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artona · Moderator

HI

Thought Kev's site was great. I have been using digital cameras professionally for the last five years since I first saw the Fuji S1 which I purchased along with an Epson 7500 large format printer. At the time I had three other photographers working for me and so bought two more S1s and a Nikon D1X. From all jobs we enlarged the best photo (portraits) to 20 inches by 16 inches and not always from the whole frame and we were taking about 100 sittings per week. I mention this so you can get a feel for the use we were putting the equipment through. The D1x is still going OK but did go wrong in the first week (shutter collapse), it took four months for Nikon to repair. We have had two occassions to repair the S1s, each time we sent them to Bedford and had them back within days - important if you are earning a living. Out of the S1s which have had the most work, 2 are OK, I has given up and been retired.

But to this day not one customer had complained about the quality produced by a 3 million pixel Fuji S1 and you can now buy a second hand one for 2 - 3 hundred pounds from Ebay.

Out of Canon and Nikon last year I bought a Canon Eos 5D. Comparing the Fuji, Nikon and Canon. The Canon quality is superb, at 12million pixel it will be, it seems to handle colour better than the Nikon and Fuji with Fuji handling it better than Nikon. I know colour can be corrected afterwards but it is better if you don't have to. The Nikon is the best handling camera, faster to focus and a more reassuring click when you take the photo.

At the end of the day work out you budget and then decide on useage. I personally would go with Canon. Your daughter needs a 35mm SLR type thats a definate. She should buy for herself not the college course, when I went to press photography college in Sheffield back in 1978 we were all shooting on 35mm and there was some bloke trying to teach us how to use a 5x4 camera.

Best of luck

Pusser

My friend is a prof photog and at first ditched Nikon for Fuji at £1500 each and now has ditched Fuji for a Panasonic. Best camers he has owned he say and well under £400 he got it for.

Furthermore he did extensive comparisons of his pictures and even I could see the difference

artona · Moderator

what sort of panasonic is it

Pusser

Batch

The thing is if she is getting serious about photography then she has to have an SLR so that it grows with her. ie her skills and the lenses It's pointless going for less. When I said Nikon or Canon I forgot Fuji because they are Nikon based. ie they take their lenses. If she buys anything else even Olympus I think she will change to the Nikon Canon option because of the lack of range. You can still use 15 year old Nikon lenses on todays digital bodies The system can grow with you as you develop to include the professional cameras in the range such as the D2x or the D2Hs which I didn't mention because of cost. If you don't opt for the major players you will lose money every time you upgrade and if she is taking a serious course she will upgrade. I do European Tour Golf Events. You only see those two makes being used. It's the same with news photogs. look at the cameras

artona · Moderator

When you cover the Golf Events do you manage to stay in your motorhome at the venue. What do you do with your photographs

navman

Batch

Only got MH this November so haven't used it at the course yet but am hoping to. I've sold a few pics, some on web site and hundreds on my PC