Camera Help Please???

[Mr. Dazzle]

Some of the mirrorless stuff is properly impressively small now. When i saw them in the shop my reaction was "really?!, this looks a feels like a point and shoot!". But you can fit a 1000mm 5 grand lens to it if you want.

[Slenver]

Making it simple, I want to get pics like this..

In the most simple terms, you won't There's nothing unusual about those photos but it's unrealistic to expect someone with a cheap camera and no experience to immediately reach the same level as someone with a £5k camera and 20 years' experience. Like in anything really.

To get the closest for £500, I'd suggest £200 for a cheapish SLR body, £200 for the best 200mm lens you can get for that and then £100 on a few lessons. Honestly... it'll be the most satisfying way and most likely to succeed.

[Slenver]

Some of the mirrorless stuff is properly impressively small now. When i saw them in the shop my reaction was "really?!, this looks a feels like a point and shoot!". But you can fit a 1000mm 5 grand lens to it if you want.

Yeah they can be very small. Pros still like bigger one though (fnarr!)... if you're holding a body for several hours and 100s/1000s of shots, it needs to fit nicely in the hand with good grips etc.

[Yorick]

Making it simple, I want to get pics like this..

In the most simple terms, you won't There's nothing unusual about those photos but it's unrealistic to expect someone with a cheap camera and no experience to immediately reach the same level as someone with a £5k camera and 20 years' experience. Like in anything really.

To get the closest for £500, I'd suggest £200 for a cheapish SLR body, £200 for the best 200mm lens you can get for that and then £100 on a few lessons. Honestly... it'll be the most satisfying way and most likely to succeed.

Really appreciate your help.

Could you point me to a simple SLR body that will be easy to use.

Then can add bigger lens when we're a bit more savvy

[Taipan]

Some of the mirrorless stuff is properly impressively small now. When i saw them in the shop my reaction was "really?!, this looks a feels like a point and shoot!". But you can fit a 1000mm 5 grand lens to it if you want.

Some mirrorless cameras have in body stabilisation on multi axis, so its often sharper than a DSLR. Plus touch screen focus is amazing! If i was buying a camera again i'd go mirrorless as i think they'll nudge out DSLRs eventually. Pointless comment though as they're way over Yoz's budget.

[Ant]

I have an Olympus mirrorless, love it. SLR functions in a smaller package, a few different lenses. If I'm doing something special then I use my big Canon SLR, my Canon is old though, it's an EOS 1Ds mark 3 but it's still great.

[Taipan]

I have an EOS 80d at home, selection of lenses, all in a camera bag etc and I never use it. I really should ebay it and get a mirrorless as I might actually bother to carry that around. But, as I dont really social media my photos my iphone promax does all i need really...

[Slenver]

Really appreciate your help.

Could you point me to a simple SLR body that will be easy to use.

Then can add bigger lens when we're a bit more savvy

In terms of the body, there's nothing that really distinguishes one from the other in terms of ease of use really. What people forget is that cameras only really have 2 controls which is all you need to master to take almost any kind of photo. Flashier bodies just add more settings, configurations etc etc in a a physically larger shell, and once you get above the entry-level ones they remove all the presets that beginners use anyway, so you get fewer features in a way

What increasing price gives you is newer specs, higher quality etc. Best to stick with the big brands for a wider and cheaper choice of lens. At this age, Canon and Nikon are the two big players, so simplest to stick with them. For Canon (as an example), the naming structure is such that the number of characters defines the level of range – single digits are pro, XX is next, XXX is lower-end, XXXX is cheapest. And within this, they just tend to go up the numbers each time, so the 10D was replaced by the 20D, then the 30D etc etc. That range is currently at 90D, so you have 9 generations of the XX range.

Personally I'd avoid the XXXX range as the bodies are physically small and fiddly, and the viewfinders too small. Better to go back a few generations to something like a 500D, for example, or even back a little more to the XX range like a 40 or 50D. All will give you plenty of quality. Remember though that the shutters have a limited lifespan, and the shutter count (which can be read from the camera) will often be quoted. The higher-end the camera, the more they can manage, but you don't generally want something with over 100,000 or so. Google will be your friend for a specific model.

For lenses, it's much more complicated! Zoom lenses (ones that can move between different focal lengths - nothing to do with shooting far into the distance as a lot of people confuse it with) are much more flexible than fixed focus lenses, but you lose a lot of quality, and tend not to let in as much light, so much worse for fast action and/or low light. I'd always recommend Canon's 50mm f/1.8 lens. Ludicrously cheap (60-odd quid) and good enough for pro-level photos. Buy this and a body and you can learn everything you need to take day-to-day photos.

Many lower-end bodies will come with 'kit' lenses. Often something like 18-55m. Perfectly usable but normally shit. Worth nothing on eBay as most bodies come with them anyway so they don't add value to a body. Good enough to learn how to use a camera, but best discarded and replaced with something better when at the next stage.

For sports stuff you'll need a much longer lens though. Price starts to increase rapidly with length (fnaar etc again), and quality drops off dramatically if you don't spend the money. For reference, a good pro 400mm lens is about 13 grand. You can spend 200 quid s/h on something usable but it'll have serious limitations. Plus hard to use. I'd stick with 200ish as a maximum to learn on.

Most cheaper long lenses will be zooms (so 70-200 or similar) which is fine, and adds flexibility for doing sport etc. Again, you'll compromise some quality but that's to be expected.

There are millions on eBay and I've only spent a few minutes, but for as an example:

Canon 500D with 18-55mm kit lens and only 4,800 shutter actuations - £170

Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens £65

Tamron 70-300mm lens £69

[Yorick]

Over here it's always sunny and bright. Often our phone cameras get a superb snapshot.
But the background is shit.

I suppose a posher camera like I'm looking for will fix that?

20221122_132838.jpg (797.37 KiB) Viewed 650 times

[Mr. Dazzle]

I often just take pics for the sake of trying but never look at em

Mrs D recently bought a 500mm lens. My house is right under the departure route for planes flying out of Heathrow to North America. They're about 10,000ft up when they go over, so about 2 miles away, but with that lens I can lie on my garden sofa and snap em, just to see if I can.

The other day I spent half an hour sat cross legged with a 200mm lens trying to capute the bees eating my lavender. Tiny depth of field and the bastards don't stay still long!

Mrs. D on the other hand is far smarter. She gets paid for her running stuff

[Taipan]

Keep an eye on this one below. The go to of Youtubers for many years. Great camera with flip out, reversible touch screen. Still takes pretty good video if you want. Loads of lens options. It'll shoot in RAW if you wan to get into Lightroom later too. Review vid.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/195854562655 ... R5zm9LClYg

[Yorick]

Keep an eye on this one below. The go to of Youtubers for many years. Great camera with flip out, reversible touch screen. Still takes pretty good video if you want. Loads of lens options. It'll shoot in RAW if you wan to get into Lightroom later too. Review vid.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/195854562655 ... R5zm9LClYg

I don't want to sound ungrateful or flippant, is it suitable for us numpties to learn on?

[Slenver]

Over here it's always sunny and bright. Often our phone cameras get a superb snapshot.
But the background is shit.

I suppose a posher camera like I'm looking for will fix that?

20221122_132838.jpg

What's shit about it? Not sure what you want to 'fix'?

[Taipan]

Keep an eye on this one below. The go to of Youtubers for many years. Great camera with flip out, reversible touch screen. Still takes pretty good video if you want. Loads of lens options. It'll shoot in RAW if you wan to get into Lightroom later too. Review vid.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/195854562655 ... R5zm9LClYg

I don't want to sound ungrateful or flippant, is it suitable for us numpties to learn on?

Yes, very much so. Full auto+ mode will give you stunning pictures but then you have other modes to get creative with as your ability grows. It'll shoot in jpegs but also in RAW where you can use Adobe Lightroom to learn how to develop your photos to a much greater level. You can grow with this camera.

[Yorick]

Maybe a daft question.

When you attach these lenses, do they zoom OK?
I mean from the zoom button on the camera body?

Or manually?

[Slenver]

Maybe a daft question.

When you attach these lenses, do they zoom OK?
I mean from the zoom button on the camera body?

Or manually?

On an SLR? The zoom control is on the lens. You twist a grip around it.

[Yorick]

Maybe a daft question.

When you attach these lenses, do they zoom OK?
I mean from the zoom button on the camera body?

Or manually?

On an SLR? The zoom control is on the lens. You twist a grip around it.

OK.

So if the lens is permanently fixed to body, it zooms via button on camera body?

[Slenver]

Maybe a daft question.

When you attach these lenses, do they zoom OK?
I mean from the zoom button on the camera body?

Or manually?

On an SLR? The zoom control is on the lens. You twist a grip around it.

OK.

So if the lens is permanently fixed to body, it zooms via button on camera body?

Yes

[Mr. Dazzle]

Manually adjusting the zoom is loads quicker than any buttons anyway...plus you'd almost certainly be holding the camera like this for any kind of 'moving' photo, so your hands are in the right place already. SLR's normally have a multi function scroll wheel where you'd imagine the zoom buttons are, it adjusts various things (shutter speed, aperture etc. Well I say "etc" Slenver's right in that there are generally only 2 adjustments ) depending what mode you're in - way more useful.

[ChrisW]

I've had a couple of Olympus OM-D E-M10s, and an M5 I think. They're excellent little cameras & there are plenty of decent zoom lenses you can use with them, and some really very nice but quite expensive ones too

Something like this would probably be ideal for what you're looking to do:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175800814995