Joined: Aug 20 2009 Posts: 1845 Location: Hunting More Glory
I've been lurking on here for a while now. I purchased a Nikon D3200 a few months ago, I'm a complete novice, but learning.
Anyway, we went to Kos last month, and I got up at 6.00 one morning to take some photographs of Syrian refugees landing on the beach from Kos. I absolutely love the last photo, the lighting at that time in the morning is perfect.
I've posted 4 pictures, but the first three are just to put the last one into context. All the images are untouched, taken on 300mm VR lens, hand held.
I absolutely love the last picture.
Any comments for a novice are welcome.
I've been lurking on here for a while now. I purchased a Nikon D3200 a few months ago, I'm a complete novice, but learning.
Anyway, we went to Kos last month, and I got up at 6.00 one morning to take some photographs of Syrian refugees landing on the beach from Kos. I absolutely love the last photo, the lighting at that time in the morning is perfect.
I've posted 4 pictures, but the first three are just to put the last one into context. All the images are untouched, taken on 300mm VR lens, hand held.
The Mrs is offering to buy me a camera for xmas as I've been wanting one for a while.
I am a complete novice when it comes to camera's but with a budget of £150 I want to try and get something decent to get me going. I'm not expecting to set the world on fire with that kind of budget but the 2 cameras I've seen so far are a Canon PowerShot SX410 which is currently half price in argos at £129 and I also like the look of the Sony DSCH400 which is around £150 .
Specwise it looks like the sony comes out slightly better with a better zoom and viewfinder but without much knowledge i'm not sure which direction to head.
Joined: Dec 05 2001 Posts: 25122 Location: Aleph Green
Robbo wrote:The Mrs is offering to buy me a camera for xmas as I've been wanting one for a while.
I am a complete novice when it comes to camera's but with a budget of £150 I want to try and get something decent to get me going. I'm not expecting to set the world on fire with that kind of budget but the 2 cameras I've seen so far are a Canon PowerShot SX410 which is currently half price in argos at £129 and I also like the look of the Sony DSCH400 which is around £150 .
Specwise it looks like the sony comes out slightly better with a better zoom and viewfinder but without much knowledge i'm not sure which direction to head.
Any suggestions?
Both are good manufacturers who build excellent sensors. If the Canon really is reduced then I'd be tempted to go for it. If you plan on doing something more than taking the odd snap then I'd definitely be looking for the ability to shoot RAW as opposed to lossy JPEG. Compression is an absolute killer on little cameras so if you can avoid it - great. If neither do and the Canon price is a fiddle then I'd probably think about the better Sony lens.
Joined: Mar 05 2007 Posts: 13190 Location: Hedon (sometimes), sometimes Premier Inn's
Dally wrote:They were JPEGs. Maybe I should take another look at the camera's software to see if it processes RAW files! If I recall the software crashes on my computer and I am using my wife's software from a compact camera.
Back to the cheap lens, yes those pictures are reasonable and the cat one pretty good. But, shooting at a longer range results to date have been poor.
On a different note, I am wondering whether a Sigma 150-500mm lens (c. £600) would be worth it? I know their top of the range version (more expensive) can produce petty impressive results, but I am not sure about spending £600 on something which may not be top notch. Do you have any experience of this particular lens?
Sadly, Pentax lenses are expensive - c. £1,000 for a 300mm f4 prime lens. Maybe I should have transferred over to Canon / Nikon when I got my last camera! But the Pentax K3 came out better in reviews than the equivalent Canon / Nikon cameras and is a great top end consumer level camera.
I have this lens and use it all regularly, I like it. It is very good hand held at 500mm with the Sigma OS settings. Apart from the Canon 'nifty fifty' all my lenses are Sigma, the 105mm Macro and the 10-20mm 3.5 WA often top the ratings on test in the Canon edition of Photo Plus. I use the 70D which is excellent.
'when my life is over, the thing which will have given me greatest pride is that I was first to plunge into the sea, swimming freely underwater without any connection to the terrestrial world'
Joined: Mar 05 2007 Posts: 13190 Location: Hedon (sometimes), sometimes Premier Inn's
Dally wrote:I have never used Photoediting software other than that from a disk that came with a camera. Are Photoshop / others much better than that sort of thing. I have never shot in RAW because the editing software that came with the camera does not seem to deal with it.
I therefore have a couple of questions:
1. Is it easy to use Photoshop et al if dealing with both RAW and JPEG files? 2. Is Adobe Photoshop the best and if so which version is suitable for an amateur? There seems to be all sorts of variants. How much should you be paying - again I have seen a wide range of pricing.
Any guidance would be gratefully received.
I took the plunge on the Adobe monthly subscription (£8.75) for which I get the latest Photoshop and Lightroom 6, these are updated to keep pace with changes. I have began to use PS more and am slowly getting to grips with it, but as said on here it is a professional tool and takes a lot of getting use to. I have used LR to play with RAW images, but tend to use PS more often. The good thing is that you hardly miss the monthly fee and it's yearly equivelant is the same buying Element outright (not including upgrades).
'when my life is over, the thing which will have given me greatest pride is that I was first to plunge into the sea, swimming freely underwater without any connection to the terrestrial world'
Not sure if this thread is worth resurrecting since the last post was 18 months ago, but here goes.
I need to buy a travel friendly camera, something that takes sharp shots, decent auto focus, not too big/bulky or takes ages to set up but has a good zoom - probably for no more than £300.
Mike Oxlong wrote:Not sure if this thread is worth resurrecting since the last post was 18 months ago, but here goes.
I need to buy a travel friendly camera, something that takes sharp shots, decent auto focus, not too big/bulky or takes ages to set up but has a good zoom - probably for no more than £300.
Any suggestions?
Can't pretend to be up to date on all options and prices but from what I have seen Panasonic Lumix compacts are very good. For their modest price Nikon Coolpix compacts (if they still make them) are very good. Canon bridge cameras seem very good too.
Edit: Could try this website (one of the places I buy stuff from) - you can input camera type, brand, price range and then look at the options. When you have decided what suits you can then shop around. For a UK based supplier they have been good for what I have bought and you can speak to the on 'phone
Mike Oxlong wrote:Not sure if this thread is worth resurrecting since the last post was 18 months ago, but here goes.
I need to buy a travel friendly camera, something that takes sharp shots, decent auto focus, not too big/bulky or takes ages to set up but has a good zoom - probably for no more than £300.
Any suggestions?
Can't pretend to be up to date on all options and prices but from what I have seen Panasonic Lumix compacts are very good. For their modest price Nikon Coolpix compacts (if they still make them) are very good. Canon bridge cameras seem very good too.
Edit: Could try this website (one of the places I buy stuff from) - you can input camera type, brand, price range and then look at the options. When you have decided what suits you can then shop around. For a UK based supplier they have been good for what I have bought and you can speak to the on 'phone
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