janage1
Hi im at uni, and this year i want to use photography in my fashion course, mainly setup pictures involving people and buildings. Im looking for something that takes really good quality bright digital images but am clueless as to which canon to go for
if i was to pursue this in the future as a part time trade, does it matter that i stick to digital? and do i need diffrent lenses
thanks
Answer
Wow, this is a really tough question to answer without knowing more about you and your intentions.
Firstly, if you are pursuing this in a part time trade you don't want to spend the money on a Hasselblad or a Mamiya. Those cameras cost tens of thousands of dollars plus the cost of lenses.
You said Canon so here we go.
If you were going full time pro I would say the Canon EOS 1Ds Mark lll which will run you around $8000.00 or so. Oh yeah and you need different lenses for different situations.
The problem you face is that fashion photography requires expensive gear because magazines, agents, and clients require very large image files. That translates to both expensive camera bodies and expensive lenses. You truly do get what you pay for.
It sounds to me, however, that you are a fashion student who just wants to create portraits as portfolio for your fashion pieces.
You don't need the "pro" gear for that at all.
In fact I would recommend getting a used Canon 40D (maybe around $800 - $900 used?) because the 50D just came out. Save money on the body and you can spend more on the lenses. The lenses will be there if you wish to upgrade to a better camera in the future.
I suggest two lenses for fashion photography as a starter.
Get a Canon 50mm 1.4 about $400 or so as it then becomes about an 80mm with the 1.6x factor. Then I recommend the 70-200 2.8 IS for $1100.00 also by Canon. Both of these lenses will allow you to open up the aperture and blur the background which is a must for fashion photography.
The great thing is that these lenses will translate to camera body upgrades should you decide to drop bigger amounts of dough later on.
Wow, this is a really tough question to answer without knowing more about you and your intentions.
Firstly, if you are pursuing this in a part time trade you don't want to spend the money on a Hasselblad or a Mamiya. Those cameras cost tens of thousands of dollars plus the cost of lenses.
You said Canon so here we go.
If you were going full time pro I would say the Canon EOS 1Ds Mark lll which will run you around $8000.00 or so. Oh yeah and you need different lenses for different situations.
The problem you face is that fashion photography requires expensive gear because magazines, agents, and clients require very large image files. That translates to both expensive camera bodies and expensive lenses. You truly do get what you pay for.
It sounds to me, however, that you are a fashion student who just wants to create portraits as portfolio for your fashion pieces.
You don't need the "pro" gear for that at all.
In fact I would recommend getting a used Canon 40D (maybe around $800 - $900 used?) because the 50D just came out. Save money on the body and you can spend more on the lenses. The lenses will be there if you wish to upgrade to a better camera in the future.
I suggest two lenses for fashion photography as a starter.
Get a Canon 50mm 1.4 about $400 or so as it then becomes about an 80mm with the 1.6x factor. Then I recommend the 70-200 2.8 IS for $1100.00 also by Canon. Both of these lenses will allow you to open up the aperture and blur the background which is a must for fashion photography.
The great thing is that these lenses will translate to camera body upgrades should you decide to drop bigger amounts of dough later on.
Should I wait for the Canon 550D?
Seven
Hey guys,
I really need help and fast. :(
I was considering of buying a canon 500d with a 70-200mm f/4 L glass lens and it was JUST under my budget... Now I read about canon announcing a newer model and I'm so confused.
19th feb I will be going on holiday to Dubai, which is a once in a lifetime thing for me. I really wish I could capture many many photos there but the 550d will only be available by the 24th!
I know that lenses are waaay more (and if not, the only) imporant thing and not the body. And that investing in a lens (especially an L lens) is better and bodies come and go...
I really appreciate any help/advice.
Best regards,
Answer
Canon Digital Rebel XSi 12.2 MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0012YA85A?tag=dcmb-20
Review: My journey with DSLRs began back in 2003 with the original Digital Rebel. DSLRs changed my photography for the better like nothing else. Five years and some 25,000 shots later, it's still going strong. Along the way I upgraded to the Canon 30D, which is a fantastic camera as well. When the 40D was announced, I decided to wait until the 50D sometime in 2009, but wanted a newer backup/second body for my photography needs. So when the XSi/450D was announced, it sounded like a perfect fit for my needs.
I got it from Amazon.com three days ago, and have given it a pretty good workout since then, having shot about 650 shots under a variety of shooting conditions and with a number of different Canon and third-party lenses. The following are my impressions.
The build feels very good. The camera feels wonderfully light yet well built. I'm 6ft tall with average size hands, and the camera feels good in my hand. The battery grip, to me, defeats the purpose of having a small, light DSLR, so I opted for a Hakuba/Opteka grip (it's a plate that screws into the tripod socket that enables you to use the excellent Canon E1 hand strap with it) and I couldn't be happier. I'm not a fan of neck straps, so this works well for me (see the uploaded photo for the configuration).
Most of the menu buttons on the back feel different from the ones on the original Digital Rebel and the 30D; the XSi buttons feel more tactile and have a definite "click" to them when you press them. The exception are the Exposure Lock (*) and AF selector buttons, which have retained the deeper, softer feel of the older cameras. Just different, not better or worse, for me.
The LCD is now 3" with 230K pixels. The playback images look great, and probably because of the higher resolution of the sensor, there's a very slight delay when you zoom in to 10x while the image loads and displays properly. People coming from other cameras or brands might not even notice it--I only did so because of the difference between it and my two other Canon DSLRs (which have lower resolution sensors). The viewing angle of the LCD screen (how clearly you can see the screen from side and up and down) is excellent; you can still see the screen holding the camera almost straight up for an overhead shot (more on this later). I'd estimate the viewing angle is about 160-170 degrees both horizontally and vertically.
The Digital Rebel has a separate status screen above the main LCD screen, and the 30D had one on top of the camera, so I wasn't sure if I was going to like the big LCD acting as the status screen and no top screen. I'm happy to say that this arrangement works well, at least for me. The back screen makes it really easy to take all the settings at a glance. The viewfinder is much larger and brighter than that in the Digital Rebel. A humongously welcome feature for me is the always displayed ISO value in the viewfinder.
The camera is only 1/2 of the image quality equation, the other being the lenses being used. Coupled with my favorite lens, the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L telephoto lens, the XSi turns out fantastic images. The supplied kit lens is very light and compact for being an image stabilized lens, and turns out good performance. The IS is certainly very useful.
Two features that used to be missing from the Digital Rebels and found in the more expensive DSLRs are now featured in the XSi: spot-metering and flash exposure compensation (these may have been available in the previous Digital Rebel model, the XTi, as well). The inclusion of those two features make the camera a much more complete and compelling photographic tool. The timer function now has a custom mode, where it'll count down from 10 seconds then take a number of shots (specified by you) in succession. No more running back and forth to reset the timer after each shot! There's also the traditional 2-second timer.
Let's talk for a minute about sensor and the ISO values. XSi/450D has five ISO values you can choose: 100 (best image quality), 200, 400, 800, and 1600. Higher ISO increases the camera sensor's sensitivity to light, thus you can achieve faster shutter speeeds for a given lighting condition. However, the trade-off is that the sensor "noise" (think grain for film photography) increases with higher ISO, so you get a degraded image quality in return for less blurred photos from hand shakes (thanks to faster shutter speed). This may come in handy in situations where flash photography is not permitted, such as a museum or a concert or theater. HOWEVER, compared to point-and-shoot digital cameras, the larger sensors of DSLRs, including the XSi, means that even at ISO 800 and 1600 you get very usable images right out of the camera. Running the images shot at those ISO settings through any number of third-party noise reduction software will i
Canon Digital Rebel XSi 12.2 MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0012YA85A?tag=dcmb-20
Review: My journey with DSLRs began back in 2003 with the original Digital Rebel. DSLRs changed my photography for the better like nothing else. Five years and some 25,000 shots later, it's still going strong. Along the way I upgraded to the Canon 30D, which is a fantastic camera as well. When the 40D was announced, I decided to wait until the 50D sometime in 2009, but wanted a newer backup/second body for my photography needs. So when the XSi/450D was announced, it sounded like a perfect fit for my needs.
I got it from Amazon.com three days ago, and have given it a pretty good workout since then, having shot about 650 shots under a variety of shooting conditions and with a number of different Canon and third-party lenses. The following are my impressions.
The build feels very good. The camera feels wonderfully light yet well built. I'm 6ft tall with average size hands, and the camera feels good in my hand. The battery grip, to me, defeats the purpose of having a small, light DSLR, so I opted for a Hakuba/Opteka grip (it's a plate that screws into the tripod socket that enables you to use the excellent Canon E1 hand strap with it) and I couldn't be happier. I'm not a fan of neck straps, so this works well for me (see the uploaded photo for the configuration).
Most of the menu buttons on the back feel different from the ones on the original Digital Rebel and the 30D; the XSi buttons feel more tactile and have a definite "click" to them when you press them. The exception are the Exposure Lock (*) and AF selector buttons, which have retained the deeper, softer feel of the older cameras. Just different, not better or worse, for me.
The LCD is now 3" with 230K pixels. The playback images look great, and probably because of the higher resolution of the sensor, there's a very slight delay when you zoom in to 10x while the image loads and displays properly. People coming from other cameras or brands might not even notice it--I only did so because of the difference between it and my two other Canon DSLRs (which have lower resolution sensors). The viewing angle of the LCD screen (how clearly you can see the screen from side and up and down) is excellent; you can still see the screen holding the camera almost straight up for an overhead shot (more on this later). I'd estimate the viewing angle is about 160-170 degrees both horizontally and vertically.
The Digital Rebel has a separate status screen above the main LCD screen, and the 30D had one on top of the camera, so I wasn't sure if I was going to like the big LCD acting as the status screen and no top screen. I'm happy to say that this arrangement works well, at least for me. The back screen makes it really easy to take all the settings at a glance. The viewfinder is much larger and brighter than that in the Digital Rebel. A humongously welcome feature for me is the always displayed ISO value in the viewfinder.
The camera is only 1/2 of the image quality equation, the other being the lenses being used. Coupled with my favorite lens, the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L telephoto lens, the XSi turns out fantastic images. The supplied kit lens is very light and compact for being an image stabilized lens, and turns out good performance. The IS is certainly very useful.
Two features that used to be missing from the Digital Rebels and found in the more expensive DSLRs are now featured in the XSi: spot-metering and flash exposure compensation (these may have been available in the previous Digital Rebel model, the XTi, as well). The inclusion of those two features make the camera a much more complete and compelling photographic tool. The timer function now has a custom mode, where it'll count down from 10 seconds then take a number of shots (specified by you) in succession. No more running back and forth to reset the timer after each shot! There's also the traditional 2-second timer.
Let's talk for a minute about sensor and the ISO values. XSi/450D has five ISO values you can choose: 100 (best image quality), 200, 400, 800, and 1600. Higher ISO increases the camera sensor's sensitivity to light, thus you can achieve faster shutter speeeds for a given lighting condition. However, the trade-off is that the sensor "noise" (think grain for film photography) increases with higher ISO, so you get a degraded image quality in return for less blurred photos from hand shakes (thanks to faster shutter speed). This may come in handy in situations where flash photography is not permitted, such as a museum or a concert or theater. HOWEVER, compared to point-and-shoot digital cameras, the larger sensors of DSLRs, including the XSi, means that even at ISO 800 and 1600 you get very usable images right out of the camera. Running the images shot at those ISO settings through any number of third-party noise reduction software will i
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