Picking an SLR camera
Back in April, I did a Top 15 entry-level camera round-up, and it’s one of those posts where the comments stayed relatively calm, but I got tonnes of e-mail afterwards, with suggestions, comments etc. I was surprised at the level of passion people had about that one single article, but it got me thinking: I love trying to come up with interesting ways of doing photography, but what if people really want some buying advice? I discovered long ago that this particular blog isn’t really the place, but still… I figured I could do better than a top 15…
So I decided to launch a new website to help you out.
Every week, I get a huge stack of e-mails from readers (well, I get lots of e-mails, I don’t actually print them out and put them in a stack, that’d be ludicrous) who want some help finding a Digital SLR camera. Every time, I have to send them away again, because, well, I’ll be honest with you: While I love, and know a fair bit about photography, my knowledge of actual cameras is limited.
Sure, I’ve used most of the DSLR cameras Canon have launched over the years, and I’ve probably given Canon more than their fair share of my money in the past decade, too, but the truth of the matter is that I’m reluctant to give people advice. I don’t want to re-spark the age-old Canon-Versus-Nikon debate every time I do so either, because frankly, cameras are so good nowadays, that it’s unlikely to be the camera that’ll be the bottleneck in your creative process - it’s the photographer.
On the other hand, I hate sending people away - I like to pride myself on being useful and helpful, and it bothered me that I was unable to help. So I decided to come up with a solution.
Some of you may have noticed that a list of D-SLR cameras appeared on the right of this page - well, that was part of a testing phase, which now is finished, and I’m proud to launch Photocritic SLR.
For every dSLR currently on sale, I have:
- Researched it, and written an introduciton
- Gotten a photo of it from the manufacturers
- Found out what it costs, roughly
- Found some of the best reviews of each camera out there
As I said, I willingly admit that I can’t give particularly thorough advice, but there are dozens of websites out there that can. As such, the Photocritic SLR site gives you a chance to get a rough overview of the market, and delve into the details in all the reviews that are out there.
Best of all, if you, in your journeys, come across a brilliant review that I’ve somehow missed, you can add the review to the right camera yourself! Fabulous.
So go on, if you’re in the market for a camera, check out Photocritic SLR. Let me know what you think in the comments!
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Insights, suggestions and comments
Thanks for the camera specs. Brief but very handy. I am in the market for trading my Canon 350D in for a Canon 40D. Trouble is I am based in South Africa. According to your guidelines the Canon 40D is $1100. In South Africa it is lnearly DOUBLE THAT! I am looking at paying $1923. (R15000) That hurts - any importing companies that you know of that can help.
Regards
Astrid Stark
This was a nice post, it’s great to have a central place that incorporates reviews from multiple sources for each camera.
I’ve always found Canon to offer the most camera for the money. It’s a continuous leap frog. Nikon is currently offering some of the best technology.
The best advice is to buy a camera, with the features you are looking for, that will allow you enough money left over money to buy a quality sharp lens or two.
Rosh
http://www.newmediaphotographer.com
Speaking of firsts—that’s a Smena 8M in that first picture, my first camera. Being an Eastern European kid meant that apart from Russian cameras there wasn’t much of a choice. Far from a SLR, it wasn’t even a rangefinder—distance had to be set according to photographer’s estimation.
Cheers from Bucharest.
Smena 8m yay!
SLR’s are great. When I made the transition over to one it wnight and day.
Interesting, I just bought an ‘inbetween’ sorry I’m a total beginner, I got me a panasonic dmc tz8.
Maybe you can review that one too…
(competition on http://yourpaintedsmile.blogspot.com)
cheers
I am a complete Nikon die-hard. My family has used Nikomat and Nikon for decades and I wouldn’t have anything else.
The recent release of the Nikon D90 has heavily reduced the price of the superseeded Nikon D80; a very good DSLR for the price of an entry level camera when purchased online. Also if you have freinds and family in Hong Kong or you are travelling there sometime soon, you can purchase excess D200 stock at a ridiculously competitive price! Imagine intending to buy an entry-level DSLR and then purchasing a semi-proffesional camera for the same price. Long Exposure photographs and image quality will be awesome.
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