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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

New DSLR?

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redman

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Hey, I am going on vacation soon and wanted to take a step up from my current el cheapo camera and get a nice slr. I have a about $1000 for the body and wanted to know your opinions on the best camera for the price range. And by the way, is the sigma sd14 any good? I hear that because it uses a foveon sensor it captures true color and has great latitude. The only thing is I would need sigma glass and I would rather purchase nikon or canon glass that I could use with new cameras in the future. But, if the sigma is really worth it, I'd certainly get it.
Thanks for reading this and hopefully responding
 
Do you currently have lenses you hope to use?

For the price you mentioned, you would probably need a crop-sensor camera, like the Rebel XTi or 40D, and the lenses are different for those, because of the 1.6 crop factor. With Canon, they are EF-S lenses.

I have the Canon EF-S 10-22mm lens, which cost about the same as my XT body. So you definitely need to consider lenses.
 
I've never seen a Stouffer shot with a SD14 so have no idea on it's lattitude. As for the Foveon advantage - the camera raw processing path requires heavy chroma noise reduction, so you're still interpolating on colour, just like with Bayer.... :-) And lack of OLPF makes it prone to aliasing.

Graeme
 
I also think you should consider glass you're interested in and let that guide you - canon or nikon mount? - D300 is nice - Canon's offerings are also very nice - I'm a Canon guy - brother and dad use nikons.
 
if it's stricly 1k, and you want red compatibility as far as a mount and lenses, then the canon's new xsi or nikon's equivalent. the xsi has 40d technology, don't know the details, but i just bought the 40d with 24-70L and 70-200L. no complaints here.
 
I've got a Canon 5D which is a little pricier and once I got a chance to try the 40D wish I'd gotten that instead. The 40D is quality and res for $1000 and then add an good general use zoom (f/4 24-105 L which with the 1.6 crop factor makes it like a 40-170mm) for another $1000 and you're rocking.

My buddy who is the photographer at the Fox Theater here in St. Louis for the past 20 years shoots every artist who comes through town on the 40D and he shows me them printed out at 16" x 20" and they look great.
 
I think you should go look at http://www.dpreview.com for help with this, since you can get answers from people who are more about photography than videography. Check out the discussion forums for the Sigma and see if you like the pictures, then look at some of the Canon and Nikon stuff. Personally, I think the Sigma Foveon chip has some good qualities and I've often thought about the Sigma as a possible replacement for my Canon 10D when it gives up (soon). The only problem with getting the Sigma is that I've already invested too heavily in Canon mounted glass to put it all back into Sigma glass. Well, that and I'm not 100% happy with the small image buffer and pseudo-slow processing in the Sigma. If they could get the Sigma electronics up to speed with the competition then I think they'd have a really solid contender.

Hmm, given the recent price drop in the Sigma it is a tempting purchase. I also do really like the pictures it produces... noisy at times because of mediocre sensor sensitivity, especially in the reds, but in my eyes it takes a more pleasing picture than the Bayer captures. I liked these pictures and this picture, and these lizard shots are pretty good too. They're all from the Sigma SD14. The price drop makes me wonder if Sigma isn't getting ready to release an SD15 sometime later this year. It would be about the right time for it if Moore's law is being applied to the cameras.
 
1000 only gonna be tough. My son messed around with XTI actually got some
nice blowups out of it($3 at Costco). Found a photo guy who was upgrading got his 20d for $550(with 4000 activations) and a Tokina 12-24wideangle for $540(Fred Miranda site liked it). Rent the big lense when you need it for $50 and
you're in at a resonable price.
 
pick yourself up a Nikon D40 or D40x (they're going for about $500 body only) and either the Nikon 18-135mm or 18-200mm VR lens. The 18-200mm is a bit heavy for the D40/x body, but it's just about the only lens you'll need for travel (equivalent to 28-300mm in old 35mm film camera terms!).

And if you get a Sigma 30mm f/1.4 to go with it, you'll be even happier. Very light, very versatile little travel setup.
 
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