Finally in the market

[robpendragon]

I'm finally in the market for a decent digital camera. I'm really tired of the point & shoot camera my wife has, it's ok for her to take pictures of holiday & family snapshots but I want to expand my photo taking. I use to own a Pentax k-1000 (film camera) a while back so I have some camera experience. I'm looking at a Olympus Evolt E500 8MP Digital SLR with 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 & 40-150mm f/3.5-4.5 kit for about $630.00 bucks. I was just wondering if anyone has any advice or recommendations on a better camera for around that price or if you know a good site with honest reviews.:confused: Oh, if there are some really helpful digital camera books out there I would love to find out about them as well. I don't want to buy a ton of books, maybe 2 or 3 good ones.
Any feedback is appreciated.
Thanks all :) :cool:

[lindajay]

http://dpreview.com/ is an excellent site for making comparisons on camera models.

[Chuck S.]

Rob, another site with good reviews is:

www.steves-digicams.com (http://www.steves-digicams.com)

Chuck (former Branchburg resident!)

[CarolLHB]

Hi-
Macworld magazine has an article comparing Digital SLR's this month:)

[kimi_boo]

Rob, don't just go by the price. Try to go somewhere and hold a few and see what feels right in your hands. :D

[John L Gray]

I agree with Kimi abouttouch and feel a camera before buying. Check out your local camera store for rentals. My camera store rents camera's for the weekend and applies half of the rental to the purchase.


I almost didn't buy my digital SLR camera as it felt small in my hand. I discovered that I could add a battery unit to the camera and with the increased in size it felt great.

Spend the time to touch and feel your camera as you will be friends for years to come.

Enjoy the hunt for a camera.

John

[jazzfisher]

If you have lenses from your film Pentax--you can use them on a Pentax DSLR . Pop Photo magazine has an article this month comparing the Pentax, Nikon, Sony, Canon, & Samsung (I believe). After doing some reading go to a store & handle them, see which feels right in your hands.

PS. I am selling my Pentax DSLR (6.1 MP, about 1 yr old) --if interested PM me. (I got a newer one)

[rtronick]

I agree with everyone. Check cameras at the store. I went one step further. I brought a couple of different memory cards with me (SD & Compact Flash), and did some test shots from several cameras in the store. I tried to use as many "modes" ( Auto, AV,TV,P) & different ISO settings with each camera as I could, writing down which frame number went with what camera. I then downloaded the pictures on my home computer, and choose what I considered to be the most pleasing.

Randy T

[robpendragon]

Yeah, I'll definitely hit the camera shops first to check them out & see how they feel. Those are some great sites guys thanks. I'm going to take my time on the purchase for sure. Thanks for the feed back, it's very helpful;) :cool:

[robpendragon]

:D :D Woohoo:D :D Well I got my new camera & I'm thrilled. I can't wait for the weekend so I can go play with it. I tried a few others out but I kept going back to the Olympus Evolt500. I spent most of last night fiddling with the settings (whew, this is going to take a while to learn all the neat features) if you want you can check it out here http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B000BK39N4/ref=dp_image_0/103-0539111-5629438?ie=UTF8&n=502394&s=photo
Thanks for all the helpful links & info guys.

[jazzfisher]

Cool!! Happy Shooting & let's see some samples!!!:)

[Byron Gale]

Rob,

I am ALL for new toys... Enjoy!!!

Byron

[lowbone]

There is allot more to this then how the camera feels in your hands. For instance many of a cameras features and controls are often buried in the menu making them difficult to access and use. My two cents worth says to go with Canon or Nikon. These are the cameras that have the largest market share . As a result more in the way of accessories is offered and also more is offered from aftermarket companies. Pentax offers a feature of being able to use any of its older lenses but is it really a feature? In offering this versatility it has to use an outdated focusing system that gives a very slow focusing speed compared to current brands. Also, Pentax has discontinued most if not all of its FA lens series. Let's say you decide that you want to shoot some nature. A lens with a minimum of 300mm would be required for that. A banged up Pentax 300mm f4.5 lens on ebay will go for upwards of $1200 and that is if you are lucky enough to be the high bidder on the one or two that come up for auction each year. If you look at aftermarket manufacturers like Sigma and Tamron you will notice that none of their best lenses are available in a Pentax mount. Learn about what you will need on a DSLR. Learn how easy or difficult it is to access the various features, settle on two or three models and then and only then should you see how it feels in your hands