 BetterPhoto Member |
My First Digital Camera I am a seasoned photographer but a newcomer to the digtal photography world. Most of my experience has been in medium format and 35mm. What camera should I get? I love film, but I won a job that requires digital use. I need help. Any suggestions are welcome.
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Wing Wong |
Hi Dan, Question: What is the requirement of the digital images from your job? What MP or filesizes will they need? Quick rundown: <$2000, you have the 6MP digital cameras from Canon, Fuji, Olympus, Nikon, Pentax, etc. $2000-$8000, you have the "pro" level digital cameras which will give you 8MP-14MP. Think Canon 1Ds, Kodack 14N. $8000+, you have the digital backs for medium format cameras which will give you 10-40MP digital image files. Think Kodak, Leaf, PhaseOne, etc. If you MF gear is modern enough, you can probably add a digital MF back to it for your shots. That way, you can make use of existing MF gear by adding a back to it. Or you could go with the Hasselblad H1 or Mamiya 645 MF SLR bodies and get a digital back for them. The price for the back+body+access will easily top $20,000 though. If the requirements are not staggering and you have a healthy budget, I would go with the Canon 300D or 10D, the Fuji S2pro, the Nikon D2H, the Olympus E1, or the Pentax *ist-D.
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Michael Kaplan |
What may help you decide is if you already have 35mm lenses. If you currently have a Canon EF 35mm camera then sticking with a Canon D-SLR would save you from having to re-buy your lens collection. Same thing with Nikon where you can purchase a Nikon or Fuji D-SLR if you have the current Nikon lenses. If you don't have any lenses or they are too old like what happened in my case (I had Canon FD lenses from the 70's) you can buy whatever camera but you should look at the lenses you want and let that help decide which series to buy. The manufacturers will keep leap-frogging each other in features available in their D-SLR cameras but the lenses tend to not change too much and are really the more important thing to getting good quality pics and where most of your money will go. You can change bodies anytime but the lenses tend to remain. In my case I went Canon (10D) because of the large range of glass available, the lower costs and yet high quality of the lenses and the models available with IS (Image Stabilization).
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Michael McCullough |
The new Nikon D70 looks good and I believe better overall performance than the Canon offers,the Fuji S2 also has a good following and supposibly better picture quality than the Nikons in the same price range,Fuji also has an S3 model coming out or might already be on the market,that would be my choice,but like I've said it might not be out yet,Why don't you just rent digital for the job at hand and wait for the Fuji S3??
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Stan |
What you already own is important. If you own Nikon lenses look at the Nikon D-100. If you own Canon lenses shop Canon. I too am a professional photographer and am going through the same thing right now. My choice is Nikon D-100. I spent the last 5 years using Sony amateur cameras to get the hang of digital. I think I aged 10 years until I "got it". Going digital isn't something I'd want to do twice. Hopefully you have a lot of experienced friends who can teach you the ropes.
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Robert Bridges |
Michael M said what I would say: If you just need a digital for one job then rent one and charge the expense to the client unless of course you told them you owned a digital. Another option....shoot it in film, scan it and give the client a CD. I guess it would be wise to find out why the client expressly needs digitally produced images?
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Wing Wong |
*grins* If the price is fixed, ie you won the bid due to a better price, then your other chance might be to "borrow" a camera from a friend and work with that if the requirements for the job are not too high. If you don'tmind the asking, but what kind of job is it that would require digital? Does it require only digital delivery(image file)? Or just fast turnaround via digital?
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