to buy 2, 1Tb drives, mirror then and "call it a day" as my boss would say. But the more I thought about it, the more I reconsidered my original plan. 1Tb costs around $70-80 and the 1.5Tb drives were about $90-120, so the jump to the 2Tb drives just wasn't that much more for double the capacity when the various retailers dropped the Hitachi drive to $150. And since I'd plan to mirror for the best fault-tolerance, I wanted as much as I could get.
So in the end, the file server will cost just under $400 of which $300 was for the drives alone. But in the end, I'm pretty happy that I'll have all the capacity I'll want or need for some time. It's really hard to believe when I think back to the first PC that I built myself had a 120Mb drive in it!
I am; OH SO READY FOR THE DEATH OF SNEAKER-NET!!!
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