OT: Still camera for wife?

[Black Forest]

I want to buy my wife a still camera for Christmas. Something she can point and shoot but with interchangeable lens.

She wants it for taking pictures outside and of our horses(with kid!)

I don't want to spend a fortune but a good quality camera is in order.

You all seem to know as much about photography as you do machining so I value your input.

[Ries]

why interchangeable lenses?
Most decent cameras with interchangeable lenses, like Canons or Nikons, start at $600, and quickly go up to $1500 and more, without lenses. Good lenses can push the whole package up over $3000 very quickly.

whereas every major manufacturer- Nikon, Canon, Olympus, etc, all make very very good point and shoot cameras with incredible zoom lenses for $200 to $300.

Unless you are a professional photographer, the expense, hassle, and bulk of a DSLR camera doesnt seem worth it to me.

since you live in Germany, you really should go with a Leica, though, if you decide to go whole hog- this one is nice, and only $22,000, for the body- lenses, of course, are extra...
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...=REG&A=details

[aostling]

mirrorless cameras with interchangeable lenses

The Olympus E-PM1 "Pen Mini" is the best of the really small mirrorless cameras with interchangeable lenses. It costs $500 with the 14-42mm kit lens, which performs very well (I use it on my Olympus E-P2). This gives a 35mm equivalent coverage of a 28-85mm lens. The camera can shoot in RAW, and can mount micro four thirds lenses ranging in focal lengths from the Olympus 9-18mm zoom to the crazy-long 75-300mm zoom.




The new Pentax Q http://www.dpreview.com/previews/pentaxQ/ is even smaller, but has a much smaller sensor so the image quality is not in the same league. But it sure is cute, although quite expensive.

[mklotz]

While I love my Canon SX10, I operate on the principle that the "best" camera is the one you're likely to be carrying when a photo-op occurs so my pocket camera is a Panasonic ZS8...

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/ZS8/ZS8A.HTM

Wide angle (24mm equivalent) to 16x optical zoom (384 mm equivalent) in a package that will fit in a shirt pocket or a lady's purse.

[Black Forest]

She does not want a small pocket type camera. She said, "I want a real camera." Whatever that means!!!!

And she does not want to have to look in a viewfinder. She would like the option to look at the LCD screen to compose a shot.

[LKeithR]

By day I'm a welder/fabricator machinist but one of my favourite hobbies is photography. I've been a photographer for many, many years and over that time have accumulated way too much gear.

Without going into a lot of detail I would say that one of the main differences between a point and shoot camera and one with interchangeable lenses is the level of creativity the latter allows. Even this is a very broad brush statement since, ultimately, it's the photographer, not the camera, that makes the picture. However, a camera with interchangeable lenses does have definite benefits, especially when it comes to using faster lenses for better light gathering.

If you think your wife will just want to take really good "record" type pictures then I would lean towards a good P&S zoom camera; on the other hand if you think she might want to adopt photography as a hobby, get creative and eventually build into a system, then something with interchangeable lenses might be a better choice.

Here's a very good site to look through for ideas...

http://www.dpreview.com/

In particular, check out their camera comparison tool...

http://www.dpreview.com/products/compare/cameras

[cuemaker]

My wife was the same way... We started looking at the DSLR's, but after much looking, playing with etc.. she went with the Sony NEX-3.

Its very small, take 35mm lenses, and has the same imagining sensor (not sure if lingo is right here) as Sony's bigger DSLR's. Plus it was cheaper.

Very nice photos.

[Mike Burdick]

I'd let her research and pick it out!

But...

The Nikon D5100 is a great camera - well worth the price. It has everything she'll probably ever use. It has 16.2 megapixels, a swivel Vari-Angle LCD monitor or thru the lens viewing, and full HD 1080p movie capabilities. It also can be had in "kit" form with two lenses. It can be connected to a remote microphone so the sound of the automatic focus will be minimized.

By the way, the movies are great and can be watched on your television. I assume she'll let you use it too - right?

http://www.amazon.com/Nikon-D5100-Di.../dp/B004V4IWKG

[Black Forest]

Of course she would let me use it but I have my own camera's. She gets nervous borrowing mine. Especially when she forgets one on a seat by the riding arena and I find it the next day!

[Mike Burdick]

Of course she would let me use it but I have my own camera's. She gets nervous borrowing mine. Especially when she forgets one on a seat by the riding arena and I find it the next day!

Then why don't you let her look thru your collection and pick the one she likes - then buy her one!

[Black Forest]

SHe doesn't like mine. You must look through the viewfinders.

[macona]

The Micro 4/3 cameras are pretty nice. You can get an electronic viewfinder for them as well.

Other than that look at the Canon T3i or 60D. Both have live view and real nice 1080p video recording. One you go back to looking through a real viewfinder you will find you wont want to go back to the little P&S.

[ikdor]

Ha, asking for camera advice. You'll get as many different opinions as answers, so I'll throw in mine to keep up the ratio

I figure your wife wants a better camera to be able to better shoot moving horses without getting motion blur.
For this the best would be a real DSLR as they grab most light and thus need shorter shutter speeds. But as she doesn't need the viewfinder it's better to get one of the new mirror-less models using a micro four-thirds format or similar size. It's much easier to carry around.

These are also designed to use live view from the image sensor on the rear display (on a normal DSLR the live view is rather bad with regards to focus speed etc.)

I'll hazard as guess that most brands with the intermediate size lenses are fine and I would probably grab something like the Panasonic G, Olympus or a Sony.

I second the idea to read the reviews at dpreview.com to see which has the features that will appeal to you with respect to size/lens/evf/video/flash/etc.

Good luck,
Igor

[macona]

These are also designed to use live view from the image sensor on the rear display (on a normal DSLR the live view is rather bad with regards to focus speed etc.)

With the canon there is an option for faster focusing in liveview that drop the mirror down for a fraction of a second to focus. Works well. It look at the Sony series with the "mirrorless" where it has a beam splitter to get an image to the viewfinder all the time regardless of the mode. You do loose about 1/3 stop from this though.

One nice advantage of the Canon is it has a short focal plane length so you can use almost every other lens out there with the proper adapter and maintain infinity focus.

[Black Forest]

ARe you talking about the Cannon 60D, Macona?