DSLR Hell

[cameanee]

milrodpxpx wrote:

if anyone is interested i'll post a review of it - i also like the look of it much more, and it doesn't scream 'i have thousands of dollars of camera equipment with me'!

Good point...let's not have our camera bags scream about our treasures. I have a Tamrac 5273 for my 35mmSLR, even though it is asmall backpack, the right (or more like wrong) eyes know exactly what's inside.

I'll look for your review on this bag.

[mtclimber]

Certainly there is lots of good advice in this thread. But I would like to back to what Tom/ennacac said, because it was so important. You can can have a fine kit with just the Pentax DL body, the Pentaxkit lens, and the Pentax 50-200mmzoom lens.

That simple set-up will cover more than 10X optical zoom with ease. and do it at minimal cost The camera and the kit lens are today (07/20) $514 (Butterfly Photo) and the Pentax 50-200mm lens $220 (Buydig.com) so for $734 you have the hardware, SD chips are inexpensive as are a set of nickel metal hydride batteries. But here is the zinger right now, Pentax has a $100 rebate on the DL camera body, and a $50 rebate on the Pentax 50-200mm lens. So your net cost is $584

Pentax is not the only kid on the block. You can find the same kind of kit in the Olympus brand name by selecting the E-500 camera with the two lens ( the Zukio 14-45mm lens and the 40-150mm lens) kit for $774 at Beach Camera with a $100 Olympus rebate, giving you a net cost of $674

A Nikon D-50 kit can be made up with the D-50 camera and kit lens $680 (circuitcity) and the Sigma 55-200mm lens $130 (tristate). The will give you a total of $810.

So there with this thread we have done a lot of shopping for you. I ran out of breath and did not put together a Canon XT package, but I am sure it can be done. The supply of KM 5D's is just about exhausted so I did not include KM. The Pentax DL two lens kit we put together at $584 is the low price champ and it is a good camera and lens setup as well.

For that matter, everyone of the current consumer DSLR cameras will give you much better photos than any P&S camera and much greater flexibility as well. As techaide has pointed out, in today's market the DSLR cameras even with the lenses necessary to equal an ultra zoom's rangeare price right at/near what the P&S ultra zooms are selling for today.

You might say, well how good is a DSLR image so I will post one that I took with my Pentax DS and the Pentax 50-200mm lens.

MT

[bobbyz]

Personally I think if some one is moving from 10x-12x zoom p&s to the dSLR world then they should plan to spend close to $1000 for a nice lens. Sure you can get away with cheap stuff but you might as well stick with your current p&s. This is for folks who need reach >300-400mm for things like birds.

[squirl033]

bobbyz wrote:

Personally I think if some one is moving from 10x-12x zoom p&s to the dSLR world then they should plan to spend close to $1000 for a nice lens. Sure you can get away with cheap stuff but you might as well stick with your current p&s. This is for folks who need reach >300-400mm for things like birds.

agreed. i moved from a Panny FZ20 to a DSLR, and having been spoiled by the quality of the optics in the FZ20, i knew i wouldn't be happy with cheap lenses. i decided i would rather get good glass right up front than try to scrimp on the most important part of the camera "system". yes, $1000isa lot of money to spend on a single lens, and yes, a DSLR system is more costly than a prosumer "super-zoom", but if you want to take the next step, and get the results you're after, you have to pay the piper. i've never regretted spending the money for top-grade lenses... but i know i would have regretted buying cheap ones...

[milrodpxpx]

i know i'm not going to regret $43 spent on the tamron lens...if anything, i'll treat it like a rental...when i'm done, i'll simply put it back into the used market and probably get most of my money back on ebay. net loss, probably $10 - for experience and a quick start, i'll never complain about that.

if only there was a knockoff of the pentax 10-17 or sigma 10-20!!! (and yes, i will shell out the $400+ when i'm ready for them!)

$1,000.00 lenses? you must own a canon! :? i'm kidding!

and not to be offensive or anything squirll, but its posts like yours about not getting anything better out of your dSLR UNLESS you spend $1000s on lenses that scared me to the FZ30. it was a nice stepping stone kind of camera, but i dont miss it in the least. hey, i read about your Bubble pic in the panny forum, but i couldn't find it! congrats on the nat'l geographic publication - could you link the pic to here for me? thanks, and this has been a great discussion so far!

[mtclimber]

Don't you think that we are really straying from the point the OP was after? ThenPentax 50-200mm zoom sells for $220 with a $50 rebate right now. It is an excellent lens. Just take a look at the squirrel photo sample posted in this thread.

The Olympus 40-150mm lens which regularly sells for about $150 is also an excellent lens as well and there is a separate thread on that lens in the Olympus SLR forum. Take a look at that thread. There are also great photo examples there as well.

The Tamron 28-300mm lens sells for around $150 and it too is a great lens. There are lots photo samples from that lens in the KM SLR forum. The lens is available for Pentax, Nikon, and Canon, andKMmounts.

So there are indeed some really excellent lenses that would serve the amateur photo enthusiast quite wellwith are prices at less than $200. I have attached a KM 7D photo sample taken with the Tamron 28-300mm XR lens

MT

[milrodpxpx]

i would agree that the 50-200 pentax lens would be a perfect compliment to the kit lens, covering all the ranges nicely.

[mtclimber]

Here is another popular lens that is not overly expensive. This is the Sigma 18-200mm lens used on my KM 5D at 200mm. A lot of folks like this lens because this one lens can work from a real wide angle to a medium zoom, thus saving many lens changes.

MT

[meanstreak]

mtclimber wrote:

Here is another popular lens that is not overly expensive. This is the Sigma 18-200mm lens used on my KM 5D at 200mm. A lot of folks like this lens because this one lens can work from a real wide angle to a medium zoom, thus saving many lens changes.

MT

How is that lens at the wide end in regards to distortion? Also any issues with focusing? I am always afraid to go near the Sigmas because of all the KM compatabilty issues they have with regard to being reverse engineered.

[E.T]

meanstreak wrote:

mtclimber wrote:

How is that lens at the wide end in regards to distortion?

While these test are with Canon at least distortion test should apply to other versions of lens.
http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/len...3563/index.htm