Beginner SLR

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zachary80

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I will be travelling to Europe next month (mainly Germany), and am looking for a beginner SLR set up. Right now I am looking at a Canon EOS Rebel T2 body and a Canon Zoom Wide Angle-Telephoto EF 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 USM Autofocus Lens. I haven't read reviews of the body, but it is a bit more expensive than the K2 and offers faster shutter speeds and a better built in flash.

Overall, my budget is around $500 and I am going to be taking mainly nature shots
 
i assume you want to stick with film? when you say beginner SLR, do you mean something to start learning photography with? Or something easy for someone unfamiliar with photography to use?
 
maw said:
i assume you want to stick with film? when you say beginner SLR, do you mean something to start learning photography with? Or something easy for someone unfamiliar with photography to use?
Click to expand...

Yes, I want to get a film camera.

Right now my camera is a Olympus C750z (which I love), and I plan on using it in addition to any film camera I get. I take lots of photos when I travel, but normally I just use my digital as a point and shoot. I know how to use a manual, but I do not have much experience, and do not want to spend a great deal of money; that is what I meant by beginner.

Does anyone know about the Canon Zoom Wide Angle-Telephoto EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM Autofocus Lens ? I am still trying to decide whether I want telephoto and wide angle lenses eventually; I read that they aren't worth the cost until around $300

Apparantly the optical zoom on my digital is equivalent to a 38-380mm

Will a telephoto lense with image stabilization still need a tripod?
 
By nature shots, do you plan on taking pictures of wild animals, or of landscapes?

If you're talking about wild animals, how big are they? If they're small/squirrels, you'll probably want to get a lens that is a good deals longer than 105mm. My 85mm f/1.8 USM (135mm Equiv Field of View on Digital Rebel) isn't long enough for me to be happy with squirrel pictures even when I can sneak up on them. Most of the picture isn't squirrel.

If you're doing landscapes, you might consider wider lenses (35mm or wider). Or perhaps even a good ol' 50mm prime lens (50mm f/1.8 II ~$75 @ B&H - USA Model, International Model)



Here are some member-reviews of these lenses @ FM Reviews:
EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM: http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=206&sort=7&cat=27&page=1
EF 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 USM: http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=6&sort=7&cat=27&page=1



A lens with IS should let you hand-hold it at shutter speeds much slower than the 1/focal length rule. If you can stay reasonable still, then it probably isn't too big of a stretch to do a 1/15 exposure at 85mm. (But the lenses you've listed so far aren't Image Stabalized, and with my own shooting I'd rather get a faster (f/2.8 or faster) lens than a slower IS one)
 
I plan on taking more landscape shots than moving. One thing I noticed is that I tend to use up to about 7x of my digital zoom when taking photos, so maybe I should look into a wide and tele (eventually). Here is a page showing what kind of pictures I take the most. Of course, I wouldnt want to take a big, expensive SLR on a decent length hike or climb ;)

I know I didn't link any IS stabilized lenses; they tended to be about $100 more.

A lense that also can autofocus would be preferred,
 
zachary80 said:
I plan on taking more landscape shots than moving. One thing I noticed is that I tend to use up to about 7x of my digital zoom when taking photos, so maybe I should look into a wide and tele (eventually).
Click to expand...

i'll just thow this suggestion out there: if you want to go really cheap, look for a used Pentax K-1000 on eBay. One of those with a really good wide-angle lens is well under $200 and will do landscapes just fine. They are still great SLRs, even by today's standards.
 
zachary80 said:
Here is a page showing what kind of pictures I take the most.
Click to expand...


What is wrong with the camera that took those pics? There is a couple there worthy of hanging, IMO
 
Spend a bit more on the body (I usually don't recommend this), and get a Canon Elan 7Ne. Huge improvement over the rebel in every area, for a little more money.

Those are some nice pics by the way. Where were they taken?
 
I would prefer a new camera. Does the Elan use the same lenses as the rebel line? Also, I had understood that the body does not make that much of a difference in photo quality.

Thanks for the compliments on the pictures. A couple were taken with an Hp 812: it had issues with crashing, did not have a large enough zoom for me, and shot quality varied greatly. The rest are with the Olympus. None of the images look nearly as good at full resolution. I would like to have more control over my camera, take more consistant pictures, and have the ability to make enlargements.

The pictures with the house and adobe are from Arizona, the three shots with the glacier are in McCarthy Alaska, the beach is on Sanibel Island Florida, the other cool locations are the canadian rockies and lake Maligne (either in Bamf or Jasper)
 
Canon's recent (after ~1980's I think) SLR offerings all support the EF mount. This mount is used on their (recent) film SLR's, and their digital SLR's also -- so whenever you can afford to move to digital you can use the lenses you buy (assuming you stick with canon). So yes, the lenses for the Rebel T2 and Elan 7Ne are all interchangeable (this is one of the big advantages for SLR's over P&S cameras) and can also be used on cameras such as the EOS-10D, EOS-20D, and their other Digital SLR's. (There is a digital-only EF-S lens mount, but that only works with the Digital Rebel and the EOS-20D, and would be a disaster if used on other camera bodies due to mirror clearance issues, and the smaller image circles formed by some of them would leave a lot of dead/un-exposed space on the pictures)


Nice pictures.

I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun once you master an SLR and your glass. I don't think I've used the Rebel T2 before, but I found an old Rebel SLR in a closet at my school, so I put my lens on it and loaded up some B&W ISO400 film. All I can say about that expirence is that the film rebel is tiny compared to the Digital Rebel and it doesn't look as sexy as my silver DR with the same lens, although I was able to get it to take pictures more or less the way I wanted them. I missed the extra bulk, but that's just me. Cheers.
 
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