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Talked the wife into letting me have a DSLR Camera, now up until yesterday I had made my mind made up on a Nikon D3000! Then she came home last night saying have you seen the Sony range, ie Sony A330 and A380......

Now I don't know which make or model I want!!!!! I've even looked at the Nikon D5000, Cannon's and others, the more I look and research, the more I throw my hands up in the air!!

The reviews are good on the D3000 as are the reviews on the Sony A330 and A380!

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We use the Nikons here at work, and Mary bought herself a Canon about a year ago. I would say the Nikons feel more robust but the Canon is much easier to setup and use. Not heard much about the Sony line - I believe they are the old Miranda brand that Sony bought out a couple of years ago. Go to a decent store that has them all, and check 'em out. You may find that one just "feels" better in your hands!

Whatever you chose, you will not be disappointed. Mary has taken some amazing photos with her Canon - and because of the high pixel count, the ability to enlarge a part of an image is amazing. However, I would try to get the most recent version as, like computers, it pretty much has been superseded by the time you get it home!

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I have a Canon EOS and it is a good camera but limited by the standard lens.

When chosing your camera bear in mind the standard lens will be nothing too special. If you need the camera for a specific us - aviation, birds, landscapes etc ask the dealer for advice on alternative lens avialability & costs. This may affect your choice of camera make.

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Littlebro - that is what Mary has. Not sure how it is packaged in the U.K., but over here a common package is with a 28-80mm lens that has image stabilization (IS). It works very well as a "starter" lens - we added a 70-200mm zoom but it does not have IS and the difference is noticeable - but the IS lenses are expensive! An add-on high power flash is also a good accessory.

I believe some of the newer cameras have "body based" IS which means the lenses can be much cheaper - they may be worth looking in to.

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The one thing I find annoying is lens mounts! In my SLR days I knew of two, bayonet and screw. My old Russian SLR, totally manual in every aspect was screw mount, my other two were one a screw and the Pentax bayonet. One could get adapters for both fairly cheaply. Now with DSLR's only the Sony has a more common lens mount with several other companies, Nikon, Cannon etc all have their own lens mount pattern. Olympus even use their own proprietary memory card instead of the SD card, and it's bloody expensive! So I ruled out Olympus right from the beginning.

My budget is very tight, so limited below $750, and Eric, I don't have any choice regarding trying cameras out first hand. I'm limited to using the internet to shop. 60 miles to a main Walmart who only stock about three dslr's!! Nearest camera shopping would be Jonesboro in Arkansas or Springfield, Missouri, both several hours drive from my location.

I've been looking at the larger camera dealers on "Fleabay", mainly Nikons and now Sony "kits" with four lens's plus the accessories.

A Nikon D3000 10.2mp with fours lens's runs around $700.

A Nikon D5000 12.3mp ditto $732.

Sony A330 10.2mp ditto $700.

Sony A389 14.2mp ditto $740.

One of the only down sides of the Sony's is ergonomic design from the pros reviews.

The Nikon's have auto sensor cleaning, but the Sony A389 has higher resolution than it's counterpart in the Nikon range.

I'll take a look at Cannon later and compare those in price and reviews.

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I hear ya on the lens mounts - but you are showing your age! Both Nikon and Olympus have used their own system for years. One of the lens makers used to offer lenses that had their own mount, then you purchased an adapter to fit to your camera - I believe it was the "Tamron Adaptall", but I'm not certain.

If you are not totally sold on the SLR, you may want to look at some of the fixed lens types. They are cheaper than the SLRs but typically have a large zoom range so they eliminate some of the need for lens changing. However, if I went that route I would probably check that I was getting a glass lens - a lot of them use plastic lenses that are not (theoretically) as optically "clean" as glass ones. At one time, Nikon were the only "point-and-shoot" digital with a glass lens - but I haven't checked recently.

Good luck - they are fun, but I'm glad I still have my "point-and-shoot" - it is a LOT easier to carry around than Mary's SLR! blush.gif

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It obviously depends on what you want it for John, but you could do a lot worse than a Canon . I'm saving for a 7D at the moment , (Around £1200 just for the body, I'm only £1150 short at the moment!!) These are a smashing piece of kit. and then there's always you lens , mines a 100-400mm USM IS and these have gone daft price wise in the last year , I was lucky to track one down in the USA for around £900 but the best I can find them for now is £1220!

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That's it Ian, MONEY!!! LOL. I have always liked SLR's Eric, lot more to go wrong I know, but always had good luck photo wise.

I need a general purpose camera Ian, I plan on building a web page for the wife as a lot of out of state clients like to know what the area looks like before travelling in from Florida and Alaska etc to view property. So I will build a website called "A Year In The Ozarks" Covering a 60-70 mile radius of Mammoth Spring, where the wife has her office.

It will feature small towns, business, inside and out, folks of the Ozarks, historic sights, country views etc over the four seasons. A large project that will get me back into photography once again.

One never knows, other local real estate agents might buy some of my work for their clients too! I can only hope!!

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OK John , best advice I can give is, A Canon EOS 500 with just a 18-55mm zoom lens , + a good tripod/monopod for scenery and street views, but most important of all is a good editing suite . I use Photoshop Elements7 which can be bought for around £32 (You won't need any more than that. But also read all the tutorials that you can find online as there isn't one with it!!

Total load less than £500 ($650)

Of course you could probably shop around and get it cheaper "Stateside" but this was just a couple of minutes browsing

http://www.camerapricebuster.co.uk/

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Dunno what you are basing your exchange rates on Beefy, but 500 quid is closer to $750.

However, a little Mr Goog search revealed you can easily get the EOS Rebel XS (10Mp) with the IS 18-55 lens for $499, and the EOS T1i (15Mp) with the same lens for $699. Mary has the slightly older EOS XSi (12Mp) which you can get at Amazon.com for $569 with the same lens.

You pays your money, you takes your choice!

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Dunno what you are basing your exchange rates on Beefy, but 500 quid is closer to $750.

OOO ar!! I ain't had a look at the exchange rates recently !!.....LOL

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Good hint on the Photoshop Elements Beefy - Mary is shopping for a decent editing program. Have you tried any others - what do you like/dislike about the Photoshop?

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I use Photoshop 7.0 and PhotoImpact 6 Ian. Paid a fortune a few years ago for Photoshop when I tried digital photo repair. I thought I'd get a tons of clients around here, but even with loads of advertising had poor showing! Funny thing was I had no competition either!

It's now a tossup between the Sony A380 kit, 14.2mp. with 18mm-55mm DT AF Lens, 75mm-300mm telephoto zoom lens, wide angle lens and telephoto converter lens. And the Nikon D3000 with 18-55, 55-200, 52mm 2X telephoto and 52mm wide angle lens.

Still looking and comparing though!

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I don't like the fact that there are no instuctions with it. I was doing trial and error for a year!!

I have just paid £20 for a "Manual" (One and a half inches thick and nearly 600 pages long!!) Entitled "Photoshop Elements 7 , The Missing Manual" I couldn't get a second hand copy off of Ebay, the cheapest on there was £32 and that came from the States so was about £9 postage on top . I got mine from Amazon. There are (I have since discovered) cheper books out there that do just as good a job.

I tried the basic stuff that comes with the Camera but it is pretty limiting . I don't think you need any more than Elements7 . My Brother uses the full version at work (£1000 mind you he is a graffic designer) and he was amazed at how much mine actually had on it compared to his , and the comparative prices.

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Thanks - did a quick look, and they are up to Elements 8 now - for about $70 so not a bad price. I will ask the boss - but I'm not sure if she will go for it as she is a Mac person! That probably means a program that is easier to use, but does half the stuff, will cost four times as much!

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I don't recall what I paid for Photoshop 7 now Ian, but the latest version is just under $1000!! At the time I purchased an expensive Epson Perfection 3200 flat bed scanner, that also scans negatives and an Epson photo printer. I've used the scanner many times and am in the process or scanning all my 35mm negatives as they are showing signs of aging! The scanner will also scan 120 and 220 negatives plus slides and transparencies.

The scanner will scan up to 12800 dbi, would take forever and use all my ram up in the process though!!!

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I bought an HP negative scanner some years ago (IEEE interface!) - it did a good job, and would scan negs up to 4x4, but was very slow. However, I persevered, and over a span of about two years managed to scan every negative (and slide) that I owned!

Actually, the hardest part was inventing a numbering scheme so that I could find the neg again if I needed it. I used the opportunity to put all the negs into 3-hole binder pages and used page number, row and position to ID the negs!

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Coming in a bit late on this, John.

However, I have always been very happy with Canon. Currently have the EOS. As Littlebro said, the standard lens is not the best but is good enough for starters. Paid about $750 for it a couple of years ago at Sams Club.

I'm as much into video these days as stills. I'm finding that the pixel count is really coming up on many of the new HD video cameras so you can take good still as well as video and you only need to carry one camera.

Sure wish such had been available when my kids were small.

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The canon to go for at the moment is the EOS 550D with short range zoom lens.

Does full HD video as well.

Shop around for a good deal.

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Yep, and well over a thousand bucks Mick!! Way out of my budget. $750 is the absolute max I'm allowed to spend.

Looks like I'm going for the Sony A380 kit, which includes four lens's, tripod, lens cleaning kit, bag, 16gig card, filters etc all for $739-99 with free shipping and no sales tax! See it here!

Not interested in video. I want a versatile still camera, we already have a video camera. Kind of like having a large car with a cargo bed on the back. LOL

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Eric , the Elements 7 is as good as 8 (or so I've been told ,) there are no more bits on there that you are likely to need.

At the moment Elements 8 is £56.97p on Amazon but Elements 7 is only £31.99p , no brainer really.

Is that Elements or the full monty photoshop that you have John??

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The full "Monty" Ian, I purchased Photoshop for dummies to help me through it, very involved software. I also have an audio version to use when I re record all my records to CD's.

When I bought Photoshop it was for digitally repairing photos for a business.

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That's an idea I was toying with for a bit too, but to be honest I couldn't see it being financially viable. I couldn't see myself doing a "GOOD" job on more than 5 pictures an hour (Even less if I'm honest) and to cover costs you would have to charge £3/4 a picture . I don't think any body would be prepared to pay that.

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I'll have to post one I repaired before and after, believe me, you can spend hours and hours on one single picture!! I work at the pixel level usually. Hardest one I did was a panorama of an army company at a barracks during training during the 2nd world war. It was a gift from a Son To his elderly Father. It was in a right state, first I had to scan it in two halves, way to long for my scanner, then rejoin it in photoshop. Digitally clean it, then make light adjustments. Then the hard part began, repairing all the years of damage. It still needed many hours of work for a perfect job, but cost came into it. Both were very happy with the finished results.

The Son didn't think it was possible to repair, he was over the moon. His Dad was picking his old army mates out!!

I did have some water and smoke damage pictures I couldn't do a thing with, not enough decent area to use to "clone" the damaged areas with.

I'll get a couple of before's and afters and post them here tomorrow.

Just to give you an idea what level I go to, a picture468 X 888 pixels I blow up to 7000 by 8000 to see all the details and work between the damage.

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Sams Club has the Canon EOS with TWO IS lenses for $599 - including bag and tripod!

The Sony deal looks O.K. - but you are really only getting two lenses - the others are adapters. I think you will find that a lens with a 3x or so adapter does not give a very clear image - especially if you need to blow it up. YMMV

Edit - just looked at the ad again. I note there is no mention of a warranty. It may be one of those foreign purchase deals where the product is, indeed, brand new, but because it is not being sold in its intended market, it has no warranty - just a heads-up - I would verify that before I bought it!

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