DSLR Camera

Get this lens instead.

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-50mm-1-8...words=50mm+1.8

Don't get the 50 1.8 is you want to take video - focusing it is loud as hell (not USM). It's also made out of plastic and if you wanted to focus manually the focus ring is tiny and still makes tons of noise on video when you turn the ring.

I just actually looked at that other lens OP is looking at - the 50 1.8 is way better than that thing no doubt. Make sure you realize that with a crop sensor camera that 40 or 50 is going to be more of a portrait lens.

I've never really extensively used my DSLR for video, but if you're concerned about focus noise from your lens, wouldn't it be easier to just get an external mic? Plus, the onboard mic isn't that great anyways.

Something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/MegaGear-Shotg...canon+dslr+mic
I don't own this, btw. It's just the cheapest I could find with good ratings on Amazon.

Another thing that doesn't get mentioned much, but if you're planning on shooting a lot of video, make sure you get a memory card with fast read/write speeds. You'll want at least a class 6 card for HD recording, but class 10 cards are pretty much everywhere.

I totally forgot about this over the holidays, and bought a cheapo card while walking out of a Best Buy. Tried to take video, and it stopped recording after a few seconds. It pissed me off to no end until I realized that the card was too slow (class 4).

not sure if they have a 50 in stm but yeah, for video it would be better because I believe stm are much quieter

the real question is what type of video will you be shooting

seems like if you don't have the body already you would be able to find a kit with the 18-135 stm which would be more practical for all a round use.

T4i plus the 18-135 STM would be fine for what you want. That 40 is going to be too much zoom on a crop indoors.

I'm looking into Camera's in the range of $650 or less. I want a camera that takes great picture, decent zoom, but doesn't cost a ton of money. I'm not serious about photography but I want a decent picture. I was looking at some reviews of cameras like the Fijifilm X-20 and similar Sony products. Any thoughts?

Draegan_sl said:

I'm looking into Camera's in the range of $650 or less. I want a camera that takes great picture, decent zoom, but doesn't cost a ton of money. I'm not serious about photography but I want a decent picture. I was looking at some reviews of cameras like the Fijifilm X-20 and similar Sony products. Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

I'm in the same boat. Anyone have any experience or thoughts on the Nikon D3200? 24 MP with a reasonable price tag. I'd like to use it for indoor and outdoor family photos and outdoor scenic shots, for lack of a better term. Would I be able to accomplish that reasonable well with a single lens? I'm willing to spend upwards of $200-250 for a high quality lens that would give me that in a single package without being exceedingly bulky.

http://www.amazon.com/Nikon-Digital-...keywords=D3200
http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com/roun...fordable-dslrs

I just recently bought a DSLR for my business. My first DSLR ever. At this point I'd almost rather have less megapixels. I bought a refurb nikon 5200 with lense for like $480 on Ebay through B&H. It takes great pictures. I used someone elses camera before buying one. He had like a newer 5000 dollar nikon and an old like 5 megapixel camera from 2005 or something. Turns out all the cameras basically take the same pictures. The camera I have now. Once i open that picture on my computer it's HUGE. If you want to post it to a website, email, facebook etc. You're going to have to reduce the quality dramatically to get it to load anyways. Now if you're going to have 8x10 prints and posters made with the images you take, sure more megapixels the better. But for what I'm doing, taking pictures of fish with a macro lens etc. I have more mega pixels than I'll ever need.

One thing I can't stress enough with any DSLR is that you also need some good photo processing software (Lightroom 4). And you should spend just as much time learning to use the software as you do the camera.

(Incoming dumbed-down explanation for beginners)
Basically, your typical point-and-shoot camera, when it takes a picture, takes in far less data and further more, the camera basically decides for you what a picture should look like, only keeps that data necessary to make the picture look that way, then throws out the rest of the data. So in the end, if the grass isn't the shade of green you want or you want to make the sky look bluer, there is only a limited amount of data left in which you can use to edit the photo.

Conversely, with a DSLR, they take in a lot more data due to their larger sensors and the camera doesn't throw away any of the data it takes in (if you are shooting in RAW like you should). You are left with a whole lot of data which allows you to tweak your photo in numerous ways. What the camera won't do for you is decide how the picture should look. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that their DSLR's don't take as good of pictures as they are used to with a point-and-shoot because they don't realize with their DSLR they need to take the extra step of processing their photos. It might seem like more work but it is worth it because you can really tweak your photos and bring out the elements that you really want.

With a DSLR the improvement in image quality (over say a point and shoot or your phone's camera) is due to the larger sensor. Larger sensors tend to have larger pixels and therefore less noise in their images.

If you want to be able to take high quality pictures, have the option of interchangeable lenses, don't need as much control, and prefer a smaller package -- then I'd look into one of the mirrorless cameras like the Sony NEX series. They pack a large sensor in a smaller body. So you lose some manual controls, but get a smaller overall package. To be clear, you can still do things like shoot in aperture priority or shutter priority, but since you're on a smaller body, there's just less space for the controls you'll find on a full DSLR.

Thanks alot for your replies, very helpful. After reading this I think I might be better off starting out with a nice point and shoot camera. I dont think I have the time or expertise to get the most out of a DSLR or mirrorless camera and dont want an expensive camera sitting around collecting dust. I think something like the Cannon Powershot G15 might be better for me right now.

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-PowerSho...dp/B009B0MY6S/

Yeah, if you don't want to spend time in post a point & shoot is going to take just as good or better pictures.