Community Newsletter: Q&A: Newbie to dSLR: Taking the next step beyond point-and-shoot cameras

Prices at dSLR entry level

In reply to: Newbie to dSLR: Taking the next step beyond point-and-shoot cameras by Lee Koo (ADMIN) 

I started with the first digital SLR ever made for consumer use, the Olympus C2500L. Nice little camera, but only 2.5 megapixels and a fixed lens, but a true SLR. It does great macro work, on the positive side. I went with point and shoot for a while, and recently purchased a new digital SLR... the real thing with changeable lenses, this time.

I have been very impressed with this camera and with it's instructional GUI, even my wife seems to use it very easily. It has the same APS-C image sensor as the Nikon, and in my opinion, you can only make so many fleas stand on the head of a pin. The maximum reasonable number of megapixels falls somewhere between 6 and 8 for the APS-C image sensors, so you don't sacrifice very much by not getting the wowzer 8 or 10 megapixel super camera... unless you wish to make poster sized blowups of your output. I wanted to go with Olympus, as both of my previous cameras were of that make. The xD memory cards seem to have a speed problem, and the 4x3 image sensor is somewhat smaller than the one on the camera I chose. This is one place where bigger is better, but the offerings right now aren't as big as I would like, so I settled for one of the bigger in the lot.

There is little to remember about shooting with my new purchase, as this camera explains most of the choices you can make, either when you access the various shooting modes, or run through the expanded modes. Neat stuff if you are trying to learn a little about the camera, on your first few shots. I'm not quite as instinctive with it as my old Minolta X700, but I'll get there, soon.

My main issues were batteries... I wanted to use AA lithium cells for convenience of access,when batteries go dead and I can't use a charger. Then there's not having to buy high priced replacement rechargeables when I burn down the originals. I also wanted a decent kit lens, which this camera has. It's not a bad piece of glass, and it actually has a metal mount, which some of the entry level dSLRs don't. I mostly wanted to use Secure Digital memory cards, as they seem to have a speed advantage on many of the other cards, and they can be gotten for fairly reasonable prices. Less of a requirement was wanting a camera with a body-centric anti-shake system, to give better results, more easily, in more conditions, with any lens, and without the use of a tripod. The other side of that is not having to buy those super high priced image stabilizer lenses... not being a pro shooter, I just can't justify that cost.

All that said, after many choices made and changed during the shopping process, over the past year or two, I finally settled on the Pentax K100D. I was able to get it for $520 with the kit lens, and there is a fifty dollar rebate through Pentax on the camera body, right now, until late July. Any of the high level near-SLR digitals on the market cost very close to this price or higher. Most of the real entry level dSLRs are considerably higher.

I have used JPGs as my main shooting format with previous cameras, even though I had TIFFs available, but since purchasing this Pentax, I shoot in RAW only mode. The free downloadable photo utility Irfanview will view, edit, and print them, as well as the fairly good Pentax software that comes with the camera. It's like having the shot back again to adjust the camera, and you can salvage some bad shooting choices in many instances.

It's a good camera to handle, takes great images, and doesn't cost so much I can't afford to buy memory cards and batteries after buying it. To hold it is nice, too... it has a little heft, but feels nicely substantial, rather than flimsy, like some of the entry level dSLRs.

This is less an advertisement for my Pentax camera as an illustration of the process I went through and what I discovered after the purchase. I wish you well on your buying quest, and hope you are as satisfied as I am with the final purchase.