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[Forsete]

the sony solution not only does not give an exact sensor image, since it uses a secondary sensor, but it adds another mechanical complexity (new mirror, sensor). now the lv mechanism has to be in tolerance with the phase detection system, and blah blah blah, a nightmare. in fact, this is why it's not in the high end sonys.

Its about as accurate as the viewfinder (as I understand it), unless its way out of whack is accurate enough. Its better if the dSLR handles like on instead of a P&S.

not only that, but they still have a long way to go in the still arena, and any time spent not evolving the still portion is time lost. then again, the former qualities are true of canon, and they're still wasting time on this, so i dunno.

Sony is throwing WiFi, GPS, Video into everything they got.. they will have it in their dSLRs even if they start at the low end. Canon paved the way, Sony will answer as it a nice thing for that very important feature list that reviewers and customers look at.
Nikons Sony sensor systems already feature HD video.

Sonys biggest problem with the Alpha system is the optics arsenal, its small compared to Nikon and Canon, but they are getting there with new G-lenses, plus they just extended the deal with Carl Zeiss for another 5 years.

sony currently makes probably a good 40% of the still image sensors used in cameras, and backlit and non-bayer sensors are The Way Forward, so i would hope they're getting ready to start taping these things out.

Its already in one of their upcoming camcorders.

 

[mrkgoo]

Not sure how it works on the 40D but some cameras that featured it behaved oddly when focusing and taking the shot, flip up the mirror for VF, flip it down to AF and again up when taking the shot.

Sony solved that by adding a second CCD sensor which does not need the mirror to be flipped, it behaves like a SLR but with LiveView.

Worthless was a bad choice of words, but not as good as it could be.

What fart said. Autofocus is interesting during liveview (and I'd love to have it), but when using manual focus for the setups I outlined, it was better than the viewfinder (I can't manual focus for crap in the viewfinder).

Not to mention it allowed for a live view feed to your computer screen when tethered.

 

[Forsete]

What fart said. Autofocus is interesting during liveview (and I'd love to have it), but when using manual focus for the setups I outlined, it was better than the viewfinder (I can't manual focus for crap in the viewfinder).

Not to mention it allowed for a live view feed to your computer screen when tethered.

For that its nice, sure.

For focusing with the OVF (non LV cameras) there are focus screens that make it easier. http://focusingscreen.com/

Not something that I have tried though. The viewfinder on my A700 is very bright and big so its much easier there, the A100 is a little darker and smaller but its not that hard either.

You always have that nice little AF-confirm light that blinks when you are in focus.

 

[sneaky77]

This may be the wrong thread for this but I am currently looking for a book on lightroom, any recommendations?

 

[fart]

Its about as accurate as the viewfinder (as I understand it)

1) it's not. i just explained why

2) even if it were, OVFs are woefully inaccurate.

again, the advantage of LV is that it is the most accurate image preview one can engineer (short of chimping), period.

unless its way out of whack is accurate enough. Its better if the dSLR handles like on instead of a P&S.

wrong again. mirrored dslrs have about 5 years of life left in them specifically because the various 80s hacks to make them usable are all too inaccurate.

Sony is throwing ... Video into everything they got..

if sony is smart they'll realize that camcorder-ish video is valuable at the low-end of the still market and high-end DOF controlled video is valuable for their high-end video and cinema users and completely skip the middle. that means 1/3" sensors with fast readouts in and 2/3" up to APS-C backlit non-bayer (either single or 3 chip) sensors with equally fast readouts for pro/semi-pro videocams. they won't bother with these sensors for their APS-C slrs because they would killed their SLR margins, and they will be able to make a shitload more money selling them in their mature video chassis to the hordes of video people who need video handling but also want DOF control. the video people in the previous thread would rather have had a very competent video device with _no rolling shutter_ with appropriate handling for 2x as much than an slr body that had finicky video features and doubled as an excellent landscape photography camera for 1/2 as much.

basically, they'll realize canon is being retarded and spend time carefully designing things rather than trying to shoehorn kitchen sinks into small boxes. then again, this is sony, so who knows, maybe they'll end up throwing us all by integrating the world's greatest OLED electric toothbrush into all their entry-level slrs.

Sonys biggest problem with the Alpha system is the optics arsenal, its small compared to Nikon and Canon,

this is why YOU DON'T WASTE TIME TRYING TO INTEGRATED VIDEO INTO YOUR SLRS. there are more important things for everyone to do.

nikon: fill out your mid-range lens line, decrease time to market for optics

canon: fix your fucking ergonomics, seriously. QC on your pro line needs work

sony: more lenses, and now's the time to dominate the sensor business. canon's move to house CMOS sensors for their compacts should be a HUGE warning sign to sony semi.

everyone else: get out of the slr market. large sensor compacts, you idiots.

Its already in one of their upcoming camcorders.

looks like it's a 1-chip 1/3". cool, but also > 1000$, and i'm still waiting on non-bayer.

 

[Skittleguy]

This beauty arrived today:

I'm gonna have me some fun tomorrow.

 

[Forsete]

1) it's not. i just explained why

2) even if it were, OVFs are woefully inaccurate.

again, the advantage of LV is that it is the most accurate image preview one can engineer (short of chimping), period.

Then they should have something that covers both. One for studio work and one quick Auto Focus for responsive shooting. Right now there seems to be not one good solution to both problems, AF/delay and accuracy. Do you agree?

if sony is smart they'll realize that camcorder-ish video is valuable at the low-end of the still market and high-end DOF controlled video is valuable for their high-end video and cinema users and completely skip the middle. that means 1/3" sensors with fast readouts in and 2/3" up to APS-C backlit non-bayer (either single or 3 chip) sensors with equally fast readouts for pro/semi-pro videocams. they won't bother with these sensors for their APS-C slrs because they would killed their SLR margins, and they will be able to make a shitload more money selling them in their mature video chassis to the hordes of video people who need video handling but also want DOF control. the video people in the previous thread would rather have had a very competent video device with _no rolling shutter_ with appropriate handling for 2x as much than an slr body that had finicky video features and doubled as an excellent landscape photography camera for 1/2 as much.

I agree, not sure if they do though. We'll see in a few months when they will be annoucing the replacement for A700.

 

[BlueTsunami]

My Canon 50mm f/1.4 took a tumble, right onto its face. AF is stuck. I've also now come to learn that manual focusing is fun when your able to go back to AF when you need it. Now its just a pain in my nuts ;_; (especially on my Rebel XT).

 

[Zyzyxxz]

So there's a camera shop going out of business in my area.

Right now they have 25% off all DSLR's.

There is a D40 kit with lense (18-55mm IIRC?) for $375 + 9.25% sales tax. Good deal or should I wait and hope gets cheaper?

 

[Wario64]

So there's a camera shop going out of business in my area.

Right now they have 25% off all DSLR's.

There is a D40 kit with lense (18-55mm IIRC?) for $375 + 9.25% sales tax. Good deal or should I wait and hope gets cheaper?

Wolf/Ritz camera?

 

[Rentahamster]

So there's a camera shop going out of business in my area.

Right now they have 25% off all DSLR's.

There is a D40 kit with lense (18-55mm IIRC?) for $375 + 9.25% sales tax. Good deal or should I wait and hope gets cheaper?

I'd buy it, but that's just because my current D40 is near broken and I need a replacement.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

Getting ready to upgrade my DSLR. I've outgrown my D40, which I love for its size, but I'm going to make the jump to the D90 I think before I make another trip at the end of May.

 

[Zyzyxxz]

Wolf/Ritz camera?

yeah, Ritz it was. Never even knew about them until I heard they were going out of business and I find out there's one in my mall, never knew.

 

[fart]

So there's a camera shop going out of business in my area.

Right now they have 25% off all DSLR's.

There is a D40 kit with lense (18-55mm IIRC?) for $375 + 9.25% sales tax. Good deal or should I wait and hope gets cheaper?

negative. you can get a factory refurb* for 320 shipped from cameta on ebay after live cashback. sales tax only in NY. that's after 14% cashback. cashback just popped up to 14% and it's unclear how long it will last (had been dropping slowly to 8%).

pair that with a refurb 55-200vr from cameta or an 18-55vr and 55-200vr kit (sell the 18-55) for a pretty sweet budget kit.

*nikon factory refurbs are basically new.

Getting ready to upgrade my DSLR. I've outgrown my D40, which I love for its size, but I'm going to make the jump to the D90 I think before I make another trip at the end of May.

i'd say you should consider the d5000 if you don't need a lens motor, but prices probably won't drop before your trip, and you can get a refurb d90 + 18-105 kit for 850 at j&r (live cashback again). i may be interested in buying a used d40, if you care.

 

[ant1532]

herro guyz, can anyone point me out some fish eye cameras that are good yet look cool(vintage/bright color- im no good photographer so i dont mind less qualitity cam that looks better, dont judge me) or some cameras that take pictures are vintage quality like (im sorry if butchering the art of photography with these questions)

 

[fart]

http://aggregate.org/DIT/peepfish/

courtesy google

 

[ant1532]

i meant new ones that look neat like this

http://hypebeast.com/2009/02/lomography-x-colette-diana-f-camera/

 

[fart]

have fun

http://shop.lomography.com/shop/

 

[Zyzyxxz]

negative. you can get a factory refurb* for 320 shipped from cameta on ebay after live cashback. sales tax only in NY. that's after 14% cashback. cashback just popped up to 14% and it's unclear how long it will last (had been dropping slowly to 8%).

pair that with a refurb 55-200vr from cameta or an 18-55vr and 55-200vr kit (sell the 18-55) for a pretty sweet budget kit.

*nikon factory refurbs are basically new.
.

thanks, I went with your recommendation, 14% cashback makes it a killer deal, except it was $340 for the new one with a lense kit, the $320 was for a refurb body only with camera kit.

So now that I got a D40 on the way, is there any recommended beginner's guides I should read to learn how to use it to a good potential?

I wanna be able to pull off some good shots for Anime Expo this July.

 

[Grimlock]

I wanna be able to pull off some good shots for Anime Expo this July.

As someone who tends to drive himself nuts trying to get decent shots at conventions twice a year, may I suggest:

1-A good addon flash with a diffuser and/or bounce card-there isn't remotely enough light in your standard convention hall for crap, much less a decent picture. I try to avoid firing a flash straight-on at the subject because it usually results in hotspots, even if diffused, like what happened in my shot here:

so I try to remember these days to have a bounce card attached to the flash so some light still goes forward towards the subject, with a reduced probability of hotspots.

2-You'll also would want a fast (low aperture number) lens, if possible. While the flash would help mitigate that need, it wouldn't completely substitute for it. The shot above was taken with a Sigma 17-70mm f2.8/4 lens. For this year's pictures, I'll have a Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 (I'll still carry the Siggy for more wide-angled needs) for more speed at the long end, along with a Pentax FA 50mm f1.4 in case the Tamron is still too slow in certain areas. In your case, I'd suggest this lens for its speed and versatility. Or maybe this one that would have a 50mm FOV, instead (when it comes out).

Oh, and try to keep your ISO to no higher than 800. And maybe shoot in RAW. And, if possible, try to practice with your planned equipment loadout at a location with similar lighting conditions before the con starts-it might save you from some unpleasant results when it counts.

 

[fart]

ah, the listing i saw must have disappeared. the one i saw was definitely a lens and body kit, but cameta rejiggers their listings as they go.

ken rockwell's d40 user's guide is a nice manual summary, and although he's a bit of a blowhard in general, i found his d40 guide page to be pretty useful when i started (albeit i shot RAW). thom hogan has a lot of very sage advice, but he charges for his guides.

dunno, there are at least a few people here familiar with the d40. if you have a question, feel free to ask in thread.

 

[Rentahamster]

thanks, I went with your recommendation, 14% cashback makes it a killer deal, except it was $340 for the new one with a lense kit, the $320 was for a refurb body only with camera kit.

So now that I got a D40 on the way, is there any recommended beginner's guides I should read to learn how to use it to a good potential?

I wanna be able to pull off some good shots for Anime Expo this July.

This is the guide fart mentioned: http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d40/users-guide/index.htm

It's actually pretty good. If you're new to this, I guess you can start with JPEG, but you're gonna want to migrate to RAW and use a good RAW converting program like Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Camera RAW (Photoshop CS3 or CS4 is good), or Apple's Aperture program. Don't do it before you're ready, though, or you'll just confuse yourself.

This is a good thread for info on RAW: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=14999338

Anyway, if I was in your situation and I had a budget, this is what I would do to shoot the Anime convention.

I'd get a flash. One that can both tilt and rotate.

Something like the SB-600 would suffice: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002EMY9Y/?tag=neogaf0e-20

If you're low on cash, you could save some money by buying a cheaper item like this: http://www.mpex.com/browse.cfm/4,12311.html

However, it's all manual and would probably be hard to use for a beginner. You're probably better off using a Nikon branded flash that can do TTL flash metering so that you don't have to work so hard.

Now that you have a flash, learn to bounce it off the ceiling when you take pics of people. A simple google search give lots of hits: http://www.google.com/search?q=how+...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

This is also a very very good highly recommended read about how to properly use your flash: http://www.planetneil.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/

If the convention venue has a not-too-high *white* ceiling, then you're golden. If not, you're gonna have to improvise.


In addition, another piece of equipment that will help you is a new lens. Now, the 18-55 kit lens is pretty damn good for a mere kit lens. It works great outside when there's lots of sun and you can shoot at an aperture of f5.6 - f8.0. However, if you gotta shoot indoors where it's relatively dark, a lens that can shoot at a wider (smaller number) aperture is very very useful.

The cheap, good, recommended lens for a camera like the D40 would be the brand new Nikon 35mm f1.8 lens.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001S2PPT0/?tag=neogaf0e-20

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/606792-USA/Nikon_2183_AF_S_Nikkor_35mm_f_1_8G.html

You can get it for a little over 200 bucks. The bad news is that it's new so it's in high demand and low supply. Hopefully if you want one, you could be able to get one by July.

The good thing about a lens with a wide aperture is that it will let more light in, and thus, if you are also using flash, increase the apparent strength of your flash.


How I would go about shooting the convention, assuming I was able to get the items mentioned above:

Indoors -

It's probably gonna be kinda dark. I would have my ISO at 400 and my aperture at 2.8. We are gonna be shooting portraits of all the convention goers in their cosplay outfits. Hold the camera in the vertical orientation and tilt and swivel the flash so that it's pointed up. Press 'right' on the directional pad so that the active AF point goes to the one on the top. You want to be in the autofocus mode where the camera only uses on AF point. Also, single autofocus would be best.

Place that topmost AF point on your subjects eyes, half press the shutter, wait until you get focus lock, then press the shutter. Keep your hands still. Hopefully, you get a nice shot. If it's too dark, increase the ISO (but going above ISO 800 is really ugly), or widen your aperture, or increase the power of your flash. It's a very delicate technique to balance your flash with the ambient light.

Try to find anything and everything to bounce your flash off of to get an interesting character of light onto your subjects.

If you got a window, use that. Place your subject there in the nice light and shoot away - probably won't need flash.


Outdoors -

I'm gonna assume it's a bright sunny day, so you could just stick your camera on full auto mode it and should give you decent results.

Try not to shoot into the sun too much - it's terrible backlight and will give your camera hell.

You could use the sun to your advantage by having it light the back of your subject at a 45 - 90 degree to the side angle, and then using your flash to fill in the shadows on their face. That'll light up their hair really nice.

 

[Zyzyxxz]

Thanks for the tips and read, at this point I'm probably not gonna be able to afford a flash unit at the time or any other lenses so I'm sticking with what I get.

 

[Rentahamster]

Thanks for the tips and read, at this point I'm probably not gonna be able to afford a flash unit at the time or any other lenses so I'm sticking with what I get.

Hmm, well you can still get good portraits with the D40, kit lens and natural light.

Be mindful of light sources. Place your subjects in bright, even light that covers their face.

Be mindful of your backgrounds. Something neutral or solid is best.

Google around for natural light portrait tips.

This one seems pretty good: http://neilwade.wordpress.com/2009/01/18/techniques-4-–-natural-light-for-portraits/


If you want to put in some more work, you could try and build a DIY diffusion panel, scrim, or reflector.

Search google for instructions.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...cial&hs=09U&q=diy+diffusion+panel&btnG=Search

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...en-US:official&hs=09U&q=diy+scrim&btnG=Search

Also search for guides on how to use these tools to diffuse sunlight and make it give a nice light on your subject, like this one: http://www.apogeephoto.com/march2009/adler32009.shtml

EDIT:
This is a pretty decent podcast about shooting in natural light: http://s3.amazonaws.com/7photographyquestions/16_Natural_Light_Portraits_Lane.mp3

Bobbi Lane is a fairly accomplished portrait photographer.

 

[fart]

as an alternative to the flash, i would consider jury rigging some bounce cards and diffusers for your pop-up flash out of stuff from the craft and office supply stores. when you do find the cash, an sb-400 plus a no-name sync cable will be cheaper (sb-600s are starting to climb in price, grumble) and slightly more versatile than the more expensive ttls. with a flash i think the 18-55 is perfectly adequate. however, in future you should heavily consider the 35/1.8 if you end up liking the normal FOV.

the advantage of the fast lens is reduced DOF, which you're not necessarily going to want for this convention stuff. in particular, they're not portraits and short of a really long fast portrait lens (think 200/2), you're not going to keep the background from looking like a bunch of gangly nerds in a convention hall.

 

[MickeyKnox]

Thinking of picking up a Nikon d-slr tomorrow (looking at the D-60) and was wondering if the mount would be compatible with non-digital SLR lenses as I have a couple of decent older F-Mounts (I'm talking Nikkormat era here)

What does GAF say?

 

[Grimlock]

Thinking of picking up a Nikon d-slr tomorrow (looking at the D-60) and was wondering if the mount would be compatible with non-digital SLR lenses as I have a couple of decent older F-Mounts (I'm talking Nikkormat era here)

What does GAF say?

They should mount, but they'll most likely be manual-focus only, as the D-60 (like the D40 & D40-X) lack a built-in focusing motor. Only lenses marked with "AF-S" or "AF-I" would have built-in focusing motors in them, IIRC.

 

[MickeyKnox]

They should mount, but they'll most likely be manual-focus only, as the D-60 (like the D40 & D40-X) lack a built-in focusing motor. Only lenses marked with "AF-S" or "AF-I" would have built-in focusing motors in them, IIRC.

Cool, I always use manual focus so that's fine. Thanks.

 

[fart]

google nikon lens compatibility

 

[Wario64]

For anyone interested, B&H has the Canon EOS 5D Mark II available in stock right now, $2700

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/583953-REG/Canon_2764B003_EOS_5D_Mark_II.html

 

[IJoel]

Canon EOS Rebel T1i vs. Nikon D5000

Still undecided...

It seems that everywhere I read, they're pretty even. I'll likely grab either of them pretty soon (will "try" both before deciding). Any more comments I should consider?

 

[fart]

consider lower tier models if you're a new user. if you're set on those two, trying both is the best answer. the spec sheets may be the same, but the canon and nikon systems have completely different feels.

 

[IJoel]

consider lower tier models if you're a new user. if you're set on those two, trying both is the best answer. the spec sheets may be the same, but the canon and nikon systems have completely different feels.

I own a non-digital Nikon N60, which was my 'entry' level SLR. I'm leaning towards the Nikon model because of my experience with it.

 

[fart]

non-digital d40?

 

[IJoel]

non-digital d40?

Oops... mistype... I meant N60.

 

[fart]

the modern nikon dslrs mostly inherit from the n80. but yah, there are still a few ergonomic similarities. consider the d40/60 (unless you're attached to live view) or canon xs/xsi regardless. also consider the d90. refurbs go for not much more than a new d5000 (which is still at msrp due to being out for ~1 day )

 

[Birbo]

negative. you can get a factory refurb* for 320 shipped from cameta on ebay after live cashback. sales tax only in NY. that's after 14% cashback. cashback just popped up to 14% and it's unclear how long it will last (had been dropping slowly to 8%).

pair that with a refurb 55-200vr from cameta or an 18-55vr and 55-200vr kit (sell the 18-55) for a pretty sweet budget kit.

*nikon factory refurbs are basically new.

Are there any other good places to get a deal on a d40? Saw one here for $275, but it seems too good:

http://www.need4digital.com/product.asp?itemid=NKD401855

 

[Zyzyxxz]

So I got my D40 and I really like it and messing around with the settings has been pretty interesting so far.

So when I'm going on vacation and if I dont have my laptop would it be best to avoid shooting in RAW if space is limited or do the disadvantages of JPEG outweigh the space savings

 

[luoapp]

So I got my D40 and I really like it and messing around with the settings has been pretty interesting so far.

So when I'm going on vacation and if I dont have my laptop would it be best to avoid shooting in RAW if space is limited or do the disadvantages of JPEG outweigh the space savings

Buy two big (8G) memory cards. First, they are cheap. Second, it won't ruin your vacation if one card goes bad. Third, you won't run out of storage even you shoot RAW.

 

[Rentahamster]

So I got my D40 and I really like it and messing around with the settings has been pretty interesting so far.

So when I'm going on vacation and if I dont have my laptop would it be best to avoid shooting in RAW if space is limited or do the disadvantages of JPEG outweigh the space savings

High capacity SD cards are so cheap and D40 RAW files are so small that I don't see why it wouldn't be that hard to shoot all RAW on a vacation unless you're gonna be gone for a really long time.

It would also depend on how proficient you are at developing RAW files. If it confuses the hell out of you, then you may as well stick with JPEG.

 

[captive]

If you can get a 32gig or 16gig shoot in raw and jpeg. Though you need a pretty sizable hard drive to store them on.
That way you can really edit it in RAW if you want or if its fine you already have a jpeg.

 

[Zyzyxxz]

High capacity SD cards are so cheap and D40 RAW files are so small that I don't see why it wouldn't be that hard to shoot all RAW on a vacation unless you're gonna be gone for a really long time.

It would also depend on how proficient you are at developing RAW files. If it confuses the hell out of you, then you may as well stick with JPEG.

I've been learning how to use lightroom, I'm alright with it, sometimes I don't really need to do anything to the photo and it looks fine and I'd rather not spend too much time in lightroom.

 

[Rentahamster]

sometimes I don't really need to do anything to the photo and it looks fine

Really? I find the default settings in Lightroom to be kinda crappy, personally.

I wrote up some advice on processing RAW files via Lightroom here: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=15001545#post15001545

 

[Zyzyxxz]

Really? I find the default settings in Lightroom to be kinda crappy, personally.

I wrote up some advice on processing RAW files via Lightroom here: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=15001545#post15001545

oh good reading material! thanks.

 

[fart]

i think rentahamster mentions it in his thread, but the camera specific profiles in the calibrate module are necessary to get reasonable looking files out of ACR, which, quite frankly, is total shit otherwise.

i also turn the sharpening and chroma noise reduction off by default. sharpening is usually best done right before output, and i'm not a fan of any of the lightroom noise routines.

way late edit (another rant about sharpening): there are two reasons to sharpen

1) to recover absolute resolution at clear edges post-demosaic

2) to create contrast for emphasis. ie, selective relative increases in contrast

the difference kernel that everyone uses to sharpen with (USM) is iso-directional, which is appropriate for 1, but completely inappropriate for 2. for 2 you want both a directional kernel and you want to cue on higher-level features ie color, shapes, etc. which is much smarter than is easily and quickly available in most editors. the problem with doing 1 immediately after demosaic is that you may end up with something inappropriate for final output while increasing the frequency of things you didn't want to ie deeply OOF regions, noise, etc.

bottom line: sharpening is evil

 

[SleazyC]

So I'm looking to pick up a DSLR pretty soon and I am wondering if I could get some opinions from the more seasoned photographers on GAF.

I have pretty much no photography experience but would really like to start off and get into it but I am not sure on what camera to pick up. I have been reading up on the D5000 and the Rebel T1i since they are both pretty new and have also looked at the D40, D60, and D90. I was sorta leaning towards the T1i but almost everyone I know who has a DSLR has a Nikon and absolutely loves their camera.

Would it be not a smart idea for a beginner to pick up a D90? It is a bit on the pricey side but I could see myself ponying up for one if I were to really want to get serious with it. Or would it be a better idea to grab something like a D40, D60 or D5000 and pickup lenses that could work with a future camera (like the D90) that I would eventually buy.

 

[mrkgoo]

So I'm looking to pick up a DSLR pretty soon and I am wondering if I could get some opinions from the more seasoned photographers on GAF.

I have pretty much no photography experience but would really like to start off and get into it but I am not sure on what camera to pick up. I have been reading up on the D5000 and the Rebel T1i since they are both pretty new and have also looked at the D40, D60, and D90. I was sorta leaning towards the T1i but almost everyone I know who has a DSLR has a Nikon and absolutely loves their camera.

Would it be not a smart idea for a beginner to pick up a D90? It is a bit on the pricey side but I could see myself ponying up for one if I were to really want to get serious with it. Or would it be a better idea to grab something like a D40, D60 or D5000 and pickup lenses that could work with a future camera (like the D90) that I would eventually buy.

Go for the one everyone you know has got. It means you can pony up for advice and tips a bit more. If you got a D40 or D60, I don't think you'd got to a D90 - it'd most likely be an upgrade to the successor or next range (DXXX). For anyone starting out, nearly any dSLR is good.

 

[fart]

why do you want an slr?

 

[radios shipping overview]

D90 is the sweet spot right now on the Nikon side, for a non-pro user. It has the best crop-frame image quality in their line and it's not too big, plus it has some key features the bottom of the line lacks. If you're looking to learn, the D90 will likely last you longer than a D40, D60, or D5000.

If you want a LOT of room to grow, bestbuy.com has the D200 for $600. It's bigger and heavier than the D90, and the sensor is a generation old, but its features will take you as far as you will ever want go with DSLR photography (unless you go pro).

To Zyzyxxz, re: con photography - those dealer room lights and the fluorescents in the hallways will put you at about f/2.8 and 1/60 at ISO 400. I would totally recommend the 35mm f/1.8 for the purpose. A wider angle would also be useful (especially a 24mm given the crop frame) but you'd be set with the 35.

 

[Wario64]

Too bad the 35mm F/1.8 is out of stock like everywhere. And if it is in stock, it lasts for maybe 30 minutes. At this point, I might impulse buy if I see it in stock