Camera Advice

[tim2100]

Guys

Currently girlfriend & I are using a cheapy Fuji F1850 bridge camera, I fancy getting a new camera.

I have seen a couple of DSLR's on Amazon for sub £300;- Canon EOS 1100D & Nikon 3100D.
so I went off to Jessops yesterday to handle some of the camera's they have there.
We where looking at the two mentioned above and a Sony A37. All three came with a 18-55mm lens.

The Sony was a lot easier to hold and use, very quick & some nice features. The price at Jessops was £370 which seems to be the cheapest anywhere online. In addition to this was a intermediate pack with Tamron 70-300mm lens, case, super high speed 32gb memory card, 2 UV filters & Screen protectors for £230.

So £600 all in, a lot more expensive than I planned.

Is this going to be ok for a beginner?

[markmullen]

If it felt good to you and you're happy with the price it'll do you good.

There is an awful lot to be said for getting a camera that feels right to you, I've never got on with Nikons and hence never got any good shots. Of course they are great cameras and more than capable of outstanding results, just not with me at the helm. A Canon on the other hand just suits me. If the Sony suits you then go for it.

[Simpo Two]

The 70-300mm lens could be useful, but do you actually want/need the other bits? Don't be mislead by free stuff you'll never use - certainly UV filters and screen protectors are just hokum. So if all you need is a lens and a card, you may do better to get them separately.

[LocoBlade]

The only thing I'd say about the Sony is make sure you can get on with the digital viewfinder before parting with your cash, I tried a relatives A37 and compared to my D5100 the viewfinder was awful IMO, it wasn't clear so was difficult to judge if in focus, it had lag and juddered when you were panning and gave a very washed out representation of colour. Im probably a bit biased as I own one but the dual lens D5100 Nikon pack for around £550 would be my choice if you have that kind of budget.

As to the Jessops accessories pack, they're put together to make you think you're getting a big discount but you aren't. Jessops will have 32Gb cards advertised at probably £50-60 but you can get the exact same Sandisk cards from Amazon etc for about £15-20, and its a similar story for filters, you can get decent Hoya filters for just over a tenner and a reasonable LowePro case for maybe £25-30. The Tamron lens is only £130 even from Jessops themselves and less elsewhere, so you could probably put a better accessories pack together for under £180 if bought elsewhere. Jessops try and push the accessories packs to help offset the "interest free" credit option, when I bought mine they flatly refused to sell me the camera using the interest free option unless I bought the accessories too, so I walked out and bought elsewhere.

[tim2100]

Thanks Guys. Most helpful.

For the accessory pack, I only really need the Lens, memory card & case.
I have priced these up and they are coming in at around £190. I can see how they can mark their accessory pack as £230 saving £180 when they sell a 32gb SD card for £155 that is available from mymemory for £40.

Still investigating the purchase. Now my budget has been forcably increased I want to check what the difference is between the A37 & A57 to see if the A57 is worth the extra.

[Simpo Two]

tim2100 said:

Now my budget has been forcably increased...

That's an excellent phrase; we must use it more often!

[ChipsAndCheese]

LocoBlade said:

The only thing I'd say about the Sony is make sure you can get on with the digital viewfinder before parting with your cash, I tried a relatives A37 and compared to my D5100 the viewfinder was awful IMO, it wasn't clear so was difficult to judge if in focus, it had lag and juddered when you were panning and gave a very washed out representation of colour.

I found the digital viewfinder in the Sonys an odd experience too. The refresh rate was a bit slow causing some flicker, and there was a little bit of lag (much better than a lumix G2 I tried though, and I did get used to it after a while). Saying that, there are some benefits to it, and my boss now swears by them. Things like being able to use digital zoom in the view finder to help manually focus (rather than having to use live view), displaying more information in the view finder, getting virtual grids, etc. Another thing with the Sony cameras is that image stabilisation is in the camera body rather than the lens, so any lens is effectively an IS/VR lens. There's probably less second hand lenses available though compared to Nikon and Canon due to those being the market leading brands.

If you get on well with the Sony, go for it, they are good cameras.

Edited by ChipsAndCheese on Tuesday 16th October 11:13