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Beginner photographer, which one to get?

jinyoungkim7

jinyoungkim7

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 14, 2010
119
8
Maryland, USA
Hey guys!

I've never touched a DSLR before but I've decided to get into photography because I love taking pictures, albeit it has been on my iphone. I've decided to take this step because I travel a lot and with my Kenyan safari coming up I don't want to miss out on lifelong pictures.

Here's my dilemma, I need to choose between these two:

- Rebel t5i with kit lens + Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS II Telephoto Zoom Lens
(This would be $720 total, because there is a deal right now on Amazon for $150 off the lense if I buy the camera)

OR

- Sony Nex 6 for $740 (Mirrorless camera)

Also, would those Canon lens be good for wildlife photography on a safari? I can't afford much better, and I'm not a pro photographer that really needs much fancier anyways. And would the lens on the Sony suck for wildlife photography?

Currently leaning towards the Canon set up since my good friend has a Canon and so she could teach me how to use it / let me borrow some of her lens sometimes.


Thank you!!
 
Last edited:
jinyoungkim7 said:
Hey guys!

I've never touched a DSLR before but I've decided to get into photography because I love taking pictures, albeit it has been on my iphone. I've decided to take this step because I travel a lot and with my Kenyan safari coming up I don't want to miss out on lifelong pictures.

Here's my dilemma, I need to choose between these two:

- Rebel t5i with kit lens + Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS II Telephoto Zoom Lens
(This would be $720 total, because there is a deal right now on Amazon for $150 off the lense if I buy the camera)

OR

- Refurbished Nikon D5200 with kit lens
($520, I'd have to spend some more money on getting better lens though since I'm assuming the kit lens wouldn't be great for landscape and safari photography)

Also, would those Canon lens be good for wildlife photography on a safari? I can't afford much better, and I'm not a pro photographer that really needs much fancier anyways.

Currently leaning towards the Canon set up since my good friend has a Canon and so she could teach me how to use it / let me borrow some of her lens sometimes. Also, like the feeling of buying something "new" than "refurbishsed/used"

Thank you!!
Click to expand...

if the nikon comes with the 18-105 kit lens, you're better off with the canon 55-250 reach-wise. also, if you can afford it, go for the canon for all the reasons you mentioned (being new, being able to borrow lenses and being taught).

moreover, I am partial to canon
 
needfx said:
if the nikon comes with the 18-105 kit lens, you're better off with the canon 55-250 reach-wise. also, if you can afford it, go for the canon for all the reasons you mentioned (being new, being able to borrow lenses and being taught).

moreover, I am partial to canon
Click to expand...

The Nikon lens are the 18-55 ones
 
jinyoungkim7 said:
The Nikon lens are the 18-55 ones
Click to expand...

I have the kit 18-55 MM Nikon lens, and although not bad, it's going to be pretty useless for a Safari. One of the main reasons I don't shoot wildlife is because of my lens.
IMO I'd choose the Cannon as the lens is better, you have a friend who can teach you etc.
There really isn't much to choose between Nikon & Cannon for the aperture user, but just remember once you buy into this hobby it gets expensive.
Think about camera bags, memory cards, tripods, monopods, flash, filters etc. I'm afraid the camera is only the start.
I bought mine last year, and thoroughly enjoying the hobby.
 
Also, can I ask what your guys' opinions are of the mirrorless cameras at the t5i price range and why I'd choose the t5i over mirrorless (vice versa)...

I just heard about mirrorless cameras when I found this forum today.
 
jinyoungkim7 said:
Hey guys!

I've never touched a DSLR before but I've decided to get into photography because I love taking pictures, albeit it has been on my iphone. I've decided to take this step because I travel a lot and with my Kenyan safari coming up I don't want to miss out on lifelong pictures.

Here's my dilemma, I need to choose between these two:

- Rebel t5i with kit lens + Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS II Telephoto Zoom Lens
(This would be $720 total, because there is a deal right now on Amazon for $150 off the lense if I buy the camera)

OR

- Refurbished Nikon D5200 with kit lens
($520, I'd have to spend some more money on getting better lens though since I'm assuming the kit lens wouldn't be great for landscape and safari photography)

Also, would those Canon lens be good for wildlife photography on a safari? I can't afford much better, and I'm not a pro photographer that really needs much fancier anyways.

Currently leaning towards the Canon set up since my good friend has a Canon and so she could teach me how to use it / let me borrow some of her lens sometimes. Also, like the feeling of buying something "new" than "refurbishsed/used"

Thank you!!
Click to expand...

IMO, I would go with the Canon. I have a Canon T3 and it is good for the most part. (Just grew out of it...) Anyway, I would get that lens now. Upgrading lenses are very important to get good lenses.

If you buy from somewhere that is in the business buying used is fine. KEH, BH, etc. all are good shops where you can get used gear. Buy lenses used - save some good money there.

Back to the lenses, you will need a telephoto lens. Without knowing your budget, I would go with the 55-250 from Canon. The 75-300 has a lot of color fringing, but I have no experience with the 55-250. You could always go with a Sigma or Tamron lens.

Good luck in your choice.

PS: Go Canon :)
 
mrcowdude20 said:
IMO, I would go with the Canon. I have a Canon T3 and it is good for the most part. (Just grew out of it...) Anyway, I would get that lens now. Upgrading lenses are very important to get good lenses.

If you buy from somewhere that is in the business buying used is fine. KEH, BH, etc. all are good shops where you can get used gear. Buy lenses used - save some good money there.

Back to the lenses, you will need a telephoto lens. Without knowing your budget, I would go with the 55-250 from Canon. The 75-300 has a lot of color fringing, but I have no experience with the 55-250. You could always go with a Sigma or Tamron lens.

Good luck in your choice.

PS: Go Canon :)
Click to expand...

Your opinion on t5i vs. similar priced Mirrorless camera? I didn't even know what they were until today... shows how much I'm a noobie
 
jinyoungkim7 said:
I read the whole thing but there's alot of terminology I don't understand... I was wondering more in simpler terms and in my situation if you guys would prefer the t5i and the lens over a similar priced mirrorless.

Thanks for the link though!
Click to expand...

there is only one mirrorless I care about, and that is the extravagantly priced Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-RX1 with the fixed prime lens and the full frame sensor.

other than this, mirrorless cameras still have a long way to go.
 
Done two safaris and planning the third.


If I were today buying a photo kit for Safari, I would go micro four thirds, not DSLR. I would get an Olympus OMD EM-1. Lenses would be Panasonic 12-35, 35-100, 100-300. Remember that M43 sensors are half the size of 35mm sensors. The effective impact is that you double the length of the lens in comparison to a full frame sensor. So a 100-300 lens on a M43 body would give you the range of a 200-600 lens on full frame 35 DSLR.
 
forgoet all those.

skip the entry levels and go to the mid range like the 60D, 70D or Nikon D700 or D7100.

they ahve more easier access to manual controls thus youare more inclined to play with manual more rather thans etting auto modes or scene modes.
 
MCAsan said:
Done two safaris and planning the third.


If I were today buying a photo kit for Safari, I would go micro four thirds, not DSLR. I would get an Olympus OMD EM-1. Lenses would be Panasonic 12-35, 35-100, 100-300. Remember that M43 sensors are half the size of 35mm sensors. The effective impact is that you double the length of the lens in comparison to a full frame sensor. So a 100-300 lens on a M43 body would give you the range of a 200-600 lens on full frame 35 DSLR.
Click to expand...

Well, remember I only have $700ish to spend... which is why I'm opting for t5i

----------
KimJonNumberUn said:
forgoet all those.

skip the entry levels and go to the mid range like the 60D, 70D or Nikon D700 or D7100.

they ahve more easier access to manual controls thus youare more inclined to play with manual more rather thans etting auto modes or scene modes.
Click to expand...

Well I don't have 1k+ to spend...
 
jinyoungkim7 said:
Well, remember I only have $700ish to spend... which is why I'm opting for t5i

----------



Well I don't have 1k+ to spend...
Click to expand...

did u even read my post? well u can afford 740 dollar camera, u can spend a few more for a 1000 + one.

the 60D is under 1000 dollars if you even did your research
 
needfx said:
there is only one mirrorless I care about, and that is the extravagantly priced Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-RX1 with the fixed prime lens and the full frame sensor.

other than this, mirrorless cameras still have a long way to go.
Click to expand...

I would love to agree with you but then we would both be wrong. There are several mirrorless offerings that are excellent cameras that deliver high quality RAW files etc. that can be printed easily on larger paper. Whether it be Fuji X cameras, Olympus OM series and a few others. What matter is the type of photography one does and how large a print one wishes to make.

As someone who worked with 5x7, 4x5, roll film (various dimensions), 35mm, and a few digital cameras, I think you need to realize I wouldn't take a 5x7 for a safari to catch up close antelope running. In the digital world, there are a handful of non full frame mirrorless that produce brilliant results.
 
To the original poster. Getting started is always a difficult task and there are responses that gave very good advice and opinion.

Here is my few peanuts to toss into the gallery:

If you plan to continue doing photography as a hobby, more often than not, your investment will be in your lenses. Camera models come and go (replaced by better cameras or ones with more bells and whistles while people usually hold on to their lenses ... usually*).

If you plan to get the Canon (nice choice btw), your first lens is your training lens and using it along with your camera body is where you will learn to shoot. I think the choice you are thinking about would serve you well for the price. What I highly suggest is that you purchase whatever combination you choose, and take it out every day and shoot and see if it works for you. Safari photo hobbyists often have at least 2 lenses with them to cover wide shots and telephoto (now days...zoom lenses). If you can only pick one lens for the safari, the 50 - 200x range falls a touch short but is still very usable.
Photography can be a very expensive hobby and you should consider what software you want to process your images with - the usual candidates are Lightroom, Aperture, Pixelmator, Adobe Elements for OSX. Photoshop isn't really required for typical post processing so the named items are not bad choices and you will need to investigate which one fits your style of work.
Also, consider getting the right speed cards to go into your camera and get a few or have some type of laptop or drive that you can off load the images.
Last - safaris can be dusty and at times foul weather, get a decent bag for your gear along with camera/lens cleaning supplies.

Hope that whatever camera you choose, you have an excellent safari and the camera serves you well.

-----------
Fuji X-E1, Fuji X-E2, 35,1.4 18-55, 55-200
FM2, 105 macro 2.8
Fuji GSW645 (roll film range finder)
Billingham and Kata camera bags, various tripods
more
 
If it were me I would get the canon XXX and the 55 250, I have used the 55 250 and thought in excellent for the price

Yes of course more reach would be useful on safari but without spending loads thats as good as you can probably get.
 
With that budget, plan on renting a 7D or similar top crop body and , good lenses such as 24-105 and 100-400. Lesser crop bodies DSLR do not have the AF, frame rate, and ISO range you will have in 7D or D7100.

You will need CF cards and a CF card reader. I would take at least 2 32GB Lexar 600x cards to minimize the time needed to clear the buffer to the card. Two cards should let you shoot all day with only one card change. I like the dual slot Lexar reader. Needless to say you want to carry at least two charged batteries for the camera.

You should allow at least 300GB per week of storage space. That may mean an external 1TB drive for photo storage and a second 1TB drive for backups of the complete Mac file system.
 
MCAsan said:
With that budget, plan on renting a 7D or similar top crop body and , good lenses such as 24-105 and 100-400. Lesser crop bodies DSLR do not have the AF, frame rate, and ISO range you will have in 7D or D7100.

You will need CF cards and a CF card reader. I would take at least 2 32GB Lexar 600x cards to minimize the time needed to clear the buffer to the card. Two cards should let you shoot all day with only one card change. I like the dual slot Lexar reader. Needless to say you want to carry at least two charged batteries for the camera.

You should allow at least 300GB per week of storage space. That may mean an external 1TB drive for photo storage and a second 1TB drive for backups of the complete Mac file system.
Click to expand...

Well the thing is I want to learn photography and have a camera of my own. I don't even know what a lot of the terminology you mentioned is so it's probably better that I get an entry level DSLR or a mirrorless?
 
Micro four thirds are mirror less. You can get mirror less in full frame (full 35mm sensor), in APS-C crop sensor bodies (like Sony NEX and others) and in micro four thirds.

Full frame sensor bodies have a 35mm sensor the size of good old 35mm film. The APS-C señor bodies like Canon 7D and Nikon D7100 have sensors that are around 3/4 of the size of a full frame sensor. Compared to using a given lens on a full frame, the crop bodies give you a 1.4-1.6 multiplication of the length. For example a 100mm lens of a FF body is shooting at 100mm. Put that lens on a APS-C crop body and the effective shooting length is around 150mm (depending on exactly which crop body is used). Note you can get both FF and crop bodies in
digital single lens reflex (DSLR) with a mirror and pentaprism just like a film SLR or, you can go all digital mirror less.

Then there is micro four thirds. That spec is all digital with a sensor that is half the size of a FF DSLR sensor. Above I said if you put the 100mm on a crop body you would get the effective range of around 150mm. Due to the smaller sensor in a M43 body, you have 2x multiplier. So the 100mm lens would have an effective range of 200mm compared to the 100mm on a FF body.

One of the important things about the M43 spec.....standardized interface between lenses and bodies!!!!! So if you get a Olympus body, you can use lens from Olypmus, Panasonic, Zeiss, Voigtlander and others.


http://www.four-thirds.org/en/microft/
 
jinyoungkim7 said:
Well the thing is I want to learn photography and have a camera of my own. I don't even know what a lot of the terminology you mentioned is so it's probably better that I get an entry level DSLR or a mirrorless?
Click to expand...

There is lots of photography terminology that we all use that we assume people know what we are talking about.
Basically all the entry level DSLR's on the market are good enough these days. They all have good points and bad points. Lots of us are very brand loyal, but that doesn't make the other brands rubbish. I'm looking to upgrade from my entry level body (Nikon D3200) to a D7100. The main reason is because the autofocus is better and the camera will have easier to use controls.
However when I started shooting I just left it in auto mode and let the camera work out things like exposure etc. this is what most people do. Now I have read up, asked question, watched videos I am starting to feel more comfortable choosing how I want the pictures to look in manual mode.
Using Aperture priority mode or Shutter priority mode is when you choose if you want to blur the background more than standard or to show movement in some water by taking a long exposure (with a tripod!). I would recommend reading up on the exposure triangle and getting out of auto as quickly as possible. Also before you go on safari, spend as much time shooting as you can to get used to your equipment and to hone your skills.
Don't worry about the equipment, just make a decision and get out there and start taking pictures. That's how you will learn. Whether your camera is a DSLR or mirroless is far less important.
 
They both are good choices. I would tend to lean towards an SLR if you think photography will be an important hobby for you. Whatever you get, make sure you get out and practice lots before your trip - and don't be afraid to share your photos here! It's one of the best ways to learn and refine your skills. Take your camera everywhere you go, and have fun!
 
I'd vote for the Canon T5i. You might want to look at getting a prime lens down the road too, as working with primes (fixed focal length, no zooming) really forces you to interact with both your camera and subject.

As others have stated, try to get out of auto as quick as possible. The 4 things you'll really need to learn to work with are a) lighting (different angles, is the lighting in front of the subject, behind, to the side, etc.), b) shutter speed (how much time the camera allows light to hit the sensor), c) aperture (how much light gets to come through the barrel of the lens to hit the sensor), and d) ISO (how sensitive to light your sensor is)

Basically, you can adjust b, c, and d like sliders that affect each other. The end goal is to manipulate the 'sliders' so you get a well balanced exposure, with the artful effect that you want (not too bright or too dark, unless you actually want an 'off' exposure for something like a silhouette shot)

Want one of those pictures where only one thing is in focus, and all the background is kinda blurry? You'll have to adjust your aperture to a low number (wide-open) to get that effect, but when you do that, you're letting more light in, so you'd need to either adjust the shutter to open/close quicker (to let in less light) or decrease the ISO/sensitivity (so that the sensor actually sees less light) (or a combo of both).

Want one of those pictures where it looks like the water is flowing (as opposed to stopped in time)? You're gonna have to let that shutter stay open for a while! What does that mean for your aperture? It would have to 'stop down' (constrict) to let in less light so the exposure remains balanced. On a bright day you might even need to use what's called a neutral density filter to lower the amount of light entering the camera even more!

Good luck with whatever decision you end up making. As others have said, get out and shoot, and especially make efforts to shoot during those 'golden hours,' where the sunlight is just so awesome that you can't help but take good pictures!
 
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