Digital photography

Everyone is entitled to their opinion beard or not.

mush Everyone is entitled to their opinion beard or not.

yes thankfully it's a democracy (just about) we live in.

hippy be aware that when the pro-center sell off their hire stock you will get some bargains but they charge vat on top? (or at least they did when i brought some ex-hire stuff)

Hippy/all. He speaks the truth

top tip is to buy the stuff that's not that popular as a hire item, i brought a really nice 115 wide angle for the 5x4 that had hardly been used because people automatically went for the 90mm when they needed a wide angle not the 115 which had a bigger image circle and was a better lens (imho).
will there be any 45 or 90 tse canon lenses for sale?

I don't think so the 24 tse is very popular (the 45mm not so) I will let you ALL know as and when it starts to move...

cheers guys, prob gonna go for the G9 for the time being, and invest in a DSLR later, unless i win an auction on a certain model.....

mush, be very interested in the 45.

I dragged my Canon 10D out of the cupboard tonight.. hoping to take it to Ghent.. I've almost forgotten how it works. :S
Problem is, I take better photos with gf's tiny Ixus compact. :(

Elvis 400d for an entry level canon dslr. the stock lens is pants though

d50 for nikon. good basic dslr with decent 18-55 (?) lens.
d80 with the 18-70 if you can stretch that far. brilliant camera and excellent lens.

d80 highly recommended. i got mine at dixons taxfree at the airport (they have a website - it's either taxfree or dutyfree, google it for the price). DON'T buy any extras from them, tho - get the bigger memory card and all other stuff somewhere else (i.e. cheaper). price was excellent for the camera, tho - about 100 GN less than any high street shops... and cheaper than the states, too (well, equiv. price, but you got the warranty etc in the uk which is good)

http://www.apertureuk.com/
http://www.graysofwestminster.co.uk/

Two of the best camera shops in London, really friendly and supportive staff. Before you go and run a get a G9 (a good camera), consider a second hand D100 would be cheaper. I've had mine for 6 years and it's still going strong.

I have just bought a Ricoh GR Digital, fantastic little camera.

photoben I have just bought a Ricoh GR Digital, fantastic little camera.

I found it very disappointing, and would agree with the negative remarks in the review you link to.
It's nothing like as good as the film original.
Worse still, it's unreliable.

Say I wanted an f2.8 70-200mm for a canon slr.. where would be a good place to get one and how does say a £500 Sigma compare with the £1200 Canon equiv.?
The reviews of each are so frickin polarized (haha geddit?) that I have no idea.. mind you £500 for a lens is still stupid money considering I hardly use the bloody thing.. Are there places where pro photo peeps ditch their old kit - auctions and the like?

The best place is probably B&H in New York, but you might get bummed on the taxes. Calumetphoto.co.uk is good, as well. As is 7dayshop.com

If you're pro, it's definitely worth getting Canon glass over Sigma, if you're shooting for fun then the Sigma should do the job.

@hippy - check the link for aperture above, look in the used section. They have canon ones for £390 - £650 depending on condition. Don't bother buying brand new lenses, just get second hand.

@kowalski - unreliable? Could you tell me more? Cause I've just bought that yesterday, really liked my friends one and wanted a compact with fully manual and hotshoe, so I can take shots when I haven't got my main kit with me. Nothing else seemed as good (except the G9, but that didn't seems so easily to use and was little too big to stick in my pocket).

My friend has the Ricoh, loves it in the bright but says it's not so clever when at higher ISO's

It's WAY smaller than the G9 though...

photoben @kowalski - unreliable? Could you tell me more? Cause I've just bought that yesterday, really liked my friends one and wanted a compact with fully manual and hotshoe, so I can take shots when I haven't got my main kit with me. Nothing else seemed as good (except the G9, but that didn't seems so easily to use and was little too big to stick in my pocket).

A quick scan of the various digital photo forums will throw up a fair few complaints of the lens sticking when extended. Which is exactly what mine did.

I also found the AF to be very hit or miss, and the exposure somewhat variable with frequent blown highlights. Shooting RAW was so slow as to be unusable.

Biggest annoyance was that I sold my trusty Panasonic LX1 to buy it. Originally I bought the LX1 because I was shooting in Tokyo and wanted a compact, but the GR was released the day I left for home, and the Panny was next best (another quality Ikebukkuro moment...). I now use the LX2 which is top-notch, but not as nice as the LX1. Maybe it just needs some Hello Kitty stickers...

Cool, I'll keep that in mind. Ricoh have just released a new firmware update that allows the flash exposure levels to be changed. Hadn't even seen the LX2, looks really nice.

certainly not as good as a DSLR, but
bulletproof : http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1225

hippy never buy old stuff from pro's as it likely to be hammered, i nearly always buy from amateurs or high street shops with in a well off catchment area as the turnover of equipment is high due to people wanting the next big thing. wey cameras in weybridge was good but i think they have closed down.

i brought my 70-200 2.8 from some shop near the british museum, microglobe? as i didn't want the image stabilised version the non-is is not an official uk import.

do you need the 2.8? i did because i only buy the best kit and the faster lens means my af works better but the f4 is a good lens, lighter and a lot cheaper.

anto1ne certainly not as good as a DSLR, but
bulletproof : http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1225

i have one of those it's o.k but i had a play with an ixus 75 which was a better camera, not as tough though.

I have a D80 and a Ricoh GR-D. Love 'em both. The GR-D works okay in very low light compared to most point and shoots I've come across, not as good as the D80 with a fast lens on, but that's entirely expectable. Couldn't use a camera that didn't have full manual control without having to go into menus.

I have some great photos I took of the correfoc in Barcelona in September - kids chasing adults with fireworks in the middle of the night basically - and while I probably would have got better pictures with the SLR, I didn't feel comfortable wandering around with it at night (when I lived there a couple of years ago I lost my wallet several times)... Given the low light and the speed at which people were moving, the GR-D worked really rather well.

Am a little irritated Ricoh has just announced the GR-D II, though - looks like it has improved, if not solved, the GR-D's problems with noise and RAW write time.

I bought an Olympus 725:
Waterproof to 5m, and I mean waterproof, I took it swiming in the sea when on holls, got grat vireo and pics of the kids underwater.
Its shock proof up to being dropped onto rock from 1.8m
Crush proof upto 100kg.

7meg pix
Takes a 4Gb card.
Has a cheap rechargable (£9) battery that lasts for ever.

3x optical zoom.
All in all the mutts nuts for out and about.

About £200 with card.

Toodle pip.

I've just bought myself a D80 a few months ago, I love the camera tis been giving me some great shots I would definately recomend it. My dad has the D40x which seems very similar but with less buttons so changing functions is done through menus which can get a bit annoying.

I went for the Nikon over the Canon as I've got other Nikon cameras and always liked them. I'm sure theres lots of varying reasons to buy either but you will probably get very good photos with both.

Do many people here shoot in RAW? I still haven't looked into it yet and don't quite yet understand the advantages, no ones really explained it to me apart from my dad who I on't think knew what he was talking about

daccordi I've just bought myself a D80 a few months ago, I love the camera tis been giving me some great shots I would definately recomend it. My dad has the D40x which seems very similar but with less buttons so changing functions is done through menus which can get a bit annoying.

I went for the Nikon over the Canon as I've got other Nikon cameras and always liked them. I'm sure theres lots of varying reasons to buy either but you will probably get very good photos with both.

Do many people here shoot in RAW? I still haven't looked into it yet and don't quite yet understand the advantages, no ones really explained it to me apart from my dad who I on't think knew what he was talking about

i got a 4gig memory card so yes, i do shoot in RAW. i'm no expert by any means tho - more like a beginning amateur! basically, i guess i don't have enough time to spend shooting, but i do enjoy it. i think the advantages (of RAW) are that you can do more manipulation with the shots as you have all the detail that was captured by the camera, rather than a compressed version that may be lossy when you get down to the detail. saying that, some of the first shots i took before using RAW (i.e. jpeg) i had blown up to A2 size, approximately, and they looked pretty decent.

btw, interesting site for photos: http://www.gigapxl.org/gallery.htm

Cheers for the help guys!

Any idea where AperatureUK get their used kit from? ie. is it mostly old pro stuff or are they just a shop taking random kit onboard? There's Sigma f2.8s in there for £200-400.
The reason for going to f2.8 MrSmith was simply that it's the fastest lens I could find longer than 135mm (my current longest). Before I left Oz I was getting into taking cycle racing pics and at indoor velodromes there's just never enough light for my f3.5-5.6 to shoot fast enough. Also, being a pleb in the crowd means 135mm isn't enough zoomage. Totally not justified given how much I use it but.. fsck it.. I could always sell it on. :)