I've used a couple of Sony's higher-end digital cameras, and have been pretty disappointed. Their first 8MP "prosumer" camera had a great laser-based focusing system that let it focus very quickly even in complete darkness, but the images it generated weren't impressive. A more recent one I used was disappointingly slow to focus, and not enough smaller than my Canon SLR to really justify ever carrying it. I haven't used their new SLR line, but my previous experience doesn't make me real inclined to try it out.
I've been pretty happy with the Canon DSLRs I've owned. Focus tends to be very fast, pictures are very good, wide range of lenses available. Speed is a big difference I've noticed between the DSLRs and other digital cameras. The DSLRs focus very fast and have enough internal memory to take several shots before they need to wait while data gets written out to the flash card. Depending on what you expect to be photographing, this can be either very important or totally irrelevant. I really like the speed, because I find it very frustrating to miss someone's expression or actions, but if you concentrate on still-lifes you won't care. I haven't used the Nikons, so have no comment there.
Lenses: This is something where opinions vary wildly. I have two of Canon's higher-end zooms, a 35-80 and a 80-300 if I remember the numbers right, and I find that the two of them do a pretty darn good job for the way I use the camera. OTOH, pretty much all of my pictures are taken while traveling, so getting the most flexibility out of the amount of baggage volume I can afford to dedicate to camera stuff is important. Also, I have a much higher tolerance for lugging heavy objects than many people, and big hands, which makes a difference. You can definitely get good lenses cheaper if you go for prime lenses, which may or may not be practical for you depending on where you take pictures. Phil Greenspun's rule of thumb that you should expect to spend several times more on lenses than you do on a camera body seems fairly valid, though.
Flash: IMO, you really want an external flash to get the flash far enough off-axis that you don't get red-eye. Flashes that let you change the angle of the flash are way useful, particularly ones that rotate in two dimensions if you tend to rotate the camera.
Lens filters: I haven't worked much with these, though I keep a simple UV filter on all of my lenses to protect against scratches.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-09-07 11:20 pm (UTC)I've used a couple of Sony's higher-end digital cameras, and have been pretty disappointed. Their first 8MP "prosumer" camera had a great laser-based focusing system that let it focus very quickly even in complete darkness, but the images it generated weren't impressive. A more recent one I used was disappointingly slow to focus, and not enough smaller than my Canon SLR to really justify ever carrying it. I haven't used their new SLR line, but my previous experience doesn't make me real inclined to try it out.
I've been pretty happy with the Canon DSLRs I've owned. Focus tends to be very fast, pictures are very good, wide range of lenses available. Speed is a big difference I've noticed between the DSLRs and other digital cameras. The DSLRs focus very fast and have enough internal memory to take several shots before they need to wait while data gets written out to the flash card. Depending on what you expect to be photographing, this can be either very important or totally irrelevant. I really like the speed, because I find it very frustrating to miss someone's expression or actions, but if you concentrate on still-lifes you won't care. I haven't used the Nikons, so have no comment there.
Lenses: This is something where opinions vary wildly. I have two of Canon's higher-end zooms, a 35-80 and a 80-300 if I remember the numbers right, and I find that the two of them do a pretty darn good job for the way I use the camera. OTOH, pretty much all of my pictures are taken while traveling, so getting the most flexibility out of the amount of baggage volume I can afford to dedicate to camera stuff is important. Also, I have a much higher tolerance for lugging heavy objects than many people, and big hands, which makes a difference. You can definitely get good lenses cheaper if you go for prime lenses, which may or may not be practical for you depending on where you take pictures. Phil Greenspun's rule of thumb that you should expect to spend several times more on lenses than you do on a camera body seems fairly valid, though.
Flash: IMO, you really want an external flash to get the flash far enough off-axis that you don't get red-eye. Flashes that let you change the angle of the flash are way useful, particularly ones that rotate in two dimensions if you tend to rotate the camera.
Lens filters: I haven't worked much with these, though I keep a simple UV filter on all of my lenses to protect against scratches.