What are everyone's thoughts...

[Scutterborn]

I'm looking at a sony alpha 390 d-slr camera. I found it at a pawn shop up here in Odessa. It's got 5 lenses with it. A 50mm, 75-300 tamron, 18-55 macro, a super macro wide lens and a 58mm telephoto lens. It's also got around 4 lens filters. Also the big flash. Basically a big ole goodie bag. I know next to squat about cameras except hat I wanna take nice pics and learn more. Need some input from y'all. They are asking $760 for everything. I'm thinking $650 though.

[Gseclipse02]

take nice pics of what ??? just corals ??? out door events??

[Scutterborn]

Everything. Mostly the tank though.

[CoryDude]

Check out Ken Rockwell's site. He's got a lot of reviews for just about every camera out there. I used his advice and reviews when I bought my Nikon last year. He also has reviews for most of those lenses too. http://www.kenrockwell.com/

The lenses are going to be the most important part of the setup, and that's a pretty good assortment there for the price. The 18-55mm will cover most of your tank pics. The 75-300 will do great for outdoor and nature shots. The other prime lenses (50mm, 58mm) are most likely really fast lenses and will suffice for your action shots.

See if they'll let you take it outside and get a shot of something. Look for some flowers or something with some vivid colors. Taking pics under fluorescent lighting in the store might not give you an accurate idea of the cameras capability.

But, for that price, you can get a nice Nikon d3000 with a great 18-55mm lens.

[Scutterborn]

I checked the d3100 and the canon t2i. I'm more familiar with the Sony menus. I've had 3 point and shoot Sonya before an I even still have my '97 sony 3.1 mp that works like a champ. A lot of folks say just what you did, Cory. I really don't wanna spend more than 650 though. I still have that DSA neo 185 that needs to get setup. I could see myself getting crazy with a nicer camera. I'm trying to take in everyone's advice and it will all be taken into consideration.

[Scutterborn]

Also I read that the Sony will accept a huge variety of lenses. Is the nikon the same way?

[rrasco]

I think you can get an adapter for Nikon to accept Canon lenses, but not the other way around. Canon lenses are only compatibly after 89 or something like that since they changed their mounting system. I'm not sure how sony is on lenses.

[Scutterborn]

I've read that all the Minolta lenses will fit and they are dirt cheap since Minolta went under.

[Scutterborn]

I also just found a canon eos 60d. It's 1300 with the 28-135mm lens. This camera looks like it'll kick some butt!

[CoryDude]

That one gets my vote. +1 on the canon.

[Scutterborn]

I couldn't tell what the resolution was on the canon after my second trip. I think it may be the old 6 mp one. I don't know how to tell the difference.

http://img.tapatalk.com/48182dda-e125-737c.jpg

http://img.tapatalk.com/48182dda-e0f7-05d9.jpg

[CoryDude]

Don't put a lot of stock in the resulution on dslr's. Their image sensor is much bigger than a point in shoot. My friend's 6mp canon takes pics that are much more vivid and sharper than my wife's 12mp point-n-shoot.

[CoryDude]

Just checked some reviews and it is most likely a 6mp, but again, don't put much stock in that. It's an older camera, but most of the complaints were about the button layouts and not picture quality. The higher resolution dslr's mean you can go with larger size prints like 16x20, 24x36 sized prints and still retain great pic quality. Just based on brand name and their awesome lenses, I'd go with the canon.

[Scutterborn]

I'm considering the Nikon D5100 combo best buy has now as well. Price not being important, which would you go with? The 10 year old Canon D60 or the new Nikon D5100?

[350gt]

I like canon and would say the newer Nikon over the aged canon. But with you looking within the price range of the Nikon, you open up a whole new ball field..

[350gt]

Of topic in a way but idk what phone you have, but I have the iPhone 4s and I bought the ollo clip on lens for the camera. It's a 3 in 1 (macro/wide angle/fish eye lenses) and this thing takes some really good macro shots....

For $70 it will sure hold someone off like me. I bought a canon t3i but don't want to spend for a real macro lens, this little lens will work fine until I dish out some money..

[Scutterborn]

I've got the 4s as well but didn't trust the hype on that lens... As far as the camera goes, I'm still gonna get one tho. I'm even considering a canon d60. The new one. I think I'm going overboard for what I need tho. It's really just to take pics of the tank and the kiddos running around being kids.

[Scutterborn]

I'm still trying to save up some extra cash to build the 185, too. I'd rather spend the extra coin on the tank.

[350gt]

I hope to post pics with this lens soon....

I have a canon T3i and it's a decent camera for everyday pics.

[Scutterborn]

I ended up with a Nikon d5100. The camera performs slightly better ( I've read online...) than the canon in low light but is almost the same in every other category. I'll post pics soon as I can figure this thingy out!

[Regric25]

I ended up with a Nikon d5100. The camera performs slightly better ( I've read online...) than the canon in low light but is almost the same in every other category. I'll post pics soon as I can figure this thingy out!

I recently picked one of these up and I have to tell ya its pretty nice! It uses the same sensor as the Nikon D7000 and it is sweet. It handles high ISO very well and has built in NR that you can turn off if taking pictures of stars... It has some nice features like interval shooting and HD video recording. It even has a "miniature" feature along with an HDR feature. It also allows you to bracket photos which I use a lot. The kit lens is pretty nice. I used the same lens with the D60 I had previously so its not much different. Overall I give this camera 2 thumbs up. Let me know if you have any questions and remember practice, practice, practice!