simple SLR

Can anyone reccomend a simple DSLR camera? I need a good quality lens and only need to take good photos, do not require endless menu's and never used functions, something along the lines of a traditional 35mm SLR film camera.
Thanks David

Dave wrote:
Can anyone reccomend a simple DSLR camera? I need a good quality lens
and only need to take good photos, do not require endless menu's and
never used functions, something along the lines of a traditional 35mm
SLR film camera.
Thanks David

Can you describe the SLR & lens(es) you had and how you used it?
(assuming you have a baseline for comparison)
And what sort of photos will you be taking?

If no previous expectations, basically all the DSLRs can operate in auto
mode. Some are better suited to manual operation, all will have features
most people don't need or want but those can be easily ignored.

budget?
size?
final print size?
indoor low light people in groups?
architecture?
nature?
closeups?
wildlife or sports?
for work also (what kind?)
have kids or plan to?

I'm guessing you have a decent budget but don't want to mess with
settings too much. It's possible you have experience with setting
aperture & shutter speed & manual focus on a nice simple old SLR with a
fast normal lens and have a bit more budget (or not) to match that
performance. You don't seem to want huge prints or earth shattering zoom
range... Maybe you just want a little better than a compact but not much
mo are you willing to give up zoom range or want a big super-zoom
lens or a few lenses to switch out? Many DSLRs have smaller dimmer
viewfinders, is this important?

Thank you, actually I have a wide range of cameras and quite a bit of
proffesioal experience, I have a Linholf 5" X 4" and a Bronica 120 roll
film, but both are not practial nowadays, what I am after is something along
the lines of a Pentax 35mm SLR, I am not realy keen on Auto settings I am
happy to work out my own aperture and shutter speed, but mainly I want to be
able to focus and compose my own image. My current digital camera is a
Cannon Powershot S45, it takes great pictures for it's size, I have some
great blowups to 11" x 14", but it has too many fuctions that I never use
and can be a little confusing trying to remember what is what, cost is not a
great problem, but I do not want to go overboard, say around $1000 a good
optical zoom would be nice. I take quite a range from close ups of technical
items to scenery, not many action shots.
Thanks Again. David
"Paul Furman" wrote in message
...
Dave wrote:
Can anyone reccomend a simple DSLR camera? I need a good quality lens
and only need to take good photos, do not require endless menu's and
never used functions, something along the lines of a traditional 35mm SLR
film camera.
Thanks David

Can you describe the SLR & lens(es) you had and how you used it?
(assuming you have a baseline for comparison)
And what sort of photos will you be taking?

If no previous expectations, basically all the DSLRs can operate in auto
mode. Some are better suited to manual operation, all will have features
most people don't need or want but those can be easily ignored.

budget?
size?
final print size?
indoor low light people in groups?
architecture?
nature?
closeups?
wildlife or sports?
for work also (what kind?)
have kids or plan to?

I'm guessing you have a decent budget but don't want to mess with settings
too much. It's possible you have experience with setting aperture &
shutter speed & manual focus on a nice simple old SLR with a fast normal
lens and have a bit more budget (or not) to match that performance. You
don't seem to want huge prints or earth shattering zoom range... Maybe you
just want a little better than a compact but not much mo are you
willing to give up zoom range or want a big super-zoom lens or a few
lenses to switch out? Many DSLRs have smaller dimmer viewfinders, is this
important?

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 03:38:21 GMT, "Dave" wrote:

Can anyone reccomend a simple DSLR camera? I need a good quality lens and only need to take good photos,

Basically any name brand dSLR will take good photos. Which one is the best
is the eternal religions war. Many people point to the Pentax as an overall
very good body. Drawback is you are painting yourself into a corner with a
somewhat more limited selection of lenses compared to Canon or Nikon.
As for the good quality lens depending on what camera you decide on you may
want to substitute the kit lens with a lens one or two steps up.

do not require endless menu's and never used functions, something along the lines of a traditional 35mm SLR film camera.

Well, you are out of luck there. All dSLR have a pletoria of options and
settings and you won't find any without them. Of course you can just ignore
them is you don't like to use them.
Just make sure that your camera still supports manual and apperture/shutter
priority. I believe all current dSLR still do but at least in the compact
camera segment it is getting harder and harder to find a cameras that allows
any manual control and this will probably spill into the low-end dSLR market
sooner or later.

jue

So it looks like I won't get a "Baby brownie" with a digital back plane, as
I say I have no problems with the relationship between depth of focus, depth
of field, "f" stop and shutter relationships, but as I dont use it on a
daily basis I tend to have to refer to the manual often, I find there is
some sort of parrellex error between what I see on the screen and what it
actually photographs, so that is why I would like an SLR, the old swingback
Linholf with the ground glass screen was the way to go there, but I think I
would get a few puzzeled looks standing on the street with a black cloth
over my head.
David
"Jürgen Exner" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 03:38:21 GMT, "Dave" wrote:

Can anyone reccomend a simple DSLR camera? I need a good quality lens and
only need to take good photos,

Basically any name brand dSLR will take good photos. Which one is the best
is the eternal religions war. Many people point to the Pentax as an
overall
very good body. Drawback is you are painting yourself into a corner with a
somewhat more limited selection of lenses compared to Canon or Nikon.
As for the good quality lens depending on what camera you decide on you
may
want to substitute the kit lens with a lens one or two steps up.

do not require endless menu's and never used functions, something along
the lines of a traditional 35mm SLR film camera.

Well, you are out of luck there. All dSLR have a pletoria of options and
settings and you won't find any without them. Of course you can just
ignore
them is you don't like to use them.
Just make sure that your camera still supports manual and
apperture/shutter
priority. I believe all current dSLR still do but at least in the compact
camera segment it is getting harder and harder to find a cameras that
allows
any manual control and this will probably spill into the low-end dSLR
market
sooner or later.

jue

Dave wrote:
Can anyone reccomend a simple DSLR camera? I need a good quality
lens and only need to take good photos, do not require endless menu's
and never used functions, something along the lines of a traditional
35mm SLR film camera.
Thanks David

David

One of the cameras with the smallest feature set (i.e. least confusing!)
is the Nikon D40, available as 6MP (D40) and 10MP (D40x) variants. The
D40 has a built-in Help system, which may reduce your references to the
manual. Nikon lenses are first-class, as you will know, and there are
some lightweight lenses you can get to go with the camera (18-55mm.
55-200mm VR), and a good performance, low cost telephoto zoom (70 - 300mm
VR). The only thing you might not like is that the first two lenses are
not easy to focus manually, as they require only a small angular turn of
the focussing barrel to cover the full range. But the auto-focus works
very well. You can do all the usual manual control of aperture,
shutter-speed etc. Nikon also offer an 18-200mm VR "walk-round" lens.
That's a 35mm equivalent coverage of about 27 - 300mm.

If you have existing Pentax lenses, there are some Pentax DSLRs available,
which seem to have an enthusiastic following, but you would need to check
lens compatibility.

I'd recommend that you try the handling of the cameras in the shop, to see
which suits you best.

Cheers,
David

On Dec 26, 10:38 pm, "Dave" wrote:
Can anyone reccomend a simple DSLR camera? I need a good quality lens and only need to take good photos, do not require endless menu's and never used functions, something along the lines of a traditional 35mm SLR film camera.
Thanks David

Nikon D50 used, or a Nikon D40/x new. Get the 18-200mm Nikon and
you're set. Don't forget the Crazy Glue to glue the mode dial on
"Auto" or "Program."

Thanks to Both of the suggestions, I had been looking at the Nikon, I will
now take another look at both.
Thanks again
"David J Taylor"
wrote in message .uk...
Dave wrote:
Can anyone reccomend a simple DSLR camera? I need a good quality
lens and only need to take good photos, do not require endless menu's
and never used functions, something along the lines of a traditional
35mm SLR film camera.
Thanks David

David

One of the cameras with the smallest feature set (i.e. least confusing!)
is the Nikon D40, available as 6MP (D40) and 10MP (D40x) variants. The
D40 has a built-in Help system, which may reduce your references to the
manual. Nikon lenses are first-class, as you will know, and there are
some lightweight lenses you can get to go with the camera (18-55mm.
55-200mm VR), and a good performance, low cost telephoto zoom (70 - 300mm
VR). The only thing you might not like is that the first two lenses are
not easy to focus manually, as they require only a small angular turn of
the focussing barrel to cover the full range. But the auto-focus works
very well. You can do all the usual manual control of aperture,
shutter-speed etc. Nikon also offer an 18-200mm VR "walk-round" lens.
That's a 35mm equivalent coverage of about 27 - 300mm.

If you have existing Pentax lenses, there are some Pentax DSLRs available,
which seem to have an enthusiastic following, but you would need to check
lens compatibility.

I'd recommend that you try the handling of the cameras in the shop, to see
which suits you best.

Cheers,
David

Dave wrote:
Can anyone reccomend a simple DSLR camera? I need a good quality lens
and only need to take good photos, do not require endless menu's and
never used functions, something along the lines of a traditional 35mm
SLR film camera.
Thanks David

First look at what lenses you have - sounds as if you may have manual
lenses, and maybe Pentax K-mount, in which case a Pentax K10D or Samsung
GX10 would be a good choice. All the digital Pentax SLRs have some
degree of manual backwards compatibility through AF, K and even screw
mounts.

Points to watch - no DSLR is compatible with Canon FD or Minolta
SR/MC/MD lenses, both these system changed to new lens ranges around
1986, but the current Sony Alpha DSLRs are compatible back to the
earliest Minolta AF, and the current Canon EOS D SLRs are compatible
back to their earliest EF.

Nikon is a minefield since some of the current, and recent, DSLR bodies
are compatible with pretty much all Nikon lenses back to the first F
mount models, in some mode or another; some are not practical to use
with manual Nikkors; yet others won't even work with mechanically
coupled AF Nikkors and demand AF-S (motor in lens) type Nikkors. So if
you have mixed older Nikkors, manual and AF, you need to list them here
and get guidance on which new or used Nikon DSLR would be most compatible.

You sound like the sort of photographer who might just have some Leica
gear around and there is of course the digital Leica M8 which offers
exactly what you want - full manual control and hardly any menus, use
just like a regular Leica most of the time, with variable quality
results depending on the exact older or newer lenses available to the user.

David

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Dave wrote:
Thank you, actually I have a wide range of cameras and quite a bit of
proffesioal experience, I have a Linholf 5" X 4" and a Bronica 120 roll
film, but both are not practial nowadays, what I am after is something along
the lines of a Pentax 35mm SLR, I am not realy keen on Auto settings I am
happy to work out my own aperture and shutter speed, but mainly I want to be
able to focus and compose my own image. My current digital camera is a
Cannon Powershot S45, it takes great pictures for it's size, I have some
great blowups to 11" x 14", but it has too many fuctions that I never use
and can be a little confusing trying to remember what is what, cost is not a
great problem, but I do not want to go overboard, say around $1000 a good
optical zoom would be nice. I take quite a range from close ups of technical
items to scenery, not many action shots.

If you want to do manual focus, the Nikon D80 has a nice bright
pentaprism viewfinder. The D200 meters with older manual focus lenses. I
think the Sony/Minolta has a similar viewfinder, other affordable models
have more dim viewfinders and assume you will use autofocus. Pentax is
supposed to have good manual controls as knobs & buttons rather than in
the body, the D200 also.

In practice, most people will be fine with an entry level DSLR and
autofocus, you might want a spot meter which many models lack but modern
metering is pretty good and you can usually adjust the exposure
compensation if it doesn't come out the first time. Simpler models might
require holding a button while spinning a dial to manually adjust both
aperture and shutter speed versus dedicated dials for the above models.

An SLR won't be as flexible with getting closeups or long zoom as a
compact so you might want a macro lens or at least consider the closest
focus your chosen lens is capable of. Some of the cheap kit lenses are
really not very good compared to a good point & shoot, if you are
thinking the SLR will be more capable, that's dependent on the lens. Kit
zooms are slow although the high ISO ability helps a lot. I like using
an old 28mm f/2 Nikon manual focus which is pretty affordable & similar
to a 50mm normal lens on crop frame digital, it gets good close focus,
excellent image quality & the ability to isolate close subjects with
selective focus if you don't mind zooming with your feet. An old 55mm
macro is cheap.

The 18-70 Nikon is reasonably priced, well regarded and in practice
something like that probably makes sense: you'll want the wide end for
scenery and can probably get by with just one lens. The D40 only works
with lenses that have built in focus motors, not the 18-70 so I'd
recommend that with a D80 perhaps. I'm not as familiar with Canon's
offerings but the kit lens is not great and generally you will be
looking at hard decisions where they set it up so you have to spend a
lot more for a significantly better lens.

If your computer is slow and or hard drive full or small, you won't
appreciate the higher megapixel models and 6MP is plenty for acceptable
8x10's.

"Paul Furman" wrote in message
...
Dave wrote:
Can anyone reccomend a simple DSLR camera? I need a good quality lens
and only need to take good photos, do not require endless menu's and
never used functions, something along the lines of a traditional 35mm SLR
film camera.
Thanks David
Can you describe the SLR & lens(es) you had and how you used it?
(assuming you have a baseline for comparison)
And what sort of photos will you be taking?

If no previous expectations, basically all the DSLRs can operate in auto
mode. Some are better suited to manual operation, all will have features
most people don't need or want but those can be easily ignored.

budget?
size?
final print size?
indoor low light people in groups?
architecture?
nature?
closeups?
wildlife or sports?
for work also (what kind?)
have kids or plan to?

I'm guessing you have a decent budget but don't want to mess with settings
too much. It's possible you have experience with setting aperture &
shutter speed & manual focus on a nice simple old SLR with a fast normal
lens and have a bit more budget (or not) to match that performance. You
don't seem to want huge prints or earth shattering zoom range... Maybe you
just want a little better than a compact but not much mo are you
willing to give up zoom range or want a big super-zoom lens or a few
lenses to switch out? Many DSLRs have smaller dimmer viewfinders, is this
important?