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Post by turkeyscout on May 16, 2008 6:54:05 GMT -5
HEY GUYS, i've been wanting to buy a digital camera for nature photography, i having a hard time deciding on a canon slr xti or a xt, and i' ve also been looking at a compact canon powershot s51s where the optical(12x) is built in. the compact would be easier to put on your belt and roam,but looking thru the view finder,its would be hard to tell a small bird, the xti or xt seem great but not as eazy to roam with and i would have to buy a 75 x300mm zoom too . looking for advice...  i've seen some great photos on this great website, but no feed back on the cameras, need your input please, i shop at roberts in carmel....thanks...turkey scout |
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Post by HuntMeister on May 16, 2008 8:19:57 GMT -5
Hey turkeyscout, First of all I do not in anyway propose to be an expert on this subject but I have the same interests, I wish to carry a camera in the field with me to catch wildlife & wildplaces shots. A really awesome place to educate yourself on the different cameras out there is www.dpreview.com they do an awesome job and have a great forum too. I struggled over the slr / bridge camera thing for quite awhile and finally decided to start out with a bridge camera mainly due to ease of carrying without the hassle of extra lenses. After much research into the different cameras, I went with a panasonic FZ50 and have not regretted the decision. While it is a little larger than alot of the compact point & shoots it has sooooo many more features than your typical point & shoot camera does, about as close to going slr as one can get without actually buying a slr. I have come to the conclusion that I want to buy a slr camera to use when I can concentrate on just photography and use the Panny when I am out hunting, fishing, etc. I think that unless you are planning to be a professional photograper, I wouldn't get caught up in worrying about buying a really expensive slr body but would concentrate more on the quality of lenses that you can get for the camera body. The Canons you mention are great IMHO and that xt has really come down in price here lately so if I had the bucks to spend the xt would probably be the one for me, then I would go after a really fast zoom lens for it. I am not against Roberts by any means but you could probably do better price wise by shopping around a bit. I bought my Panny last year from a place called Camera land New York www.cameralandny.com/ and saved a bundle of money plus their service is top shelf! Ask for Joel, he is one of the owners and no I have no relationship to them or monetary reason to suggest them, they just do a awesome job! Whew, I'm exhausted from this long winded post, hope this helps you some and keep us posted on what you decide! I'm a bit envious as I would like to pull the trigger on a slr / quality lens but no funds right now. |
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Post by songdog on May 17, 2008 19:27:21 GMT -5
About 10 years ago I bought a camera to carry while I walked around in the woods and for use when sitting on a deer stand. My pastime turned into an obsession and now I spend hours in a blind prior to turkey season and put in many miles walking in the woods in search of photogenic subjects.
I agree with HuntMeister that you should put the bulk of your money into a real nice lens.The best camera I know for outdoor photography is a Canon 20D , it is well made and the price has come down drastically in the past few years. Check on E-Bay.
A 20D and a 75-300 lens would put you in pretty close without spooking alot of animals.
The picture of the turkey that I use as my avatar was taken from a blind with a 20D and a fixed 400 lens.
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Post by duff on May 18, 2008 11:51:50 GMT -5
I just got a 20D off E-Bay and the 75-300 for good deals. The camera is far and away better then me, but like songdog stated it is quickly becoming an obsession. So I am learning how to work the camera to the best of my abilities.
Watch B&H photo off the web site for compairable prices.
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Post by mbogo on May 25, 2008 9:16:13 GMT -5
The canon XTI has already started dropping in price as well with the release of the new XSI. I have seen some online sites selling them for slightly more than an XT was selling for last year.
My advice would be to get one of the SLRs and spend most of your budget on quality lenses. If you check various reviews you can find excellent lenses that are reasonably priced and can rival much more expensive ones.
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Post by mbogo on May 25, 2008 9:17:35 GMT -5
I would also suggest buying only the camera body, not the kit with lens, and then adding lenses of your choice to it as you need/can afford them.
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Post by turkeyscout on May 26, 2008 7:38:20 GMT -5
hey guys, thanks for all the tips guys i bought a new camera : a canon slr xt with a canon ef 28-90 mm. lens and a ef 75 x300 mm. lens and a nice tripod, i had the canon point and shoot s51s powershot for a couple days ,nice camera for roaming with a 12x power, i had trouble finding subjects like birds in the view finder and the end results of lens wasn't as sharp as i would of liked. i was using a tripod too. close to what i wanted, but i took it back.. now i'm reading the booklet on the xt. hope to have some photos later, i wish i had the extra cash , i would have liked to bought the canon 75x 300 mm. with the (image stabilization feature),but they was running over 500 bucks(hopefully later), i'm sure that would of helped in getting less blurred photos.....any input on( slr image stabilization) lens?  ?...thanks agin guys for your help!!!!....turkey scout |
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Post by hoosierhunter2 on May 26, 2008 10:03:32 GMT -5
Turkey, The IS (image stabilzation) really comes into play on the telephoto shots, the farther out you are reaching the more the risk of camera shake, and the IS helps to reduce this by quite a bit. Also the EF 70-300 IS lens is a great choice for the money, it has a 2 stage IS feature, one is for still shots, and the second is for moving or panning shots. Adorama sells them factory refurbished with full Canon warranty for $445 plus shipping.  www.adorama.com Also something to possibly look at is the 1.4x Canon teleconverter, this will increase your reach but not break the bank as well. |
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Post by HuntMeister on May 26, 2008 11:03:06 GMT -5
Sounds like a great purchase, one I really want to do in the near future - now get out there and get us some good pics please! ;D
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Post by duff on May 26, 2008 18:59:09 GMT -5
Good deal Turkey Scout. I will be looking for a tripod very soon, I also like the macro stuff so I got my eyes on a lens for that as well. It is fun walking around looking at how things would look in a picture. I've been amazed at the skill it takes to capture a good quality picture!
Good luck with your new camera. The hardest part for me has been image management. The old camera I didn't take as many pics, with the new camera I am snapping 10X more and my computers are showing it!
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i've seen some great photos on this great website, but no feed back on the cameras, need your input please, i shop at roberts in carmel....thanks...turkey scout
