Advice/Questions on buying Cameras & Accessories. **Please read OP first**

MiCr0

i got a 550d from simplyelectronics recently - 665euro delivered, they were amazingly slow getting it shipped and there's loads of similar stories online

woody_2000

MiCr0 wrote: »

i got a 550d from simplyelectronics recently - 665euro delivered, they were amazingly slow getting it shipped and there's loads of similar stories online

I purchased my Canon S90 from Simply Electronics last July for a good price. I found their customer service to be ok, and they appear to respond to queries within a reasonable time frame. My experience, and this may be applicable to most orders with them, is that they charge your credit card straight away (I used Google Checkout) and then take about a week before your order is showing as being shipped from the UK. I have seen online where they may be based in Hong Kong (but I don't know this for sure), so they may be compiling orders in Asia somewhere - and then shipping in a consolidated/bulk manner to the UK for final distribution by courier service to their final destination. This is just a wild guess on my part, and I don't know this for sure. Simply Electronics offer their own 12 month warranty, and the literature supplied with the camera appears to suggest that it may be an Asian model. They claim a 28 day turnaround time for warranty matters. I received the item in good/new condition, and in its original sealed box/packaging. I have had no problem whatsoever with the product, and hopefully I won't -- touch wood

The upshot of all this is, I imagine, and I have only ordered from them once, is that they may charge your credit card straight away - and then take maybe a week, or so, before your order is showing as being shipped from the UK. So, if ordering from them, maybe expect your credit card to be charged straight away - and then allow up to two weeks, or so, to receive your order. I have no experience of their warranty coverage, so I can't comment on that. If there is a problem beyond these parameters with the initial order, and it doesn't get resolved in a proper manner, then maybe taking up a case with your credit card issuer might be the next step -- orders paid for by credit card should be relatively safe from loss anyway. Orders can go wrong with other online vendors anyway, and I've experienced worse delivery problems with both Amazon and Pixmania, and others, at one stage or another...

Ultimately, it's a personal judgement call as to whether order from them - especially considering it's mail order, and not exactly like ordering from Amazon or such, and if their prices are worth taking the plunge for... This is just to add my own personal experience, and perspective, on what I've experienced with Simply Electronics - as I've seen fairly negative comments being raised about them. Once certain things are understood and assumed, and one is willing to accept/tolerate the potential implications of ordering with them, then it may work out ok. I was willing to give them a try considering the savings involved, and, so far, it's been quite satisfactory - and I have no real complaints... If their customer service was not good before ordering from them, then I may not have ordered from them...

I do not recommend or endorse ordering from Simply Electronics, and am just offering my own personal perspective and experience -- FWIW

Rathkenny

I have an Argos voucher & want to buy a new lens as I currently only have the standard 18-55mm lens that came with my 500D. My choice is between the EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS lens or the 75-300mm lens. I'm leaning towards the 55-250mm due to the Image Stabilisation functionality.

I'm a beginner with an interest in landscape & portrait photography.

Any thoughts on which lens I should go for?

magicbastarder

landscape photography is typically a wideangle pursuit, so neither of those lenses would be ideal; both landscape and portraiture would generally be covered by the focal length range on the lens you have. would you have any need for the extra reach either of those lenses would grant?

it's a cliche around here, but if you're a beginner, if argos offer a standard prime, you might find it more useful.

Thecageyone

That's the problem with Argos, they never have anything outisde the plain kit lenses, surprised they even have an IS lens. In this case, that's what i would go for, the extra reach isn't so great without it.

Nforce

Get the Canon 50mm f1.8 nifty fifty

larry duff

Hi guys im looking in to taking a few photos im the new year for a business idea, il be taking photos of scenery (postcard stuff) anyways im considering buying a camera for that end.

I’m looking for a moderately priced camera suitable to the job possibly with some simple photoshop software, would anyone have any recommendations?

Also would the following be an issue for me in the purchase of a camera
SLR or not?
wide angle lense etc?
Large optical zoom?

Is there anything else I should be aware of?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!!!

green909

Hi all,

So I have a bit of santa money and would love to buy a DSLR. Now, I am a photography novice but I would like a camera that would last me for a few years before I'd have to upgrade.

Budget around 650 euro - hopefully some cameras might be reduced in sales maybe?!

Thanks all

magicbastarder

your best bet is simply to go in and handle a few and see which you like. the entry level canons seem more plasticky in the hand to me than the entry level nikons, but there's not a huge amount to choose between them.

pixbyjohn

Look at these links
http://www.berminghamcameras.ie/store/index.php
http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/5594827/Trail/searchtext%3EDSLR.htm
http://www.adverts.ie/for-sale/photography/196

Thinking for the long term> whatever brand of camera you start out with usually determines that you stay with that brand as you build up your camera/lens collection.
The most popular brands are Canon and Nikon, remember a Canon lens will not fit a Nikon camera and vice versa.
The choices are endless , best of luck.

Abelloid

Canons and Nikons are very popular but I went for a Pentax K-X, it was a great deal and left me with enough change to buy SD cards, bag and tripod etc. Unusually, it runs on standard AA batteries which might put some off but with Sanyo Eneloops it just seems to go forever.
It wasn't advertised but it came with a set of four Eneloops and a charger too, and was only €419 in Argos, where I wasn't expecting to find a bargain.
Lenses might be harder to find but I'm OK with that to start out with, I'm still getting to grips with it TBH, and I'm very happy with it so far.

Top of my list was a Canon 500D, but it was the price difference of around €120 that swayed me towards the Pentax.

Thecageyone

If i was just starting out and had €650, I'd hit the used sites like adverts.ie [link top of this very page] and hunt down a used D90.

In fact, that's what I did do recently, after selling my old D200.

the_manchine

I've been putting the shekels away for a while now with a view to replacing my old 75-300 (Canon) with a 70-200 f2.8 - ideally with all the bells and whistles.

Most of the shots I take these days are of the kids (and things associated with them!) so they tend to either be Indoors with poor lighting
Outdoors with fast moving subjects (kids are pretty quick!)

I had hoped that some better glass would give me better performance in these areas.
I've been reading online recently though and the 7D (from my current 400D) is getting great reviews for both it's autofocus and low light performance.

I'd always planned on getting the lens, but now I'm not so sure. Any thoughts?

As a bonus question:
New Sigma APO 70-200 F2.8 EX DG OS HSM
or
Second hand Canon 70-200 F2.8 IS USM

loike

ok i want my first camera and was thinking the Nikon d3000 causes its been recommended to me
argos have it for 419 but no shop in the country have it in stock
where else could i get it for that price

CornsnakeKeeper

Been thinking bout a Tripod for my camera
I doubt it'd be of much use to me but i'm not sure, whats the benefits/cons of one???
I have a Fujifilm F80 EXR and i'm not sure if i should get one. can anyone advise?

CornsnakeKeeper

woops doubleposted

pixbyjohn

CornsnakeKeeper wrote: »

Been thinking bout a Tripod for my camera
I doubt it'd be of much use to me but i'm not sure, whats the benefits/cons of one???
I have a Fujifilm F80 EXR and i'm not sure if i should get one. can anyone advise?

Benefits of a tripod are,
When taking long exposures, night and low light photography.
They are always handy to have and can be used for selftimer shots when you want to be in the photo too.

MisterMagoo

I'm looking for a digital compact that can store in raw file format. The only problem is that I only have a budget of approx €200. I can't find a compact that can do raw and the DSLRs are all over €300. Any advice?

My wife makes themed birthday cakes and I need a decent camera to take photos of the cakes for her portfolio and website. I have a light tent and lights and tripod so just need a decent compact or DLSR. I have been using borrowed DSLR up to now.

Maybe I should stick with JPEG? But I know that the compression with a jpg reduces the image each time it is edited in Photoshop or other software whereas the RAW will be unaffected.

Any help would be appreciated.

Abelloid

loike wrote: »

ok i want my first camera and was thinking the Nikon d3000 causes its been recommended to me
argos have it for 419 but no shop in the country have it in stock
where else could i get it for that price

Have a look at the Pentax K-X, same price. I chose it over the Nikon and Canon 500D as my first DSLR, and I'm very happy with it.

gbee

CornsnakeKeeper wrote: »

Been thinking bout a Tripod for my camera

Two problems, you need a need a good sturdy heavy one for about €600 and a good heavy head for about the same money for a tripod to be any real use and value.

Then, after such and outlay you leave it at home or in the car and don't use it because it too heavy.

A compromise is a bean bag or two, a 'gorilla pod' or a mono pod, some can act as walking sticks too.

BrendanRyan

gbee wrote: »

Two problems, you need a need a good sturdy heavy one for about €600 and a good heavy head for about the same money for a tripod to be any real use and value.

Then, after such and outlay you leave it at home or in the car and don't use it because it too heavy.

A compromise is a bean bag or two, a 'gorilla pod' or a mono pod, some can act as walking sticks too.

so thats like 1200 bucks on a tri-pod!! your having a mclaugh.

you probably don't really need a tri-pod, i mainly use mine for long exposures, night photography and landscape if I want to study the composition and be very precise with it. They're a hindrance doing studio stuff when you need to be a bit more quick on your feet. I use

Manfrotto 005XPROB legs
Manfrotto 804RC2 head

and they do me fine, actually it was a great purchase for about 300 quid.

biggemick

Hi guys, I'm considering buying a Finepix S1800, Argos are doing a good price on it and would like some advice before I buy, I take a lot of pics generally, 5mp camera phone but now want to step up, used SLR's years ago and loved them. Things I would like to know, is it a good camera for both indoors and outdoors and night photos and can you fit filters on it, I fish a lot and want to be able to fit a polarising filter etc, or do any companys make an adapter for filters, I used filters a lot in my SLR days. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Mick

condra

Hey all

I have a question, and hopefully it can sort of complement biggemicks question above!

I'm looking at second hand cameras at the moment. My budget is 80-130.
(I realize this is not much, but I'm just getting started, and I'm broke)

Can anyone explain how I might use the number codes on Fuji Finepix cameras to better understand their quality?

For example, there is the Fujifilm s7000, and the s9500. The s9500 seems to be a predecessor to the s7000. But there is an s1500 which seems rather modern, but I suspect it has less professional features than the s7000 or s9500, despite being newer, with a higher MP. Then there is the s5600 too.

So am I right to assume the first two numbers in the "s" series are to do with the "level" of the camera (prosumer, size of sensor, bells+whistles etc), and the second two numbers are to do with the version? - In other words, that an s7000 might be preferable to an s1500, despite being older and having less MP.

confused.
thanks!

Heebie

The S7000 is a pretty early bridge camera. (the S6900z being the only one I remember earlier in the Fuji line.) I was selling Fuji, Pentax, Canon and Samsung cameras at the time, and it was still mostly film cameras we sold. I ended up buying and S7000 when it came out, as it had some nice features over the S6900. It's major DISadvantage is that it uses AA batteries. It will run on rechargeables, but it eats batteries pretty quickly.
It is, however, a really excellent camera for learning the basics, as you can take full manual control of the aperture, shutter, and focus. (the focus is a bit weird, as it's "by wire".. where you move the focusing ring and it takes several milliseconds to respond.)
It's macro and super macro modes are absolutely phenomenal. (being able to focus on an object 2.5cm from the end of the lens kicks some serious ass.)
My chief reason for buying the S7000 was that it was the cheapest camera on the market at the time that would shoot in RAW mode. (It was about $1,000-$1,1000 USD at the time.) Another important reason was a hot-shoe for a flash, and it's amazing ability to sync with a flash at all of it's shutter speeds, and having shutter speeds down to 1/4,000th of a second or more. (I want to say it could do 1/10,000th.. but I don't have one anymore to check it on.)

The S9500 is actually a newer model, and I believe it's very similar (It came out after I stopped selling cameras) but has a longer focal length, and it might have more stops to the aperture control as well.

The S7000 is from the era of the "Super CCD" which is an excellent image sensor. The S9500 is from the era of the "Super CCD HR" and the "Super CCD SR" I'm not sure if it uses the HR or the SR. The HR gives a higher overall pixel count per surface area, and the SR gives an almost HDR image right off the sensor. (It has 2 ranges of sensors, one geared more towards accurate color reproduction, and the other geared towards more accurate luminance reproduction, interlaced between each other.)
The Fuji Super CCD lines are excellent image sensors, no question.

The S7000 was a 6MP camera, but by some (loose) standards it would be rated a 12 MP camera, as it had a 12MP JPG mode where it interpolated a lot of data. I'm not sure of the MP rating of the S9500, but I'd imagine higher than the S7000.

I've never heard of the S1500, but I would guess that it's a newer model. If it's a bridge camera, I would doubt that Fuji has gotten rid of any functionality. If it's not a bridge camera, however, you would probably be losing a lot of manual functionality over either of the other two.

Other potential downsides to the S7000: It does ISO's from 200-400 in RAW mode. You have to switch into 3MP JPG mode to get ISO 800 to work. The 12MP mode also requires switching to JPG mode, but still only does 200-400 ISO.
The number of steps to the aperture is pretty measley. f2.8-8.
You need a barrel adapter in order to fit filters onto it, and 55mm isn't the most popular size in the world.

Other potential pluses for the S7000 and S9500: You have the ability to get a barrel adapter in order to fit filters onto it, and 55mm filters CAN be had, but you'll probably have to order them.
The Super CCD sensor line are excellent for getting Near-IR filters (R80?) and doing some funky IR B&W stuff. (You end up converting to B&W, because you only get red data from the image sensor, and exposure times are LONG LONG LONG")
The S7000 (not sure about the 9500) can take a standard cable-release for using it on a tripod, and it can do exposures up to 30 seconds. (I believe it says it has "bulb mode" but if I recall correctly the bulb mode will only run as long as 30 seconds.)
It can take xD media, or compact flash, and you can keep both in the camera at the same time.
It can take IBM/Hitachi microdrives (hard drives in a compact-flash type 3 case) although using a microdrive burns through battery insanely fast... you can get a reasonable storage capacity... although CF has far outstripped the size of Microdrives at this point, the Microdrives are not prone to erasure by SED. (static-electric discharge)

Hopefully this gives you some points for comparison between the ones you're looking at.

I believe Stetyrell has an S7000, or at least has worked with one fairly recently. (He moved on to a dSLR not long after getting it.) He might have some feedback on it that is less foggy than my feedback on it. I had one for years, and took some fantastic photos with it.

condra wrote: »

Hey all

I have a question, and hopefully it can sort of complement biggemicks question above!

I'm looking at second hand cameras at the moment. My budget is 80-130.
(I realize this is not much, but I'm just getting started, and I'm broke)

Can anyone explain how I might use the number codes on Fuji Finepix cameras to better understand their quality?

For example, there is the Fujifilm s7000, and the s9500. The s9500 seems to be a predecessor to the s7000. But there is an s1500 which seems rather modern, but I suspect it has less professional features than the s7000 or s9500, despite being newer, with a higher MP. Then there is the s5600 too.

So am I right to assume the first two numbers in the "s" series are to do with the "level" of the camera (prosumer, size of sensor, bells+whistles etc), and the second two numbers are to do with the version? - In other words, that an s7000 might be preferable to an s1500, despite being older and having less MP.

confused.
thanks!

Squidgy Black

Hey Condra,

I have an S7000 as Heebie said, and it's a great camera for starting off with, and learning the essentials.

The Macro on it is absolutely amazing, I got some really nice shots from it.

The only downfall is that if you're used to holding an slr, the s7000 might feel a bit wierd in your hands.

It's great at lower iso's, in the daylight, but it really falls short in low lighting settings, there's a lot of noise, but it's expected from a bridge camera.

It really flies through batterys, you'd be lucky to get an hour from 4 AA batterys, so stock up on rechargeable ones.

In regards to the CF cards, I think it only supports cards up to 1-2 Gb.

If you can find a used S7000 for under 100 euro, go for it, but it might be a bit hard. It really helped me learn the fundamentals of photography, and find my passion for it. I've sinced passed it on to a family member, and I get to use it ocassionaly.

Bacchus

Anyone know where to purchase a new nikon sb-800 flash. Amazon have em second hand but AFAIK the price difference between new and second hand is very little so I'd rather buy new.

Casey78

Hi all
I have a Sony A500 and want to upgrade from my 18-55 kit lens.
I was hoping to also get a Macro lens.
I wondered would getting a dedicated Macro lens be better than going for a Zoom lens with Macro built in?
I'm not really looking for a very long range zoom so I was considering something like this which has the MACRO built in.

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/5021173/art/sigma/17-70mm-f-2-8-4-dc-macro.html

Has anyone any advice or suggestions on what is available?
Thanks

joepenguin

I have the sigma 18-50 2.8 for a canon and its grand for macro.
Not a 1:1 dedicated macro lens by any means but has ok close up abilities and its a nice addition if you need an upgrade(i needed the 2.8), kinda fancy a macro but cant afford the two. Depends on your priorities really.

Casey78

Thanks Joe.

I was wondering if I did get a lens with built in Macro instead of a dedicated Macro,would extension tubes give a more 1:1 Macro.
It would be cheaper than buying two separate lenses

pixbyjohn

Bacchus wrote: »

Anyone know where to purchase a new nikon sb-800 flash. Amazon have em second hand but AFAIK the price difference between new and second hand is very little so I'd rather buy new.

I think they discontinued the 800 after the SB900 was introduced, I could be wrong.