[clevermax]

Friends, Photographers and Countrymen,

My first ever digital cam was HP 215, with 1.3 Mega pixels and no optical zoom. I bouth it in year 2000 and it costed me 9K. It was a battery sucker, 4 alkalines would be completely sucked out of power with some 30 shots. It cannot run on rechargables! Picture quality was... er...what? picture quality...?

Picture from HP 215:


Second one was Kodak DX6440, bought it in year 2005. It is having 4 mega pixels and 4X optical zoom. A decent one, but its was still a point and shoot camera. It is time to throw away my second camera now, and go for a better one.

Picture from Kodak DX6440:


I am planning to purchase a DSLR. Budget is around 20K (+ 5K). I am not after megapixels, but I want nice features and high speed operation. Any suggestions highly appreciated. Please include the price also, if you're suggesting a model...

Thanks!

[tsk1979]

Buy any of these
Canon 1000D
Nikon D40
Pentax K200D(among the best)
Olympus 520(or 510), but this has high ISO capability which is below that of others

Dpreview is a nice site for your research

Anyone who tells you that one of these is better than the rest is a liar
And to choose one of these, I suggest you handle them and then decide based on availability, price features you need etc.,

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Buy any of these
Canon 1000D
Nikon D40
Pentax K200D(among the best)
Olympus 520(or 510), but this has high ISO capability which is below that of others

Thanks tsk. I learnt that some of the DSLR's can be bought without the lens. Or is that the case with all of these DSLRs? One more question, What does the lens spec 18-70 mm mean? How can one appreciate the lens's capability by looking at these figures?

Edit: Got one more question:
Why is the zoom capability mentioned as 'n/a' in all DSLRs? There is no built in optical zoom in SLRs?

[navin]

Originally Posted by Magma

i have these really old cameras and video recorders.
please advice if they are worth anything or i should junk it

Magma if I were you I'd talk to Rudra. He is the cam expert here.

Originally Posted by clevermax

Thanks tsk. I learnt that some of the DSLR's can be bought without the lens.

clever, if this is too much jargon I'd sugget you get an Oly 570, Canon S5/SX110, Panny FZ50 or something similar. Of these I think the S5 might be most suitable.

[mav2000]

Hi wanted to pick up a small and pocketable digital cam, budget of around 15k. I have a cannon at present which is pretty good, but is just too big to lug around for all our vacations. I saw a nice sony with a 4x zoom, but dont remember the model no. AM not very fond of the credit card sized ones as they are pretty bad on pic quality. any leads? Thanks.

[Samurai]

I recently got Panasonic FX-36 with 4GB card and pouch for 15.5K only. Great for snapshots and videos. And it is really small, pocketable.

[mrbmuneer]

friend.. 15-78 means the min and max distance it can be zoomed..in other words 78/15 =5.2 is the zoom

[Samurai]

Ok, now even Sony has a full-frame offering.

Sony Alpha 900, Previewed: Digital Photography Review

[CaliAtenza]

Guys..im looking for a good point and shoot digi..budget is max 12k..

[kutlee]

Originally Posted by mav2000

Hi wanted to pick up a small and pocketable digital cam, budget of around 15k. I have a cannon at present which is pretty good, but is just too big to lug around for all our vacations. I saw a nice sony with a 4x zoom, but dont remember the model no. AM not very fond of the credit card sized ones as they are pretty bad on pic quality. any leads? Thanks.

go get the Lumix TZ-5. fits your requirements and budget. only thing missing in this is the manual control.

[gkrishn]

Yet another reason on why you should buy a canon SLR...

Carl Zeiss lenses for Canon SLRs: Digital Photography Review

[mclaren1885]

I just picked up a Canon EOS 1000D on recommendations of Rudro. Selling price in India I hear is around 35k, mom picked it up in China for 30k. Will post a review on it soon.

[given2fly]

Just saw the following in DP Review.

Pre-Photokina 2008: Canon today has also introduced the EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Zoom lens. With an equivalent focal length of 29-320mm, the lens offers 11x zoom range. It also features a 16 element, 12 group construction including UD and aspherical lens elements and a 4-stop optical Image Stabilizer.

So finally, Canon folks don't have to rush to third party ultra zooms anymore. Yay!

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by clevermax

...
I am planning to purchase a DSLR. Budget is around 20K (+ 5K). I am not after megapixels, but I want nice features and high speed operation. Any suggestions highly appreciated. Please include the price also, if you're suggesting a model...

Finally I had to make a choice between D60, Digital Rebel Xti and the Alpha A200K. I went ahead and bought the Alpha A200K for 480 dollars.

I was reading a lot of reviews of all these entry level DSLRs and I chose A200K because of the following reasons.

1) Nice noise reduction at very higher ISOs. (Sample image crops from different models compared) Good image sharpening algorithm too.
2) Unlimited buffer (2.8 FPS continuous until the CF card is full)
3) Lightning fast focussing in auto focus mode. (Unique Eye-start focussing system prefocusses the image before the button press)
4) LCD automatically turns off when the viewfinder senses the eye
5) Super steady shot
6) 18-70 mm lens instaed of 18-55mm (I plan to live with the default lens until I have money to buy another one)
7) DRO, Good dynamic range offering
8) Minolta under the hood
9) Class leading battery life
10) Last but not the least, high speed of operation compared to similar models.

[tsk1979]

Good Lord! Every heard of a Full frame video camera??
Canon just launched the full frame 5D MKII with 21MP and full HD video recording!

First it was the MP war, now we have the DSLR movie recorders war!