Kadath
23rd of August 2004 (Mon), 13:58
Cause it seems like I'm in the slow lane on the highway to L.
Been waiting to jump in for the longest time on a digital SLR. I've been drooling over the Digital Rebel and the Nikon D70, and saving up here and there, and with the 20D I think I'm finally about ready to dive in.
A background, my first SLR was Nikon F3 HP bought at government auction on the cheap, I leared a ton on it and resold it and got a nice Nikon 8008s which I shared and still share with my mother even tho I moved out 8 years ago. I only have a few Nikon lenses, nothing extrordinary, so its not going to kill me to hop to Canon. If anything, it will be nice to leave all the lenses with my mother.
I'm completely self taught with a ton of books and magazines read, and like most gear heads, I read about this stuff more than I actually practice it. Well, thats about to change, I'm finally getting to take a free photography class at the university where I teach, so hopefully I'll reinforce what I know and get some 'artistic' insights to balance out my engineering brain =)
I plan on using an old Canon AE1 for that, to not rely on all the digital/auto features and really make me think about my shots, but I also want a nice solid SLR body with the bells and whistles to satisfy my inner child =) The 20D will do nicely on that, tho I would probably have been really happy with a Rebel or D70 up until the 20D press release. =) I'm mentally prepared as best I can for whatever I buy to be obsolete the day after I buy it tho, thats nothing new from a computer perspective.
So, from a new buyers perspective I'm looking at a good chunk of change for the bare minimum to get me up and running.
20D body. $1500
2-3 512 Sandisk Ultra 2s $76 each at newegg.
Skipping an external flash for now, I suspect eventually I will want the new 580EX but with the onboard flash I should be good to go for a while. Maybe I can pick up a used 420 to hold me over for a while, dont know.
So basically I'm down to buying a single lens, maybe two to start. I'm thinking:
28-135 3.5/5.6 IS, $410 at B&H
50 1.8 $75 at B&H
I have no interest in 3rd party lenses.
The next batch of lenses that I could see myself buying over time:
70-200 4.0L $600
or if I hit the lottery
100-400 4.5-5.6 L $1500
That does leave a huge gap at the wide end. The only really obvious wide lens is the new 10-22 EF-S one. I'm not convinced that buying a -S lens is in my best long term interest. Who can say that whatever I buy in the future will use that size, and the standard format will be alive for a long long time, I'd hate to get locked in and the lenses that were just announced dont seem to live up to the hype of LOWER COST that they were supposed to...
If it werent for the fact that I've got my first real vacation in 5 years coming up in a few weeks, and I dont want to leave myself short for that, I'd already be on a pre-order list. So, maybe I wont be the first to get one but I'll be right behind the pack =) If anyone can think of some costs that I'm not anticipating along the way, or recommend other lenses than those that I'm thinking about, I would really appreciate any feedback you care to provide.
I got laughed at once in this forum for suggesting that I held off on the D70 because there is no really good forums for Nikon owners even remotely approaching this one, and I stand by that, I've learned a ton here and hope to keep learning for a long time.
Sam/Kad
Been waiting to jump in for the longest time on a digital SLR. I've been drooling over the Digital Rebel and the Nikon D70, and saving up here and there, and with the 20D I think I'm finally about ready to dive in.
A background, my first SLR was Nikon F3 HP bought at government auction on the cheap, I leared a ton on it and resold it and got a nice Nikon 8008s which I shared and still share with my mother even tho I moved out 8 years ago. I only have a few Nikon lenses, nothing extrordinary, so its not going to kill me to hop to Canon. If anything, it will be nice to leave all the lenses with my mother.
I'm completely self taught with a ton of books and magazines read, and like most gear heads, I read about this stuff more than I actually practice it. Well, thats about to change, I'm finally getting to take a free photography class at the university where I teach, so hopefully I'll reinforce what I know and get some 'artistic' insights to balance out my engineering brain =)
I plan on using an old Canon AE1 for that, to not rely on all the digital/auto features and really make me think about my shots, but I also want a nice solid SLR body with the bells and whistles to satisfy my inner child =) The 20D will do nicely on that, tho I would probably have been really happy with a Rebel or D70 up until the 20D press release. =) I'm mentally prepared as best I can for whatever I buy to be obsolete the day after I buy it tho, thats nothing new from a computer perspective.
So, from a new buyers perspective I'm looking at a good chunk of change for the bare minimum to get me up and running.
20D body. $1500
2-3 512 Sandisk Ultra 2s $76 each at newegg.
Skipping an external flash for now, I suspect eventually I will want the new 580EX but with the onboard flash I should be good to go for a while. Maybe I can pick up a used 420 to hold me over for a while, dont know.
So basically I'm down to buying a single lens, maybe two to start. I'm thinking:
28-135 3.5/5.6 IS, $410 at B&H
50 1.8 $75 at B&H
I have no interest in 3rd party lenses.
The next batch of lenses that I could see myself buying over time:
70-200 4.0L $600
or if I hit the lottery
100-400 4.5-5.6 L $1500
That does leave a huge gap at the wide end. The only really obvious wide lens is the new 10-22 EF-S one. I'm not convinced that buying a -S lens is in my best long term interest. Who can say that whatever I buy in the future will use that size, and the standard format will be alive for a long long time, I'd hate to get locked in and the lenses that were just announced dont seem to live up to the hype of LOWER COST that they were supposed to...
If it werent for the fact that I've got my first real vacation in 5 years coming up in a few weeks, and I dont want to leave myself short for that, I'd already be on a pre-order list. So, maybe I wont be the first to get one but I'll be right behind the pack =) If anyone can think of some costs that I'm not anticipating along the way, or recommend other lenses than those that I'm thinking about, I would really appreciate any feedback you care to provide.
I got laughed at once in this forum for suggesting that I held off on the D70 because there is no really good forums for Nikon owners even remotely approaching this one, and I stand by that, I've learned a ton here and hope to keep learning for a long time.
Sam/Kad