Mon Jun 14, 2004 6:48 pm
Major purchase day!
That's right folks, it's that time of the year again when I go out and spend an exhorbitant amount of money on a piece of electronic gadgetry that I don't really need. Oh what joy! *rubs hands with glee*
Normally I would just go out and buy something with little prior research and then spend weeks trying to justify my purchase. However this year I've decided to deal with buyers guilt prior to to picking up my piece of wanten consumerism.
In the sights this year is a digital SLR camera. Now I had my heart set on a Canon EOS 300D, they're cheap (relatively speaking), effective and have achieved good reviews. I can pick one of these up with a 18-55mm & 70-200mm lenses and a 256Mb Flash card for $2,200 AUD.
However I've been reading a few reviews of the Nikon D70. It appears to produce a very slightly better quality shot than the Canon but does have better controls whereby almost everything (white balance, apature setting, shutter speed, ISO etc) can be manually tuned to your liking whereas the Canon provides a lot of presets and very little in the way of fine tuning. The feature set on the Nikon is also a lot better, eg it can shoot at 3fps for 12 shots as apposed to the Canon at 2.5 fps for 4 shots. The shutter sound on the Nikon certainly sounds a lot more meaty and confident than the Canon too. I can get one of these with a 18-70mm lense and a 128Mb flash card for $2,300.
Both appear to be good cameras but the Nikon is the more professional and better put together piece of kit but I can get an additional lense and an extra 128mb of storage for $100 cheaper with the Canon. I'm a complete novice when it comes to SLR photography and I know some of you have some experience with SLR and I was wondering what you guys would go for if you had your choice. Keep in mind I'll probably want to purchase another two lenses for close up and distance shots.
Normally I would just go out and buy something with little prior research and then spend weeks trying to justify my purchase. However this year I've decided to deal with buyers guilt prior to to picking up my piece of wanten consumerism.
In the sights this year is a digital SLR camera. Now I had my heart set on a Canon EOS 300D, they're cheap (relatively speaking), effective and have achieved good reviews. I can pick one of these up with a 18-55mm & 70-200mm lenses and a 256Mb Flash card for $2,200 AUD.
However I've been reading a few reviews of the Nikon D70. It appears to produce a very slightly better quality shot than the Canon but does have better controls whereby almost everything (white balance, apature setting, shutter speed, ISO etc) can be manually tuned to your liking whereas the Canon provides a lot of presets and very little in the way of fine tuning. The feature set on the Nikon is also a lot better, eg it can shoot at 3fps for 12 shots as apposed to the Canon at 2.5 fps for 4 shots. The shutter sound on the Nikon certainly sounds a lot more meaty and confident than the Canon too. I can get one of these with a 18-70mm lense and a 128Mb flash card for $2,300.
Both appear to be good cameras but the Nikon is the more professional and better put together piece of kit but I can get an additional lense and an extra 128mb of storage for $100 cheaper with the Canon. I'm a complete novice when it comes to SLR photography and I know some of you have some experience with SLR and I was wondering what you guys would go for if you had your choice. Keep in mind I'll probably want to purchase another two lenses for close up and distance shots.
Seriously though, if you want an SLR, and you are determined to learn how to use an SLR, forget the Canon its too girly, the Nikon will last you a lifetime (so to speak). And if you want other reasons - the resolutions are better and the pixel rate is ever so slightly, yet significantly higher (about .3 of a megapixel).
