Digital SLRs - your top 5?

I am venturing back into the world of photography after a ten year
absence. I intend to concentrate on sports photography so I will need
a digital SLR capable of taking good photos at fast shutter speeds in
potentially low light conditions. My budget is £600 -£800 UK pounds.
What would be the top five digital SLRs suitable for sports photograpy
in that price range?

I will also need a backup manual(film) SLR in case I run out of
batteries and I will probably try and get this second hand for around
£200. Any suggestions. Would I get a Nikon for that now that
everyone is going digital?

Thanks in advance.

Patrick.

For your needs and price range:

1) Canon 30D
2) Canon 30D
3) Canon 30D
4) Canon 30D
5) Canon 30D

;-)

"Patrick Finnegan" wrote in message
ups.com...
I am venturing back into the world of photography after a ten year
absence. I intend to concentrate on sports photography so I will need
a digital SLR capable of taking good photos at fast shutter speeds in
potentially low light conditions. My budget is £600 -£800 UK pounds.
What would be the top five digital SLRs suitable for sports photograpy
in that price range?

For your needs and price range:

1) Canon 30D
2) Canon 30D
3) Canon 30D
4) Canon 30D
5) Canon 30D

;-)

"Patrick Finnegan" wrote in message
ups.com...
I am venturing back into the world of photography after a ten year
absence. I intend to concentrate on sports photography so I will need
a digital SLR capable of taking good photos at fast shutter speeds in
potentially low light conditions. My budget is £600 -£800 UK pounds.
What would be the top five digital SLRs suitable for sports photograpy
in that price range?

On Mar 20, 8:20 pm, "Patrick Finnegan"
wrote:
I am venturing back into the world of photography after a ten year
absence. I intend to concentrate on sports photography so I will need
a digital SLR capable of taking good photos at fast shutter speeds in
potentially low light conditions. My budget is £600 -£800 UK pounds.
What would be the top five digital SLRs suitable for sports photograpy
in that price range?

There are not all that many digital SLRs for each price range. Do you
have lenses already (that you'd like to keep using)? Do you plan to
get very long teles and want them to have stabilizing elements (to
help with "slow" shutter speeds)? [look up their prices if you're
thinking of saying "yes" because it's a nifty feature, though!].

I'd say the 3/4 main cameras that spring to mind at that range are the
Pentax K10D, the Nikon D200 (actually this one's a bit more, the D80
is closer to your range) and the Canon 30D. I'll refrain from
suggesting any of them, thank you!

Well, the only comment I'll make is that I have the D200 and I tried
the D80 in a shop (a friend asked about it). The D80 seems to be the
D200 with a plastic body, less external (physical) controls, somewhat
reduced feature set (eg autofocus modes), lower frame rate and overall
slightly slowed down (in subtle things like viewfinder blackout etc;
mind you, this is what it felt like and I'm very sensitive to
slowness; I could be wrong). It's not bad, I found it overall about as
quick-reacting as a 20D (the older version of the 30D) that I used for
a while, so it's satisfactory. But this kind of thing is invisible to
most people, so don't think too much about it (you can try the ones on
your shortlist to find out if you mind or can even tell any
difference).


I will also need a backup manual(film) SLR in case I run out of
batteries and I will probably try and get this second hand for around
£200. Any suggestions. Would I get a Nikon for that now that
everyone is going digital?

Isn't it cheaper and more convenient to just buy extra batteries with
the 200GBP though? Unless you want a film camera too for other
reasons, of course.

Patrick Finnegan wrote:
I am venturing back into the world of photography after a ten year
absence. I intend to concentrate on sports photography so I will need
a digital SLR capable of taking good photos at fast shutter speeds in
potentially low light conditions. My budget is £600 -£800 UK pounds.
What would be the top five digital SLRs suitable for sports photograpy
in that price range?

You're drastically short on budget. To be serious about sports, I
wouldn't want to look at anything less than a Nikon D200 (5fps, 19
frame buffer), and that uses up or even exceeds your budget. The Canon
1dmkII is out of your range. And in either case you'd need a few
thousand dollars worth of lenses in addition.

You can, of course, take pictures of sports events with far less, on a
casual amateur basis. In that case, put your money into one or more
good lenses; any cheap body will be slow and will focus not so well anyway.

I will also need a backup manual(film) SLR in case I run out of
batteries and I will probably try and get this second hand for around
£200. Any suggestions. Would I get a Nikon for that now that
everyone is going digital?

Waste of money; for that price you can get a LOT of spare batteries.
Now, a second digital body is worth it to speed lens swapping, plus
protect you against failures.

Fuji S5
Fuji S3
Nikon D200
Nikon D80
Canon 30D
Pentax K10D

=(8)

On 20 Mar 2007 12:20:36 -0700, "Patrick Finnegan"
wrote:

I am venturing back into the world of photography after a ten year
absence. I intend to concentrate on sports photography so I will need
a digital SLR capable of taking good photos at fast shutter speeds in
potentially low light conditions. My budget is £600 -£800 UK pounds.
What would be the top five digital SLRs suitable for sports photograpy
in that price range?

That would depend on exactly what your idea of "sports photography"
is.
But given that you want fast shutter speed in low light, you want a
camera that has good low light capabilities (DUH!). This means you
want as little noise at high ISO speeds as possible.
Dpreview.com has pretty good reviews that will show the differences
between the currently-marketed DSLRs.

I will also need a backup manual(film) SLR in case I run out of
batteries and I will probably try and get this second hand for around
£200. Any suggestions. Would I get a Nikon for that now that
everyone is going digital?

Why would you think buying a film SLR is better than buying a spare
battery for the DSLR? The spare battery will cost far less than the
£200 SLR, not even considering the cost of the film and processing.

Thanks in advance.

Patrick.

--
Bill Clinton said Tuesday the
New York Times has been unfair
to Hillary and too soft on Barack
Obama. Hillary can see it coming.
For the second time in her life
she is going to be pushed to the
background by America's first
black president.

Cheers, I now have coffee stains on my computer screen!


"Jack Splat =(8)" wrote in message
...
Fuji S5
Fuji S3
Nikon D200
Nikon D80
Canon 30D
Pentax K10D

=(8)

On 20 Mar 2007 12:20:36 -0700, Patrick Finnegan wrote:
I am venturing back into the world of photography after a ten year
absence. I intend to concentrate on sports photography so I will need
a digital SLR capable of taking good photos at fast shutter speeds in
potentially low light conditions. My budget is ??600 -??800 UK pounds.
What would be the top five digital SLRs suitable for sports photograpy
in that price range?

I will also need a backup manual(film) SLR in case I run out of
batteries and I will probably try and get this second hand for around
??200. Any suggestions. Would I get a Nikon for that now that
everyone is going digital?

Depending on the particular camera you end up choosing, that same ??200
could probably buy several extra batteries, extra memory cards,
another charger, and (maybe) a battery grip. Unless you need film
body for some other reason.

-alan

--
Alan Hoyle - - http://www.alanhoyle.com/
"I don't want the world, I just want your half." -TMBG
Get Horizontal, Play Ultimate.

Patrick Finnegan wrote:
I am venturing back into the world of photography after a ten year
absence. I intend to concentrate on sports photography so I will need
a digital SLR capable of taking good photos at fast shutter speeds in
potentially low light conditions. My budget is £600 -£800 UK pounds.
What would be the top five digital SLRs suitable for sports photograpy
in that price range?

I will also need a backup manual(film) SLR in case I run out of
batteries and I will probably try and get this second hand for around
£200. Any suggestions. Would I get a Nikon for that now that
everyone is going digital?

You might consider a second hand pro DSLR, like Nikon D1H a 300-500 euros.
Smallish picture size by current trend, but lots of them at 5 fps with
40 picture buffer. Big minus is lousy battery life, for one typical soccer
match you would need two or three of them.

--

Jyrki Valkama