Silvia Club of NSW

Zei's thread got me and the missus thinking about a DSLR. I'm a Nikon > Canon, however both companies make some great cameras. We went window shopping this weekend to see how they felt (I was worried some may have been too big to hold for the missus) and she can hold both a D60 and a D700 comfortably.
Considering it will be a toy for us both, I figure I can allow a budget of ~$5K to spend on the body and a lense (or two) plus some other bits and pieces we may need. What I'm looking for is some advice on what I should be looking for (and feel free to give a recommendation). Is full-frame really worth the money? Would I just be better to save some of the cash and put it towards some track rims and tires?

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-- JOC --

well, nikon just put all their prices up, and i think canon will follow pretty soon or they may have already

for 5k, if you want full frame, your options are nikon D700 or canon 5Dmk2. similar priced, D700 at around $3500 and the 5D2 around $3700.

lenses are expensive depending on what youre after, there is a massive range and thats honestly the killer. for my D700 i got a nikon 24-70 F2.8 and that was $2200, but together those already blow your budget. there are other lenses, other better-priced brands like sigma and tamron, but personally i think you get what you pay for.

now for crop frame cameras you have a MASSIVE range, off the top of my head nikon D60, Canon 1000D, 450D and 50D. prices are competitive depending on what range you go for, and depending on where you buy. id do a LOT of checking before buying. also for canons (and probably nikon too) the 'kits' with lenses are supplied with pretty shitty lenses, so yourself a favour and buy a body and buy lenses seperately. save goes for the full-frame kits.

do yourself a favour and ALWAYS put a filter on your lenses. an $80 filter might save you $2000 in broken glass when you bump something accidently.

i cant beluieve your mrs can hold a D700 without a problem!! my mrs picked mine up and put it straight down, she refuses to use it!! hahah kinda good i think the body is around 1kg and a medium lens might weigh around the same, 70-200mm are over 1.5kg!!!

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M35 Stagea.info @ http://www.m35stagea.info/

found this:

http://www.performanceforums.com/forums ... t=67239697

50D + other stuff, VERY well priced and basically brand new

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M35 Stagea.info @ http://www.m35stagea.info/

Is there anything coming out shortly in the DSLR world that would be worth waiting for, or are the current crop of cameras worth the money?

I'd love to go full frame, but not really sure why (except for the fact that they are more expensive so must be better )

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-- JOC --

there is better ISOs on the high end cameras, the sensors on FF cams are much better quality. the noise correction on high end cameras are fantastic too! my 400D at ISO200 was noisier than my D700 at ISO6000!

if youre thinking about a 50D, dont get one, get a 40D instead. its a better camera, thy kinda went wrong with the 50D for some reason.......

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M35 Stagea.info @ http://www.m35stagea.info/

I think spending 5k is far too much for a first dlsr user.
2k is probably ideal at most.

This is your first time right??

I say get yourself a 40d with some kit lens. See if you like photography first.. Experiment and use it for a good couple of months.. Then think of upgrading lens etc.. Then you can spend money and think about which lens you want to suit your style.

I reckon spent half that money and the other half on track rims


Ps might be selling my sigma 17-70mm soon.

I would even go for 1000d i saw a twin lens kit going for 870 at good guys. god damn they droped in price.

I figure that looking into the future, there aren't that many technological advances that will date something like the D700. There are enough megapixels for pretty much anything I could print to; the number of frames per second is enough, I can live with the storage media, transfer options, and battery selection; and I can hold the camera itself with comfort. Sure an internal wi-fi ability might be nice to transfer images from the camera, and larger storage and battery life are always a plus, but this should be able to replace my trusted SLR from 20 years ago, and serve me for a further 20 years.

Unless there is some technological advance that is in the pipeline that I haven't heard of (and to be honest I haven't been looking that hard) that could suddenly render these sort of cameras obselete, I can justify this sort of 'investment'.

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-- JOC --

moslty its going to be MPs and noise cancellation. faster processing is only required due to bigger MPs, but then you need faster cards to cope

im happy with my D700

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M35 Stagea.info @ http://www.m35stagea.info/

i'm looking at buying my first DSLR camera would the EOS 1000d twin lens be good enough buy i'll be using it when i go to Europe, car shows & when i go to track days.

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If you've got the gift you can drift

cough* noone mentioned Olympus
if you want anything from Olympus, send me a pm can get quite a discount on the stuff thru work.

do olympus even make cameras?

the 1000d is the most basic entry level consumer DSLR you can get from canon. if youre already into photography, and you think youll take it further, at least get a prosumer camera. but if you want something better than a point and shoot, then yeah it will take better pictures

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M35 Stagea.info @ http://www.m35stagea.info/

this is what you need, only just released.
http://www.olympus.com.au/component/opt ... Itemid,69/

or you can go one step up to E30 which is 2nd to our top of the range E3.

My first L lens arrived today WOOT

Cant wait to test it out tomorrow at a track day

Got the 70-200 F4 lens!!

wish i could afford the 2.8 tho.. sigh one day

should have saved for the F2.8 its heaps better than the F4. a little heavier tho......

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M35 Stagea.info @ http://www.m35stagea.info/