Digital SLR question..

thatguy · Mar 16, 2007

I am researching getting a digital SLR, I am tired of taking pictures of the dogs tail because he moved before our digital point and shoot camera took the pic.

What I was looking at said the camera had a 3x optical zoom, the lens was a 18-55 mm, which was a 35mm 'equivalent' of a 27-82 mm lens..

My questions are 1) Am I understanding the 35mm conversion statement correctly, in that the 18-55 mm gives me the same range as a 27-82mm 35mm film camara lens??

2) The digital zoom - that is what is giving me the 18-55mm range, not the lens itself, like in a 35mm film camera??

thanks

brian

IslandTractor · Mar 16, 2007

The terminology used to describe digital SLRs can be confusing. The reason is basically because the digital "film" area is smaller than than the typical 24x36mm traditional 35mm film size. A typical current generation prosumer digital sensor is about 15x22mm and the ratio of the areas is about 1.5 or 1.6 compared with 35mm film. This ratio of areas translates into a multiplication factor of 1.5 to convert digital lens size to the equivalent 35mm lens. As a consequence, a normal 50mm lens actually behaves like a 75mm lens when used on a digital camera. The range you quote for the digital lens 18-55mm is the actual lens size but the image it will record on the digital camera is exactly what a 27-82 mm lens would do with 35mm film. As most people still are used to thinking in terms of 35mm film cameras, the digital camera companies give their lens information in terms of what it would look like on a 35mm camera. This has nothing to do with digital zoom which is typically a feature found on digital point and shoots, not on digital SLRs.

thatguy · Mar 16, 2007

Thanks for the clarification that helped get my mind straight.. And the 18-55 mm is similar to what I was using on my 35mm film and what I wanted..

thanks

brian

GaryM · Mar 16, 2007

I'll add that you also want to be aware of "shutter lag" which is what's causing you the have pictures of the dog's tail rather than the whole dog.

Shutter lag is partly caused because the typical digital camera has to do several things before the picture is captured.

Focus
Adjust white balance
Adjust exposure

Finally, capture the image

If your camera allows, you can often reduce the shutter lag by presetting the white balance and focus. If you're outdoors and the lighting is pretty even, meaning the subject will not be moving from sun to shade, you might be able to preset the exposure too. These "presets" will reduce your shutter lag to the lowest possible for you particular camera.

There are several websites that offer reviews of digital cameras, and shutter lag is one of the factors mentioned and reported in the reviews. Sounds like this is something you want to be aware of during your search for a new camera.

dmccarty · Mar 16, 2007

If you want camera information, try photo.net - photo.net. The site had been open since the early mid 1990s. Some information is old though so check the article dates. There is good all around camera advice and forums to discuss particulars and different brand pros/cons.

Before we had kids, bought the land, and built the house I was doing quite a bit of photography. Now that my chores are easing up I started looking at equipment again to see how much has changed in 5-7 years.

I was blown away when I saw that Nikon only has two film cameras, the F6 and their old manual uber reliable model. Everything else is digital.....

All my old lenses will work but apparently my flash will not work on the new DSLRs which stinkith. The wife ain't buying my wanting to buy a new camera....

Later,
Dan

EddieWalker · Mar 16, 2007

You didn't say what your needs were for the camera, so I'll just toss out a suggestion. Look at the Cannon S-2. My wife and I have several digital cameras and enjoy taking lots and lots of pictures. They are both 4x optical zoom cameras with that lag time you describe, but otherwise, take good pictures. Hers is a Cannon, Mine is a Kodak. They both fit in a pocket and are very handy and easy to use.

Unfortunately, they don't have much of a zoom for taking pictures of birds and other wildlife. I started a thread here looking for advice on a good camera with a big zoom and found out about the Cannon S-2. Several members already have it, and highly recomened it. I couldn't possibly tell you all the featurs of it, but will say that it has a 12x optical zoom!!! This is absolutely amazing!! You wouldn't believe how much power that is, especially if you're used to 35mm lenses. I had a 300 mm lense on my camera and it's not even close to what the 12x optical zoom is on the Cannon. There is also a digital zoom that increases the optical one, but we don't use it, as digital zoom is a meaningless number.

We did some other searches online and read up on it from as many sources as we could find and didn't come across anything negative. There are other cameras, but this seemed to be the best one for the money. We went to Walmart and Best Buy to look at it, pick it up and play with it too. Both stores wanted $299 plus tax for it. I did a search on mySimon - Price Comparison Shopping - Compare Prices - Unique Gift Ideas for the best price and saw it as low as $210 from stores with low ratings. We paid a little more for it, added a 1 gig card and had free shipping without any sales tax for around $250 I think. I've searched again and the store we bought it from isn't the cheapest anymore. The last time I looked, Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more had the best price.

This is the thread with all the details of the search for our camera.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/related-topics/78629-camcorder-pictures.html

This thread has some of the bird pictures she's taken with the camera. If you look through all of them, you will see the quality increase from the early pictures to the later ones. It's very easy to use, but she also had to spend a little time with it to get comfortable using all the features it has.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/photos/80130-stephs-nature-pics.html

Hope this helps,
Eddie

AlanB · Mar 16, 2007

For us, it always came down to how much we were willing to spend, and what was available. For the past 10 years or so, Circuit city has been about the best for us, and it was more a matter of selecting which one in the price range we wanted.

I do not follow, nor understand all the comparison's of the numbers, however, I fully understand the shutter lag and action shots. (My wife shoots our motorcycle riding)

This last camera ($750 Canon Rebel digital) reacts at the speed and operates at the speed of film cameras, with all the nicities of digital. While the camera was $750 I think somehow I spent about $1700 by the time we walked out with batteries, warranty, lenses, etc.......

All previous camera's (and the one I use daily here lately) suffer with that lag, and long write time, that if you are taking some shots is fine, but when you get in action shots, it just does not work.

If you are into real fast action, the burst feature of the digitals is great, faster then film, and you can just delete the unwanted parts of the sequence.

My wife has been extremely pleased with the Canon Rebel EOS and the pictures and using it for action shots, and I am sure it will die, just like the last Nikon and olympus before it, about 2 days after the warranty runs out

RobertN · Mar 16, 2007

thatguy said:
What I was looking at said the camera had a 3x optical zoom, the lens was a 18-55 mm, which was a 35mm 'equivalent' of a 27-82 mm lens..

My questions are 1) Am I understanding the 35mm conversion statement correctly, in that the 18-55 mm gives me the same range as a 27-82mm 35mm film camara lens??

2) The digital zoom - that is what is giving me the 18-55mm range, not the lens itself, like in a 35mm film camera??

1- CCD's have an approximate magnification value of 1.5. That is why your 18-55mm lens on a digital camera is equivilant to the 27-82mm in 35mm. Same thing happens with microscopes; if you put a camera on, you have to use a lense in the camera path to have the video match the image in the eyepiece.

2 - Digital zoom is not related to the lens. It is done digitally, just like whe you zoom in on a picture on your PC. This works, but the more you zoom, the more pixelated the picture becomes; ie square blocky look. this is especially noticable if you enlarge the picture.

When you go to look at your SLR setup, look at the lense, and then the camera. Good glass is where it is at. If you have a good image coming through your lens, you will tend to get a good picture. If you have a poor or mediocre image coming through your lens, the best you will get for a captured image, is a poor or medicre picture.

A good lens will tend to have a fixed apereture. My Nikon 80-200/f2.8 is an example. Many inexpensive zooms would be something like 80-200mm/f3.5-6; not nearly the light gathering capability(ie image).

the other things is look for a lens with a big apereture. My F2.8 lens will gather significantly more light(image) than a F3.5-6. This is really important shooting high speed, or low light.

Good glass is not cheap; it is easy to spend more on the glass than the camera body. this applies to many things; cameras, microscopes, rifle scopes, spotting scopes, binoculars etc.

thatguy · Mar 16, 2007

I have an old Nikon N50 35mm (low end beginner Nikon) that I love and used to take tons of picture with.. I upgraded to it from a point and shoot 35mm and WOW what a big difference.. We currently have a Sony digital point and shoot that takes good pictures, but like i mentioned the shutter lag is starting to irk me..

What led me to think about a digital slr camera was that USA Today had an article about Nikon bringing out a new camera every 8 to 10 mths and by then the previous $700 model should be priced arount $300 at some discounters.. After looking around Im guessing the $300 price would be body only though..

I have been looking at the Nikon D50 (older model) or D40 just because I had the Nikon before.. And the D40 seems to fit my needs pretty well.. I love taking pictures and like the flexibility the SLRs offer..

thanks for all the help

b