Digital SLR Camera recommendations?
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- vaxorcist0
Camera is less important than technique, tripod and light.... but I can also say that $500 is a tight budget... you may have to get last years model,etc.... Also, if you can wait a month, new cameras are often released in September, stores clear out stocks...
Camera...
I'd consider a Nikon D5000, as they're on sale now and have a good score on DXOmark, a sensor-ranking system that ranks things like color range rather than pure megapixels.... Note that the Nikon 50mm 1.8 lens will not Autofocus on the Nikon D5000, but the 35mm 1.8 will.... and the Nikon 18-55 kit lens is pretty good, probably better than most of it's competitors from Canon,etc...
http://www.dxomark.com/index.php…
Sony A380 ranks well and is also not too pricey, and you can use old minolta 50mm lenses sold cheaply used or on ebay, as Sony DSLR's use either Sony or Minolta AF lenses...
An Older Canon 30D may work well for you too... I have one and love it.... not so many megapixels, but megapixels are the least important thing to me when it comes to artwork, as color depth and range matters most to me.... I also have an OLD Nikon 50D, and it's pretty good with prime lenses... a 24mm F2.8 and a 50mm F1.8....
non-zoom lenses usually have much less distortion than zooms, many 18-55 zooms have barrell distortion at the wide end and pincushion distortion at the zoomed end, usually not an issue for people pix, but you may notice if you shoot framed artwork on a wall...
Good luck...
NOTE: I'd consider borrowing a few of your friends to get used to them.. if you can use a tripod, and get a non-zoom lens, like the 50mm F1.8 lenses for $100 or so, you will probably get better results than with a hand-held camera using a kit zoom lens....
Many cameras do have grid-lines in the viewfinder as a custom function, this helps you line stuff up, if you have to rotate it later in photoshop, you may lose some sharpness....
I'd also consider using a USB cable and shooting tethered to your computer, so you can immediately see if you're getting a good shot.
A manual flash with a rotatable head, set to 1/4 or 1/2 power, bounced off a wall behind you or a ceiling above you, with a lens at F5.6, ISO 200, shutter at 125th will often give good hand-held results.
http://www.amazon.com/SunPak-383…- best piece of advice i've ever read on QBN!_me_
- that was quite shit-togethery.CyBrain
- thank you so much for your thoughtful and thorough advice!ddavisrisd