Dslr

[Clinch]

My wife and I are in the market for a DSLR camera I was curious if anyone had a suggestion on which one. It will be mostly for family photos and hobby stuff for the wife. I may one day get the setup to hook this on a scope as we'll. I've been eyeing the Nikon D5200. Decent reviews for an entry level camera. Any other suggestions? Thanks in advance.

 

[Matt Cashell]

That is a fine choice for your uses. Excellent sensor and great glass available.

 

[Clinch]

Bitterroot Bulls, thanks for the input. Do you use a DSLR for digiscoping much? I'm just curious if there is a big enough difference in picture quality to make carrying and mounting a big camera to a scope is worth the trouble.

 

[Matt Cashell]

Compacts generally are much easier to digiscope with, unless you use a dedicated lens/adapter for DSLRs like the Swarovski APO. The pic quality is excellent, but you lose AF.

 

[Clinch]

Thanks for the help. I either need to quit reading the net because it's got me flip-flopping all over. I've changed to the Pentax k50/ k5 just because they are weather resistant.

 

[Finch]

Have you researched the Canon 60D? I may be selling mine soon. Let me know if you're interested.

 

[Clinch]

I appreciate the offer but I went with the Pentax. I'm all novice when it comes to cameras but after weighing it all out it seemed to have the best mix of what I was after. Though I probably would have been happy with any of them.

 

[colonel00]

I love my Pentax K-30. I have both the 18-135 and 55-300 lenses in WR so I can lug the camera in just about any situation and not worry about the weather. What model did you end up with?

FWIW, I think pretty much all of the photos in this thread were shot with my Pentax

http://www.rokslide.com/forums/showthread.php?22577-Photos-from-this-year

 

[Clinch]

Colonel00, you were not messing around with those pics! I got the k5 ii with the 28-135 lens on it. I started to go for the k50 but figured I might as well go for the next step up. I like that it is weather resistant, and has the image stabilization in the body rather than the lens itself like Nikon. There are lenses all over eBay for good prices. Most are low end, but it will let me figure out what I like for cheap. I've played with film and digital photography in the past but this will be my first DSLR. Never had the money before, and just kind of drifted away as my wife got into it. She didn't have much in the way of hobbies, and I am chock full of them. My wife is pregnant with our first and she wants all the cute maternity pics and pics of the baby when it gets here. I talked her into getting a camera for us for Christmas vs dropping money on a couple sessions with a photographer. I'm by no means a pro, but I've spent enough time with a film SLR that I know I can get some decent pics. Tags are hard to come by these days but I still like to get out. I figure I will upgrade my spotting scope someday and get the mount for this camera.

 

[colonel00]

Yeah, there are quite a few lenses out there but honestly, I have been happy with my 18-135WR and 55-300WR. I also picked up on of the 35mm "Plastic Fantastic" lenses but rarely use it. The only thing I feel I am missing at this point would be a super-wide fisheye and/or macro lens.

Check out pentaxforums.com as that is a good resource and they have a good classified section.

 

[Clinch]

They just dropped it off this evening. Haven't really tried it out yet but I'm excited to. I think you are right about the 18-135. It seems like it will cover a lot of different situations. I've read a bunch from the pentax forums but haven't checked out their classifieds.

 

[Clinch]

So I've been doing some stuff with the camera and really liking it, and now out of the blue my wife gave me the green light to get the Vortex Razor 20-60x85 with the camera mount. It should be here by the end of the week. According to Vortex I need a 50mm lens, but it have read that the 40mm pancake lense is better. Any thoughts?

 

[colonel00]

Well, first of all, I have had a Vortex Razor camera mount kit in the classifieds for a while. If you want to cancel your order, I can sell you the whole setup. Sadly, I never actually used it so I can't speak to which lens would be better. I do have step rings to allow the mounting of my 18-135 and 55-300 though. I just never actually picked up a Razor scope so that is why I am unloading the camera kit.

 

[Clinch]

We'll that figures, and the order shipped. I get a discount through Vortex so I just went straight there.

 

[maverick]

So I've been doing some stuff with the camera and really liking it, and now out of the blue my wife gave me the green light to get the Vortex Razor 20-60x85 with the camera mount. It should be here by the end of the week. According to Vortex I need a 50mm lens, but it have read that the 40mm pancake lense is better. Any thoughts?

I have used a 50mm on my canon t3i and vortex. It works pretty good. I would get a lens where the front didn't rotate.(internal focusing). That way you can take advantage of the cameras focusing system.

 

[Clinch]

Thanks maverick. While we are at it is there a difference/benefit between a manual focus lens or an auto focus lens?

 

[maverick]

The manual focus lenses are usually cheaper. I usually use the scope to focus and not the camera so a manual focus lens would be fine. Not sure if your camera has focus peaking , but it's really handy at getting focus using the fine adjustment on the scope. With internal focusing lenses you can get focus on the scope close and then half press the shutter to get complete and confirm focus. In my experience video usually turns out better than pics especially when the distances get farther. My favorite digiscoping camera that I've tried is the Sony RX100.