[Recovered Thread: 108283]

[Killerglass]

Hi All

Hope this has not been beat into the ground

Like it says, I am looking for a camera to take pictures indoors & in low lighting of cars. Camera must be able to take pictures on a trypod of luminated objects (cars with leds)
Looking to spend $600 max but would consider going higher if it makes a good argument.
Is there any DSLR in that range?

Any suggestion greatly appreciated.

[kenbalbari]

The best DSLRs for under $600

Pentax K110D (body only) $400
Pentax K110D & kit lens $472
Nikon D50 (body only) $500
Olympus E-500 (body only) $508
Pentax K100D (body only) $514
Pentax K100D & kit lens $580

link

Of course you will need a lens (or two) as well. You might want to go with a kit lens at first, and maybe an inexpensive, bright 50mm prime for lower light indoor shots (if you do want to do some handheld--or just want something sharper than a kit zoom).

The K100D is exactly the same as a K110D but with a stabilized sensor to prevent blur from camera shake when handheld. You won't need that when shooting off a tripod, but it's a feature well worth having in the camera, and that is the only model in this range that offers it. That would be my first choice.

The E-500 2 lens kit is a good deal at $699. The 2 lenses are very good for kit lenses. But you also won't find a really inexpensive bright prime for lowlight for the Olympus at this time. The mid range Olympus lenses are good value, but generally $350 and up.

For the D50, there's an equally good 2 lens kit available for around $770. And, an inexpensive 50mm f1.8 prime for around $100 if you want to add that.

You also can find inexpensive older used lenses for Pentax or Nikon, if you want to keep costs down. And, while there aren't any old four-thirds system lense for the Olympus, there are inexpensive adapters that will allow many older lenses from other mounts to work using manual focus.

[Juzzie]

Taken at a motorbike show last week with 24mm prime lens (42mm equivalent on a film SLR)with a Konica Minolta 5D (Sony Alpha 100 nearest equivalent now) with a Sony 3600 flash unit.







Same lens without the external flash (batteries ran out!) and using the flip-up flash (WB set to auto). Image much warmer without the strength of the external flash. I think being in November didn't help as less natural light.







Taken at the London Car Show in July. Same camera but with kit lens (18-70mm, pic taken at 30mm) and flip-up flash used. I think summer light helped.





All images have been reduced in size for web use but other than that, no post processing.

[Killerglass]

Thank you very much for the replys

I am leaning to the Pentax, I just need to choose between the K100 & the K110

Any thoughts on them?



Great pics you took, they really look great, I will have to get an external flash

[JimC]

Killerglass wrote:

I am leaning to the Pentax, I just need to choose between the K100 & the K110

Any thoughts on them?

Get the built in stabilization if you go Pentax. You may not want to use a flash (or lug a tripod along). ;-)

Juzzie wrote:

Taken at a motorbike show last week with 24mm prime lens (42mm equivalent on a film SLR)with a Konica Minolta 5D (Sony Alpha 100 nearest equivalent now) with a Sony 3600 flash unit.

Adorama apparently founda stash of KM 5Ds. They have the KM 5D with an 18-70mm lens for $569 now. Most vendors sold out months ago. But, they found them somewhere.

http://www.adorama.com/IMN5DK.html?s...&item_no=4

Image much warmer without the strength of the external flash. I think being in November didn't help as less natural light.

It looks like the opposite problem to my eyes (you had too much ambient light, and because you used the internal flash, you ended up with a color cast from ambient light exposure). I can't see your camera settings (no EXIF in that Image). But, the ambient light appeared to be contributing too much to the exposure for Auto White Balance to work out.

With as much light as I'm seeing in that image, I'd have gone no flash and set the white balance to match thelighting to get rid of any color cast.Ambient lightwas contributing more to the photo compared to the internal flash from what Ican tell by looking at it. That'sa good example of a scene where Anti-Shake could come in handy (and you've got higher ISO speeds you can use, too). ;-)

[Juzzie]

Cheers Jim. I'm still a novice when it comes to understanding light etc (hence auto WB!), I just assumed the image was dimmer due to lack of external flash rather than other factors. All part of the learning curve! )