Urgent Cannon Purchase advice needed (newbie)

[jenzo]

Hi everyone,

I'm a newbie to the photography / SLR world and urgently need an SLR camera for my work (dentistry). What does everyone think of the following deal from Jessops, any advice / recommendations greatly appreciated.

Cannon EOS 600D
18-55mm Lens
Sigma Ring Flash
2.8l Macro Lens 60mm
16gb Memory Card - Sandisk
Shoulder Bag
Screen Protector
LED Light
3 Years Warranty
200 free prints from Jessops

All for £1800

Is this a good deal? Any other recommendations?

Thanks in advance!!

[utgjon]

Cannon:



Canon:






Both will shoot your intended subject.
One might have a detrimental effect on their teeth though.

[Dogsey]

jenzo said:

Cannon EOS 600D
18-55mm Lens
Sigma Ring Flash
2.8l Macro Lens 60mm
16gb Memory Card - Sandisk
Shoulder Bag
Screen Protector
LED Light
3 Years Warranty
200 free prints from Jessops

Having had a quick look at Camera Price Buster that seems quite expensive, for example the camera and both lenses can be had for under £1000. Depending on your use you may not even need the 18-55 lens.

Not sure what the LED light will give you that the ring flash won't, I've never bothered with a screen protector and have never damaged a screen, 200 free prints is as good as worthless as most places will give you a reasonable number of prints free when you first use them, memory cards carry a huge premium at shops like Jessops - 7dayshop.com or Play.com will be miles cheaper, as for the warranty - well again I've never bothered paying for one on anything.

[Simpo Two]

There is something about dentists and photography!

From your list, and forgetting about brands/makes, these are the only bits you really need to do the job:

Cannon EOS 600D
Sigma Ring Flash
2.8l Macro Lens 60mm

The 18-55mm lens will be useful if you want to use the camera for other purposes. A bag to keep it in and protect from knocks is handy. Memory cards are available anywhere for beans but if you want SanDisk buy from somewhere reputable as there are many fakes.

You'll also need some software to get the best from your images; lots of simple free stuff about or choose something recognised like Photoshop Elements.

If anyone says 'shoot RAW' ignore them until you can shoot JPG


NB: You could also consider a longer macro lenses, eg 90mm or 105mm, which will give the same magnification but a longer working distance - your preference.

Edited by Simpo Two on Wednesday 25th January 14:15

[Gemm]

I did think about the working distance as well. Although it's difficult to guess how you are going to use it, Canon MT-24EX might be more versatile for this particular use.

[LongQ]

You don;t NEED a 16Gb memory card but it won't hurt the budget that much.

LED light might be useful for seeing ito dark recesses whilst framing and focussing but they can be bought for not very much cash anyway.

I doubt that you would really need to shoot RAW.

Have you conferred with colleagues?

[Simpo Two]

LongQ said:

LED light might be useful for seeing ito dark recesses whilst framing and focussing but they can be bought for not very much cash anyway

IIRC Canon's AF assist is in the pop-up flash, not the body as with Nikon - but -

- a dentist usually has another light, a big one, attached to the ceiling



I have a box of slides showing teeth (before and after various treatments) from the 1960s!

[LongQ]

Simpo Two said:

IIRC Canon's AF assist is in the pop-up flash, not the body as with Nikon - but -

- a dentist usually has another light, a big one, attached to the ceiling



I have a box of slides showing teeth (before and after various treatments) from the 1960s!

Yes but not much use if there is a ruddy great camera, lens and ringflash in the way!

However it would be interesting to learn the 'official' reason for the requirement even if they should cost peanuts (relatively).

I presume that some of the shots may be for facial detail pre- and post treatment rather than just snaps of the ivories. In which case an 85mm f1.2 and a full set of studio lights with modifiers ..... er, well, maybe not.

[Nick Grant]

I propose a manfrotto magic arm, you could fix it to the overhead light so you could just pull the camera into place when you need it

[MadMullah]

Hi Jenzo

your a lucky man i'm looking into buying the same thing

Now I'm pretty certain digitalrev are a UK based retailer

so

http://www.digitalrev.com/category/canon-eos/Mg_A_...

there's some great prices with lenses there

You can also email them or message them via talkphotography to give you a more specific price for the kit your looking for.

[Dogsey]

DigitalRev are based in Hong Kong afaik.

[MadMullah]

i had a feeling they might be - the whole kiss x4 labelling had me thinking they might be getting their stuff from the orient.

is there any major differences to the kit? or warranty wise?

[Dogsey]

Bodies are only covered by local warranties, lenses get a global one. Other than that you obviously have a chance of getting clobbered by the tax man for the import and no-one you can easily call / drop in on to speak to.

[IrateNinja]

If you buy through their website (not through eBay) DigitalRev will cover any import fees you run into. But as stated, any warranty claims will have to be sent to their base in HK before they do anything.

[hab1966]

If you stick with canon body, lens and flash then i would suggest you contact Kerso who is well regarded as a supplier. I believe he supplied kit from the USA but bodies are covered in the UK for warranty purposes.

Kerso has a web site - www.flashcamera.co.uk

Edited by hab1966 on Thursday 26th January 13:00

[MadMullah]

IrateNinja said:

If you buy through their website (not through eBay) DigitalRev will cover any import fees you run into. But as stated, any warranty claims will have to be sent to their base in HK before they do anything.

does it say that on their website anywhere???

edit - just read on talk photography confirming the same thing

awesome result

i'd looked at kersho's site too

so now i'll just have to balance it all out

Edited by MadMullah on Thursday 26th January 16:17

[mojitomax]

have a look at http://www.thedigitaldentist.co.uk/about.htm

Mike Sharland is the photographer at the birmingham dental hospital. he gives loads of courses on how to take dental images and what kit to use and ran some photography courses when i did my MSC at brum. if you have any questions just email him. he knows everything there is to know about dental photography.

from what he said, an LED ring flash just doesn't have the power to illuminate the mouth adequately so get a proper ring flash.

myself, i use a very old Minolta Dimage A2. it's an old bridge cam that you can pick up on ebay for about £50. it doesn't have a ring flash ( i would like to get one but they are quite expensive for such an old cam), but it does have great macro facilities and it's 8MP so images can be cropped to remove lips etc. it gives images comparable to modern stuff (i only use it at work though) but isn't quite as good for full arch mirror shots (due to lack of ring flash). the best bit is that the lens is 18-200 so it's dead easy to switch from intra-oral to full face.

i've tried using a canon-macro-lens-ring-flash setup that we have in the practice but it's a bloody big beast!! It certainly takes a while to get used to and don't expect miracles straight away.

hope that helps

[mojitomax]

oh, i forgot to add,

if you're just going to use this cam for work, and NOT pleasure, just get a lens, reprover ring flash, body (perhaps get a cheaper body to save costs) and a small memory card. if you're going to use the camera for pleasure get a decent cam and big card etc.

you will be uploading the images to the computer at least every day or after every patient so you do not need a massive card. it may be worth investing in one of those eyefi type hobbies that beams the photos to your computer wirelessly straight away. i would find that ideal as it's a pain connecting the usb cable to the cam so often in a day.

another tip is to take a photo of the patient's record card before and after the set of shots so you know which patient it belongs to! if you take lots of piccies it gets confusing very quickly - the timestamps on the EXIF info will help you out if you forget which patent the pics belong to.

do NOT stick the check retractors through the autoclave, cold sterilise them.

get a decent (small to medium sized) glass mouth mirror. i bought a metal one from Mike and it's just too wide for british mouths.

hope that helps, if you need any other info drop me a line.

PS that manfrotto arm off the light is genius - especially if you have a big body, heavy lens and ring flash!

[ian in lancs]

re the memory card. Would a wireless image download work in your situation. I could imagine a shot appearing on a screen in the surgery, maybe the same one the dental nurse uses and then a number of options - insert in patient notes, refer to for discussion with patient etc. Also wireless to computer means no card handling in a clinical environment and as the computer is storing images less capacity problems and presumably backups are already automated for the practice...

As for lens I'm guessing a Sigma 70mm Macro would be spot on. As would a Sigma ringflash.