simon_barchard

Thanks guys, I appreciate all the advice.

Its a jungle out there for a beginner like me, and being an engineer certainly doesn't help - we are way to curios for our own good.

By the way, I would like to compliment Steven Thomson on a wonderful folder, I just hope I can say the same in the future.

At present I am leaning towards the f90x used, with a Sigma - 170-500mm F5-6.3 EX APO lens. I was intrigued by the idea of buying a 'broken' DSLR, but as I'm obviously not very experienced so I don't know what I'll be loosing out on (i.e. exactly how broken it is).

 

Besides that I am rather difficult as I would also like to take lots of landscape shot, on account of the fact that I com from a very beautiful part of the world (Cape Town, South Africa - Although I currently live in Denmark). Hence the 1.6x cropping of certain cheaper DSLR's isn't always an advantage. I figure shooting slides and evaluating with projector (at DKK25 = $4 US per roll developing in Denmark) won't be too costly and a good learning experience, until digital is in my price range.

 

All these difficualt choices !! If only I had loads of cash, then I wouldn't have to optimise quite as much :) As always any more advice that you can squeeze out of the grey matter will be warmly welcomed.

 

Cheers,

Simon

Hi all,

I am about to buy a camera body, mainly to be used for surfing and

landscape photography and hope that someone with a bit of experience

will help me with some questions I have.

 

-How important is the autofocus ability of the house for surfing

photography. Or would I find myself using manual focus techniques

more. For me this come down to the question of either the Nikon f801s

or the f90x (as that defines my price range, I'm trying to save money

for the lenses). Or a similar Canon equivalent?

-I hope to eventually (in some years) buy a digital SLR, would the

lenses that I buy for the film SLR still be compatible?

-Any other advice you may have to offer would be greatly appreciated!!

 

Thanks in advance.

Simon

I have definitely thought about getting some watershots but you can't walk before you can crawl...so I need some 'land based' practise first. Besides that, if I'm going to be in the water getting sunburnt when the waves are 'cooking', then I'll be surfing. The sun is very potent in sunny South Africa, so most of my shooting I'll be doing from under an unbrella when I'm surfed out and need to get in the shade. Thanks for the tip!

Hi all,

 

I have been wanting to get into photography for a few years now and

finally my finances permit me to buy some decent gear. I travel back

and forth between Denamrk and South Africa, and my primary interest is

taking surfing photos (as well as landscapes and nature). This is

driven by my desire to bring a bit of my home (Cape Town) back with me

to Europe.

 

Currently I am looking at buying a used Nikon f90x and matching this

up with a Sigma 170-500mm. (Another amature surf photographer advised

me to buy this lense). I would then add a wide angle lense for the

landscapes, but I haven't thought too much about that yet.

 

My questions are:

In all your expert opinions how well does this gear fit my needs + how

compatible is the lense/body combination.

I would imagine that in years to come I would go digital, would I

still be able to use my lenses.

Is there any other advice that you think I might benifit from????

 

Thanks for your time.

 

Simon