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blk96gt posted:I'm not sure if the 18-55 or 18-135 kit would be better? About $150 difference. The 18-135 has a faster and pretty much silent autofocus. You can also override the autofocus at any time by moving the focus ring. The downside is that the focus ring isn't mechanically hooked to anything, so it has a sloppy feel to it. I'm really happy with it now that I know how to turn on back button focusing. I can leave the auto focus on, hit the button on the back to focus, make adjustments manually, then take a shot and the shutter button won't try and refocus. All in all, I would say that the 18-135 is a little more jack-of-all-trades than the 18-55, having more zoom and the autofocus override.
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Mar 6, 2013 22:24
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I have a mac mini. Decent little computer, but it is basically laptop hardware with the limitations that come with that. For dealing with photos, you'll want as much memory as you can get. It is really the only substantial upgrade you can get for it. And I just noticed the latest mini doesn't even have a built in optical drive. But it has all the newest options for connecting external storage, and you'll want some sort of external storage for backups.
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Apr 12, 2013 22:34
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Arcsech posted:I'm getting an old Canon DSLR from a friend for free as my first non-P&S camera since I mentioned I was thinking about getting one and he offered since he hadn't used it in years. I learned on my sister's old XTi/400D which is pretty similar. Looks like they take the same batteries, and I was able to pick up a third party one for her's for like $20. It will do most of the stuff a newer DSLR does, so you can definitely learn and have fun with it. Besides taking my sister's old XTi out for taking regular photos, it was also fun doing long exposure stuff, and I could drive it with a laptop to make shots for time lapse videos.
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Jan 11, 2014 07:34
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I'd imagine hockey would be a hard one to get decent exposure, given all the lighting of an indoor sport combined with the white playing field that you don't really have in other sports.
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Feb 9, 2014 20:06
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Medieval Medic posted:Really? I had to get mine in red because black was out of stock. Some days I wonder if people see me more as a tourist than an amateur photographer. That isn't really a bad thing. Looking like a serious photographer can be off-putting to some people.
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Jul 9, 2014 19:09
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zgrowler2 posted:...but I think starting out with a fixed focal point lens will help my shots more. Be careful with this idea. Primes have their benefits, but they won't make you generally better, so much as practice with one will make you better at getting photos that look good when done with that lens. Do you have something in mind that you would like to photograph with those 35mm lens you are looking at?
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Jul 14, 2014 03:43
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zgrowler2 posted:Portraits and isolated subjects, mostly. I'll be on a college campus as a grad student for the next two years and there will be plenty of opportunities. I'm also a huge fan of bokeh and would prefer to get a lens that allows for that when the shots are properly composed. Sounds like you have an idea of what you are after, but I ask because of this... Dren posted:The ideal subject size for bokeh w/ the 35 is roughly action figure or coffee cup size. You could get some bokeh with an uncomfortably close portrait of an adult sized head but then you'd have an uncomfortably close portrait of a head. 35mm is really on the wide end of doing portraits. It works if your idea is more "street" type stuff where you are getting a persons whole body in the shot. But if you want a sort of head and shoulders portrait, you'll need to get really close. While a fixed lens will sort of force you to be more creative with the limitations of zooming with your feet, you can only zoom so much with your feet. I'd go with the others who have mentioned sticking with the kit lens at first. You can dial to 35mm and walk around for a week and see if you like the focal length but want more bokeh and general image quality. You may end up preferring 50mm, and the kit lens will let you try out 50mm.
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Jul 14, 2014 19:22
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zgrowler2 posted:Plan B is to get a D3200 on Amazon for $479 new which comes with the old VR kit lens. I'm not inclined towards the higher MP count (and the resulting processing slowdown) or the fancy wifi stuff, but it seems like a more direct analogue to what I've shot with before, it's $60 cheaper than getting a used D5100 with the same lens, and it's a new body (with the 1-yr warranty) that will supposedly hold value better than the D5100. Main drawback I've read relative to the D5100 is that the latter has slightly superior low-light functionality. Plan B sounds like the best deal for you. And even though it has an "old" VR lens, and doesn't have the low light capability of other DSLRs, if you are coming from cell phones and point-n-shoots, an entry level DSLR with a kit lens will be orders of magnitude better and it will take years for you to start feeling limited by what that camera offers. And don't worry about the body holding value. That is the part that wears out and becomes obsolete the fastest. You want to agonize more over lenses, because those are the parts you can keep using for many years as you upgrade the bodies.
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Jul 15, 2014 21:27
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Yah, nothing is upgrade proof, and the D5100 has already been superseded. By the time you reach the limits of what you can do with something like the D3300 (which could possibly never happen) the D5100 will probably be painfully old. And if you never really left the auto modes of the DSLR your borrowed for a short time, you haven't even scratched the surface.
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Jul 15, 2014 23:30
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The touch screen is the big difference. Combined with the flip around screen, it is great for adjusting settings when the camera is on a tripod in some weird to work with angle. Like pointed up for star trail shots. Or if you are backed up against a wall, or in a corner, or close the the ground. Especially if you have a tripod that holds the camera upside down to get really close to the ground. You can twist the screen around and have access to all the settings by touch. It is also very useful for checking out pictures. You can pinch-zoom and drag the photo around, which is much easier than the old zoom button an D-pad type navigation. InFlames235 posted:Thanks everyone for your help so far. I need to go into a store for sure and actually try both of them out. I have larger hands so a t5i might feel way better just based off that alone. I'll try it out and report back Definitely check out the flip screen on the t5i when you play with the 2. It's not a huge deal if you expect to be looking through the viewfinder nearly 100% of the time. But if you plan on putting it on a tripod, the flip around touch screen is brilliant. Another little perk to the flip screen is that you can turn it around and shut it so that the plastic back is facing outward. It is nice for keeping it protected while traveling. It is also nice if you are using it in a situation where you are going to be getting sweaty or dirty. You won't get the screen all grimy when you put it up to your face or dirt from your shirt or what ever. Swing it open to check out your shots on a nice clean screen, then close it back up to make sure it stays clean. Beowulfs_Ghost fucked around with this message at 19:57 on Aug 8, 2014 |
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Aug 8, 2014 19:47
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timrenzi574 posted:tap to focus and shoot is also freaking awesome, even if it is slow as molasses on not-70D. I keep turning off the tap-to-shoot, but it randomly turns itself back on. I don't tap to focus as much as I use the tap to zoom to check the focus. But every once in a while I go to tap the screen on where I want to zoom and the shutter goes off. Really annoying when I'm set up for long exposures and I'm left twiddling my thumbs for several seconds seconds. But I have a remote for the shutter, so I'm usually poking the screen with one hand to adjust the settings and have the remote in the other hand for the shutter.
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Aug 8, 2014 20:09
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timrenzi574 posted:It has a touch sensitive "on/off" button in the bottom left hand corner, you're probably bumping it by mistake? That is one of the silliest things about the M - when it's on a neckstrap, sleeping, your belly hitting the screen wakes it up, then turns on the touch shutter, then starts taking pictures. Probably. It is in that far corner of the screen that is right on the edge of the camera. I even went into the menu system and disabled touch-shutter there, but it can just be reactivated from the liveview screen. Disabling it in the menu should make that touch button go away or be replaced by something else.
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Aug 8, 2014 22:58
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EL BROMANCE posted:...a proper flash that's used correctly so it doesn't just illuminate everything in sight... If you are using the built-in flash, try going into the menus and setting the flash exposure compensation down a stop.
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Aug 26, 2014 18:56
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Eugene Oregon posted:I got this book a long time ago when I had my D50. I get the gist of exposure, on a very bad level. I guess my question was more understanding the various controls of my new camera. So is this more that you know what you want to do but just don't know where the controls are, or are totally new and have no clue what it all does? But in general, take lots of pictures. Like just sit on the couch, and take pictures of the same thing over and over but change up the settings to see what the actual results are. Oh, and turn on "back button focus" Look up "Custom Functions" in your manual. What you'll look for is "Shutter/AE lock button", and you'll want to set that to "AE lock/AF". What that does is it takes the auto focus operation off your shutter button and puts it onto a button on the back of your camera. Should be the second button in on the top right, with a * above it. Half pressing the shutter will no longer engage the autofocus (except in the auto modes, but you shouldn't be using those much any way)
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Nov 2, 2014 06:42
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smooth.operator posted:Why is this better? For a lot of reasons. But mostly because a dSLR is a camera where you are supposed to have discrete control over everything, but the default is to cram 3 functions (focus, exposure, shutter) into one button for convenience. As others have mentioned, moving the focus off the shutter is better because you'll often run into situations where you do not what to activate the auto focus every time you want to take a shot. This can be especially frustrating because the default is also to turn on all the focus points and let the camera guess at which one to focus on. And long term, it isn't bad to get into the habit of thinking of focusing as its own step, and not as something that happens automatically a split second before you release the shutter. Elliotw2 posted:It's useful sometimes, but really not something you should worry about while you're still learning how to camera. I personally found the back button focus to be really helpful starting out, because it meant I could leave the focus as a constant when playing with the other settings. But then again, I wasn't a complete SLR newbie when I got my first dSLR. Eugene Oregon posted:I have no idea what any of this mean. Well, what do you understand? You said you have the basic idea of exposure. Are you just hung up on how to actually set your aperture, shutter speed, and ISO?
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Nov 2, 2014 19:16
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Kenshin posted:I can see why that would be useful for landscapes and pictures of inanimate stuff but if you're shooting moving subjects like wildlife or sports there are very few times you'd ever want to be using that setting. I just switch to AI Servo and then hold the back button down.
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Nov 2, 2014 20:30
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Eugene Oregon posted:Nope. Honestly, if you have a grasp of exposure, then the fiddly things like how to set one-shot vs servo focus are the things you should be playing with. Assuming that your knowledge of exposure means you are already using the manual modes. If you are still using the green square mode, then move the dial to P, Av, Tv, and M, and start playing with those.
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Nov 3, 2014 05:19
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Eugene Oregon posted:Ah. My T5i appears to not have that button. Look at the top of the camera. On the right side, by the "OFF" marker, there will be a * (asterisk). The button on the back below the * can be set to be the button that activates the auto-focus on your camera, instead of half pressing the shutter. This only applies in the manual modes. If you want to hand the camera to a friend, switch it to auto and the focus goes back to half pressing the shutter. I'm a big fan of it. Some people like it, and some people don't. It falls under one of those "how should I use my camera" things. Like exposure settings, single shot vs continuous, setting focus points, and so on. Set it, and take a bunch of pictures, see if you like it. Then do that with the other settings. Try using just the center focus point (tends to be the most accurate). Try setting it to continuous shooting. Try the different exposure modes, like center weighted or spot. See what they do, and get an idea of when you should use them, or when they will trip you up. Take thousands of photos of your cat or your computer desk while playing with all the settings. You'll get an idea of what you like to use and how to set it without having to dig out the manual later. People here aren't saying "take lots of photos" to be flippant. You only get experience with these different settings by playing with them a lot.
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Nov 4, 2014 07:09
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astr0man posted:I want to buy my first DSLR. Is there any reason to not consider the SL1 if the size isn't an issue (I have small hands)? I played around with an SL1 and a T5i at bestbuy today and both of them seemed pretty comfortable to handle. I bought an SL1 recently to have as a backup since it is so cheap right now. It does everything the T5i does, minus the flip-out LCD. With the shorty forty on it, it can fit into a coat pocket. I actually bought one of the white ones with the idea that, being white and small enough to pocket, I could take it places where people normally flip out if you pull out a serious business looking DSLR.
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Mar 8, 2015 05:19
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blowfish posted:And try out if the SL1 is uncomfortably small for your hands. Having a camera that's comfortable to hold is incredibly important. Definitely this. The SL1 is a very tiny SLR. I love mine, but I can see how people with bigger hands might have trouble using it.
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Aug 26, 2015 06:12
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Cholmondeley posted:This is great, you all have inspired me to push myself a little bit, and my gut instinct to buy the better camera was a sound one. You would have been very disappointed by the user friendliness of the T5i over the 7D. Less options isn't all that friendly given that you can juse ignore the more complicated options on the 7D till you understand them. Both cameras do an equal amount of automating if set to auto. The flip out touch screen is pretty nice, but if you find you enjoy photography, and think the flip out screen would help, you can just buy the T5i as a second camera.
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Feb 21, 2016 19:49
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The flip out screen is realy nice, but hardly a must have unless really low angle is your thing. Also, at those odd angles, the touch controls become more.useful because reaching the buttons is awkward. But for just walking around, I never use the touch screen. Depending on how much the 7D could be sold for, it would be worth it if it was for the T5i _and_ a tripod, an interesting lens, a copy of Lightroom, etc. But you kind of have to know what you want before knowing if it was worth downgrading the body.
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Feb 22, 2016 21:20
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Canon had an 18-135mm kit lens they sold with the t4i and t5i. You could try shopping around for left over or refurbished kits with that lens if she wants a longer lens than the usual 18-55mm. Another similar camera to those is the SL1. Functionally the same as the ones mentioned above, but in a more compact body. Some of the buttons have been moved around, but it might fit the hands of a teenage girl better.
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Aug 1, 2016 09:10
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ButtWolf posted:Sweet thanks. I plan on learning and actually developing skill before I even invest in another lens or anything really, in case I want to switch to a body with different mount style. If you think a completely different camera is in your future, invest in a tripod. Everyone uses the same mount for that.
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Aug 11, 2016 23:20
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ButtWolf posted:Yeah I'm gonna buy one this weekend. For some reason I figured theyd all be like $125. Honestly, that is about the price a decent tripod will start at. You don't want to perch your $450 worth of camera on a cheap tripod. If you are on a budget, try a tabletop tripod. Even a tabletop tripod let's you try out long exposures and time lapse.
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Aug 12, 2016 04:51
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Bloody Hedgehog posted:...and eye sensor that turns off the main LCD when you look through the viewfinder... I checked because the Rebel line has has that feature for a while, and sure enough, the T6i doesn't have that little sensor above the viewfinder. Of all the features to cut, that is a strange one.
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Aug 26, 2016 06:02
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