I have a budget of about £600 to spend on a new camera. I think I've pretty much decided I want more flexibility than a compact, so the question is whether to go for a compact system like a Panasonic GX1 or an SLR like a Nikon D5100 or Canon EOS 600D.
I am worried the SLR will be too bulky and I'll end up leaving it somewhere when the money shot opportunity arises.
I want to go for the SLR but .... out fishing last night, I reckon I would need a bag at least three times the size of the hip pack I was carrying, just to accomodate the SLR and fitted lens. The camera would outweigh the rest of my kit put together
Another question (sorry!) but if I go for the SLR, part of the benefit would be being able to upgrade if all goes well. Will I be able, or will I want, to use the same lenses if I upgrade to a full frame model?
Any advice to help swing the decision would be most helpful.
My opinion: if you are planning on making photography into a hobby, a DSLR and lenses could be a good investment. On the other hand: if you want a camera to take high quality photos for your personal archive and posting on the web, I would go for a high end point and shoot like the Canon G1X. This will give you a lot of features available on DSLR's without the burden of having to carry around kilos of camera gear.
As for lenses. Canon has specialised crop camera lenses and full frame lenses. The full frame lenses are interchangeable, the crop lenses aren't.
JAT wrote:Take a look at the Sony NEX series shit hot, compact size slt with lenses you can change!
Never understood the whole concept of the compact system camera's, the ones with lenses you can change. One of the things I like about P&S cameras is that you don't have to take off a lens and risk getting dirt on the sensor or moisture in the camera. The lenses are just to compact to have the amount of high quality glass, needed on high end (big aperture) lenses. They aren't clearer than the fixed lens used on a high end P&S.
IMO they are cameras with an identity issue. Nothing more than a gimmick in my book. Recently I used a mate's brandnew Olympus Pen with three lenses. He asked me to try it out, so I used it for a couple of days side by side to my Canon G9. I found it annoying that I had to switch lenses when taking a landscape shot to closing in on some details (I was on the Spanish countrysde). The pictures I ended up with weren't better than the pictures I took with my Canon G9. I did like the digital viewfinder on the Pen, but that was an optional extra.
sushiyummy wrote:Would the Digital SLR give better control on filming, esp narrow depth of field?
Barny,
That depends on the maximum aperture of the lens and its focal length, and on the size of the sensor.
SLR cameras can mount lenses with better maximum apertures than P&S ones, but a fast lens (low f number) is more expensive than a regular one.
So you can get a narrower depth of field with a SLR... or not.
Aitor is not like us, he is Spanish, and therefore completely mad.
Cheers, Paul
No discutas nunca con un idiota, la gente podría no notar la diferencia.
Immanuel Kant
Thanks for the help. Isn't the Canon G1X a compact system camera?
Sounds like I may be back to the Canon G12, which is sort of where I started ... or not.
Hell, I don't know!!
Maybe I go for the SLR and something like a Canon G11 which I can get quite cheaply and doesn't seem that different to the G12 and which I can pack when travelling light.
TrevH wrote:Thanks for the help. Isn't the Canon G1X a compact system camera?
Sounds like I may be back to the Canon G12, which is sort of where I started ... or not.
Hell, I don't know!!
Maybe I go for the SLR and something like a Canon G11 which I can get quite cheaply and doesn't seem that different to the G12 and which I can pack when travelling light.
Trev, you're right, you wouldn't be disappointed by the G11.
I've had a similar hunt, and still have my G10, I didn't want to lump a DSLR around whilst walking/fishing etc. But wanted as much quality as poss.
I've been looking at some of the Micro-four thirds with interchangeable lenses, but as Jeroen said, by the time you factor those in AND the bulk of them....
...be as well with the G11.
OR, just get a DSLR.
You can observe a lot just by watching. Yogi Berra
The GX1 is the latest member of the Powershot G-family, the follow-up of the G12. The G11 upwards are brilliant cameras for the money. Again, I wouldn't choose a compact with changeable lenses for fishing.
"The only advice it is necessary to give the angler… is to avoid any approach to foppery, as trout have the most thorough contempt for a fop…”
WC Stewart
The big problem with the old Canon G's (including my G9) were the high mp's and small sensor, which equals low resolution at high ISO. The G11 (I believe) and higher have fixed this with a larger sensor and less megapixels.
:laugh: 
