The saga continued with my friend wondering about the differences between a 350D and 400D:
"As ever, thanks for this information - very helpful. As a quick response, I think given your suggestions, that a CANON camera would be the forward.
"I've read up a bit - and have been sold for the past few weeks on the idea of the 400D... Canon EOS-400D 18-55 Kit for £449 offered by warehouseexpress seems the most competitive. If I went for just the body then (£388)... what lens would you suggest thinking about? The plan would probably be to invest in an additional lense around Christmas, money permitting.
"Having said that, do you think that, all things considered, that the 350D would be the way forward, given the price? Is the money saved worth getting the 350D over the 400D in your opinion??"
My reply:
400 or 350D:
It depends on how big you would like to print. With a 6MP camera I used to get very good A4 size and OK A3 size prints. But it depends also on subject matter. For example I blew up a portrait of my daughter to 24" by 36" and it was great. That was taken with a Nikon D100 (a now relatively obsolete 6MP camera). However, if you like landscapes or nature photography detail is often more important and this would not be possible. You would start to see the cracks in the sensor technology at A3 size.
The newer 8MP cameras can more easily do A3 or Super A3 size (13" by 19") - and you can get printers of this size - for everyday subject matter. The 10MP 400D will give you a bit more. If you don't want to make prints bigger than super A3 then the 350D would probably be adequate. Of course the 400D is a better camera, but you would probably not notice the difference at these sizes. In this case it might be better to use the money saved to invest in other equipment. I have the near 13MP canon 5D and it can do 16X20" no problem.
How are you going to print the results? This is key to the decision.
In terms of lenses it depends on what you are going to use the camera for.
The 18-55mm zoom that comes with these cameras is an average all round lens for everyday shooting. Might be OK for a while, but the sensor is probably a lot better than the lens. A good lens makes a huge difference to the quality of the results especially if you print reasonably large (bigger than A4). If you like portraits you should invest in a portrait lens (longer focal length). Landscapes wide angles are often best. When I got the canon 5D I couldn't afford a 'good' lens so I just bought a cheap 50mm (£70). The Canon prime lenses (i.e. non-zoom) are all pretty good (much better than the cheap zooms), but then you lose some of the flexibility a zoom gives. My zoom (the canon 24-105mm L costs £700) but it isn't 'better' than the 50mm prime and it weighs a ton. That portrait I was talking about above was also taken with a cheap 50mm Nikon lens, but these prime lenses are actually excellent value for money.
Difficult isn't it?
0 comments:
Post a Comment