Can you help me find a camera?

Question

I need a digital camera in the prosumer to professional range, preferably under $600 (not including additional lenses, filters, or other extras), although the price is not the greatest issue. The main purpose of my camera will be for nature photography as an art form. I will be photographing everything from far-off mountains to subjects as small as a fruit fly.

The most important feature is how much control I have over the image. There are a few "creative controls" that require a wide range and manual control. Additional automatic point-and-shoot settings would be good as well, but manual control is a must. In order of importance these controls are:
Aperture
Focus
Shutter speed
Exposure

The OVF (optical viewfinder) should be good, and a camera with live-preview would be great. One with a swivel-screen LCD would be awesome.

The battery is also an important issue. I would like a camera with Lithium-ion rechargeable batteries, NOT Nickel-cadmium. Alternatively, standard AA and AAA batteries are okay, if they have an acceptable life span.

The image quality of the camera should be in the lower end of a 6 to 12 mega-pixel range. Seven or eight is ideal, but anywhere in that range is okay.

One of my biggest pet-peeves with cameras is shutter lag time.

I would like the camera to be as light and compact as possible.

Answer 1

I'm going to make a different suggestion. If I were you I'd get the Pentax K10D the body only right now is $699 at www.adorama.com. This camera has an extremely good viewfinder, (it's a pentaprism rather than a pentamirror like the D40 or Canon XTi.) It has built in shake reduction in the body, it has a weather/dust sealed body that will hold up well to shooting outdoors in less than optimal conditions.

The K10D is a 10 megapixel DSLR so lenses will cost extra, but you already mentioned that.

to respond to your "most important features"

Aperture: Depends on the lenses you buy, but the K10D will accept any k-mount SLR lens ever made.

Focus: Again depends on the lens, but the autofocus on the K10D is fast and accurate. Some older lenses will be manual focus only, speed and accuracy will depend on you.

Shutterspeed: The K10D has a bulb mode and power plug for infinitely long shutter speeds. Regular shutter speeds are from 30 seconds up to 1/4000 second.

Exposure: The auto exposure from the K10D is always spot on, but if you want an image to be intentionally underexposed or overexposed you can use manual settings or you can dial in an "exposure bias" to do it for you in automatic mode.

The K10D has no live view screen, other than the Olympus DSLR's and the new Canon 40D and Nikon D300 I don't think any DLSR's do. Live view kills battery life anyway, and for most DSLR photography, it's not practical.

I'd definitely go with a DSLR in your situation, the lens selection will place any sort of image you want to capture within your reach. $699 is a bit past your stated budget, but you did mention that price wasn't necessarily the most important factor for you. The K10D started out at over $1000 less than a year ago so $699 is a great deal, and it's still Pentax's best camera.

Answer 2

You will need either an SLR (35mm film) or a DSLR to accomplish what you want. A true macro lens will be an absolute necessity for nature photography. All these so-called "macro" zoom lenses should be re-labeled as "close focusing" since they usually provide only a 1:4 (1/4 life size) image. A true macro will give you 1:1 (life size) images. Plus, a macro lens has a flat field of focus and is optimized for sharpness at close distances.

For your long distance photography you'll need a good quality zoom or fixed focal length lens. A HAZE/UV* filter will help eliminate much of the atmospheric haze and protect the front element of your lens.

A lot of landscape photography can be accomplished with a plain old 50mm f1.4 lens although a wide-angle (24mm, 28mm) can be useful.

Buy a circular polarizer to fit your largest lens. Tiffen, Hoya, B+W are all excellent brands. You can then buy "step-up" rings so you can use one polarizer on all your lenses. Stepping up - from 55mm to 72mm - is always okay. Trying to use a 55mm polarizer (or any filter) on a 72mm filter diameter lens will result in "vignetting" - darkening of the corners of the image.

Add a tripod to your shopping list. Bogen, Manfrotto, Gitzo, Velbon, Slik are all trusted brands. Don't waste your money on a no-name tripod from Target or Wal-Mart.

Get a good quality camera bag to carry everything in.

* All your lenses should have either a Skylight 1A (uncoated) or 1B (coated) filter or a HAZE/UV filter on them at all times except when using your polarizer.

Answer 3

You've pretty much (except for the live view) described the Nikon D40. Currently it retails for under $600 and is fully automatic with all the manual settings you want.
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d40.htm
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond40/
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/104-4732108-5159941?initialSearch=1&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Nikon+D40&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Go

If you really want the live view, consider the Olympus E-410 EVOLT, though with a kit lens, it would be a bit over your budget..
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/olympuse410/

I hope this is helpful.

Answer 4

Canon Rebel E01 or E0S. Check ratings on Cnet.com. My friends have some event websites and they use those. They are great!

Answer 5

well i think i can tell yu this,yu can do ask the company deal with electronics companys in UK okay....that is were i contacted when i need my own too and they get me a nice ones. and if yu feel like asking or contacting them,yu can get them with this email okay.

[e-mail]


Thanks