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[Aron]

Wanting to get one any suggestions out there on whats the best qaulity for the best price?

[daveofficer]

depends what you want to do really. Canon 450d is pretty good as are the nikon d40 and d60's for amateurs. Stick with canon and nikon for the best choice of lenses and options though the sony and pentax ones are ok too.

Canon are doing £50 cashback on the 450d just now which might help make your decision.

check out Warehouse Express - Camera Accessories and Lenses, Photography Equipment, Canon, Nikon Digital Cameras for good deals plus they have impartial reviews by pro photographers.

You might want to try a 35mm slr first - because they are cheaper, you can get the shots on cd from boots/jessops, In think the colours come out better

35mm to cd example

[daveofficer]

Originally Posted by Neutral

You might want to try a 35mm slr first - because they are cheaper, you can get the shots on cd from boots/jessops, In think the colours come out better

35mm to cd example

the colours will depend on the film you use, the ambient lighting, the way it's printed and if you're scanning your negs it'll change depending on the scanner settings. there's also no point showing an example of 35mm colour online as the colour will look different on most peoples monitors unless they've been calibrated.

jessops don't scan them at a high resolution unless you specifically ask them to. rendering the cd pretty useless for anything other than posting on myspace which i guess is all most people want to do. i'd imagine boots are the same.

if you want consistant colour, digital's where it's at these days. 35mm is still ace mind and a great way to learn about photography but in there's no difference in quality between digital and 35mm now. in fact with the nikon d3 and other high end dslr's you get superior quality particularly at higher iso's. these cameras are even pushing medium format cameras in terms of quality.

if you want to get into old cameras you should pick up a canon kit as the canon dslr's are perfectly happy with old lenses so you can pick up cheap second hand glass which works perfectly well and stick it on your shiny dslr. nikon are the same but you only get full functions on their higher end dslr's plus canon have a wider ranger of lenses(though only marginally).

personally, i like nikon but it's really personal preference whether you go with nikon or canon.

Originally Posted by daveofficer

the colours will depend on the film you use, the ambient lighting, the way it's printed and if you're scanning your negs it'll change depending on the scanner settings. there's also no point showing an example of 35mm colour online as the colour will look different on most peoples monitors unless they've been calibrated.

jessops don't scan them at a high resolution unless you specifically ask them to. rendering the cd pretty useless for anything other than posting on myspace which i guess is all most people want to do. i'd imagine boots are the same.

if you want consistant colour, digital's where it's at these days. 35mm is still ace mind and a great way to learn about photography but in there's no difference in quality between digital and 35mm now. in fact with the nikon d3 and other high end dslr's you get superior quality particularly at higher iso's. these cameras are even pushing medium format cameras in terms of quality.

if you want to get into old cameras you should pick up a canon kit as the canon dslr's are perfectly happy with old lenses so you can pick up cheap second hand glass which works perfectly well and stick it on your shiny dslr. nikon are the same but you only get full functions on their higher end dslr's plus canon have a wider ranger of lenses(though only marginally).

personally, i like nikon but it's really personal preference whether you go with nikon or canon.

Very true, but if it is your first slr you might want to consider a non digi one for cost so that if you get bored it wont affect your pocket much

also consider cameras with large optical zoom, fuji are really good and cheap

[JF9TP2]

Originally Posted by daveofficer

if you want to get into old cameras you should pick up a canon kit as the canon dslr's are perfectly happy with old lenses so you can pick up cheap second hand glass which works perfectly well and stick it on your shiny dslr. nikon are the same but you only get full functions on their higher end dslr's plus canon have a wider ranger of lenses(though only marginally).

personally, i like nikon but it's really personal preference whether you go with nikon or canon.

True, but only with lenses after a certain time, since cannon have changed their lens mount 3(?) times in the past, i know i have at least 3 different cannon SLR's that all take different mounts... if you are looking for a decent DSLR best quality for price you will get right now is the 450d i'd say.

And as far as the canon nikon debate goes, to be honest there isnt a huge difference in the functionality of the bodies anymore (though ask a big canon or nikon enthuiast ant they will rant for hours...)

Personally, i love canon, but i own both canon slr's and dslr's and nikon slr's and dslr's. The best thing you can do is go into jessops and ask to have a try of a few of them, they will be more than happy to take them out of the cabinets and let you take a few shots... i chose canon purely because i prefered the way it fitted in my hand.

and as for printing, im my opinion, colin at bridge street jessops is the best. He knows his shit BIGTIME and is always happy to give you plenty of advice.

[daveofficer]

Originally Posted by JF9TP2

True, but only with lenses after a certain time, since cannon have changed their lens mount 3(?) times in the past, i know i have at least 3 different cannon SLR's that all take different mounts... if you are looking for a decent DSLR best quality for price you will get right now is the 450d i'd say.

And as far as the canon nikon debate goes, to be honest there isnt a huge difference in the functionality of the bodies anymore (though ask a big canon or nikon enthuiast ant they will rant for hours...)

Personally, i love canon, but i own both canon slr's and dslr's and nikon slr's and dslr's. The best thing you can do is go into jessops and ask to have a try of a few of them, they will be more than happy to take them out of the cabinets and let you take a few shots... i chose canon purely because i prefered the way it fitted in my hand.

and as for printing, im my opinion, colin at bridge street jessops is the best. He knows his shit BIGTIME and is always happy to give you plenty of advice.

as much as i like colin and have respect for him i wouldn't go that far. definitely avoid getting black and white prints done at jessops as they usually have a colour cast on them. colour stuff is ok though.

[JF9TP2]

yeah, i tend to send away my black and white for printing, but for developing and getting a contact sheet from true b&w film bridge street is the only place to go (though i suppose thats because its the only place in aberdeen i know that has a b&w processor)

[David]

I use a Canon 400d, which is absolutely brilliant as an amateur SLR, and is available for fairly cheap now. The 450d is also a stunning camera and does have some noticeable improvements over the 400d (live view, larger viewfinder and spot metering to name a few) so well worth the extra pennies.

Really though, You can't go wrong with any of the big names nowadays. Canon and Nikon have the benefits of a huge lens range and solid reputation for digital SLR's, which brands like Olympus, Sony and Pentax don't have the same clout behind them, but are all brilliant cameras - if you are looking at SLR's though, it is really worth researching them all as a system, not just as a camera. Have a look at the different lenses and accessories available and see which suit what you like and would eventually want to buy. Once you have bought in to a system and bought anything like new lenses it will cost a lot more to swap to another brand and replace everything, so consider them as a whole.

On the point about changing lens mount, Canon have had two SLR mounts, the older manual FD mount, and the newer electronic EOS mount. When they changed they did alienate quite a lot of people, but have more than made up for it with the lens lineup available since, and you know that anything with an EF mount will fit any Canon EOS camera (so thats basically anything from the last twenty years, including the 19 year old lens I recently bought which works perfectly.)
Nikon on the other hand have stuck with the same mount, but in recent years have changed some details in how it works and limited the lens choice for some newer cameras like the d40. I don't know exactly what is what though, the Nikon I own is from the 1970's so hopefully someone more knowledgeable could chime in.

The best bet is to get yourself down to a few shops (Jessops, Lizars, John Lewis...) and handle some of the different cameras, see how they work and fit your hands. At the same time have a bit of a look into the lens lineups and accessories available and see what fits what you would like to use.

[Hogisbald]

So many points that I would like to address...some are positive, some would tear people apart. (Just my opinion...I could be wrong)

Personally, I would start with a digital camera. Why limit yourself to 36 images per film when you can trial and error with 100's.

Canon vs Nikon....

Canon have been ahead regarding digital until Nikon released the D3. Since then, Canon have been quiet.

To be honest, I don't give a shit. If you cant take a decent picture with a Canon or a Nikon then give up. People can get so caught up in megapixels (really, it's not that important), iso's etc etc. Who cares? Whack a decent 50mm lens onto a full-frame DSLR and your sorted (IMHO)