Digital Cameras, need help
 

I'd like to shoot some local girls for an amateur website. But I want to have the best digital camera for under $1500 USD. I want to be able to have external umbrella softlight flashes, overhead flash. I also want to have a really good lcd display so I can look at the pic and know if it's any good. Cause cameras like the Olympus 2020 has the shittiest little lcd on it. I haven't looked at the 3040 or the 4040 models, but I wanted everyone's opinion and if you are a digital photographer yourself, if you can provide some samples of pics you took with your camera so I can compare, it would be great. Thank you :)

I use an Olympus E-10 and love it. Its has of course got a hot shoe and pc sync so you can run all the flashes you want (I dont use either in the studio).

You can get them for under $1500 or go the E-20 now, you can get them for under $1500 as well.

I dont use the LCD on the back of the screen at all - maybe once every couple of shoots, I honestly cant make a judgement about how good the photo is from the LCD. You are better off taking a few shots and throwing them up on a PC.

The only time I would look at the LCD is if I wanted something strange with the shot composition and wanted to check it worked.

My link is in my sig if you want to check quality and I know Dean from Planet Content uses a E-10 as well so check his site out as well.

Jayson

two shots by one person from the same camera can look vastly different.. let alone two people with the same camera..

10 goto www.dpreview.com
20 goto 10

Thanks for the tips, but can anyone recommend a very high quality digital camera that has external flash capabilities with a 6x or more (optical) physical zoom. I hate all these cameras that claim 20x zoom when they are 2x optical and 10x digital. Damn digital zoom is complete crap imho.

Thanks

having a little basic flashback there? :)

dpreview rocks. i havent decided what cam im buying myself, but i am still reading reviews & such

heheh when "hacking" the OS consisted of pressing "esc" a bunch of times :)

seriously dpreview is the gear.. if you're going to invest in a cam you've got to drag the experience out for as long as possible and savour the purchase... :)

it;s just the sheer amount of these posts when no one bothers to use the search function.... at least he asked for samples.. and about flash compatability and didn't just say "whats the best one" still if thats what you want then you don't want two amatuers from here posting their happy snaps, and everyone's seen aaron, dean and charlies content.. you want dpreviews ultra indepth assessments shot showing barrel distortion, colour saturation etc. and then his happy snaps.. (and not of course barring said guys from some well targetted spam.)

Thanks bhuto, I'll take a look, but it's hard to get reviews from sites like dpreview on how a pussy would look in the photo. I am looking for actual photographers experienced in taking their pics with digital. I was thinking 35mm, but they are too damn expensive to process and operate, etc. Why go that route when you can do just as well with a digital.

heheheh. yeah tis true :)

anyways if you're just doing amatuer theres no reason in hell to do 35mm - look at aaronm's stuff.. there really is no need.. as long as you've got 3 megapixels.. (and in your price range you've got 5) you'll be fine.. my only experience is with the sony DSC range so i can't help you with what you're looking for... (ie flash accessories etc)

For that kind of money you can look at the Canon Eos D30. They recently have come out with a D60 model so the D30 has dropped in price.

Also I forget who told me on this board, but they said a used kodak high end is good.

Spankstrocko

Are you fucking crazy?

Where is Unseen on this one?

This is a joke right?

You can NOT get a Cannon D-30 for that kind of money otherwise I would have posted earlier. The best price you will get at the moment on a d-30 is about $2150 USD for just the body. Then you probably want to buy a nice wide angle lens for +- $500 and a telephoto zoom for around another $1000, extra batteries, and ofcourse plenty of memory. To run this setup it will cost more but you will be very very happy with what you can do with it. The d-60 is basicly the same but is a 6megapixel cmos instead of a 3 megapixel cmos. No need for 6 megpxls if your doing web only, for print id say go for it and shoot in raw. If your shooting in your studio it is possible to take pics with these cameras hooked directly to the pc so your memory and power problems may be eliminated.

FYI, The Kodak hi end cameras are all Nikon Bodies
The Nikon D-1 series cameras are nice but even more money because they are using ccd sensors instead of cmos sensors. Canon can keep the cost down on the d-30 and d-60 cameras for this reason and this reason only. Usually cmos sucks but aparently they have developed a special one for these cameras. I have read a few articles that proved that the d-30 shot in raw mode and printed out produced better pics than a scanned negative. The above canons are not considered pro cameras like the Nikon D-1's.

Canon's newest and first pro series digital camera is the EOS 1-d
It uses a ccd like the Nikons and is a 4.1 megapixel camera running in at $5500 for just the body. (same as nikons).

You do mean the best digital camera for shooting local girls for an amateur website right? Not "the best digital camera." If you want the best digital camera, go to your local Sinar Bron dealer and be prepared to pay, oh, $20K-$50K, depending on the bells and whistles you want.

More seriously, why is everybody interested in getting a camera that's way overkill. Get a 2-3 megapixel camera for $700 or less and spend the rest of your budget on something more useful than resolution and camera features you don't need and may never use.

I use Olympus C-3000 and C-4040 cameras, and to tell you the truth, the 3.4 megapixel camera (which I shoot at about 2 megapixels...1600x1200) takes exactly the same pictures as the 4.1 megapixel C-4040, because I also shoot at 1600x1200. The lenses are superb, they are easy to learn and use, and why in the world would I want anything more?

Yes, I am looking for the best camera that SELLS for under $1500, I am not looking for a $4000 camera for $1500, just the best camera I can get for $1500. I am doing local amateur girls and I need the best quality I can get. So I need 6x optical zoom, external flash capability but at a good price.

Thanks for all your help so far btw, it has made me research a lot of cameras, but so far the one that I will probably go with is the Olympus E-10, it looks amazing, even though it's only got a 4x optical.

Look on Ebay and you can find a new D30 for around $1500.

Most of them are slightly over $1500 but for around $1700ish you can get one with a microdrive and a second battery. Some even sell with a lens.

Take a peek.

Spankstrocko

If you need 6x zoom just buy the fuji 6900 !!! It's not a brandnew camera, but you can get the Fuji around 600-700 US$...

I found a guy on dpreview who was using the E-10 and the Fuji. And he prefers the cheaper Fuji !!!

Some of his samples:

The E-10...

http://www.pbase.com/ronhep/mia

The Fuji 6900...

http://www.pbase.com/ronhep/figure_shots (outdoor)
http://www.pbase.com/ronhep/6900_glamour1 (indoor)
http://www.pbase.com/ronhep/katerina_indoorsredskirt (indoor)
http://www.pbase.com/ronhep/katerina_redskirt_outdoors (outdoor)
http://www.pbase.com/ronhep/kim_blackhat (indoor)
http://www.pbase.com/ronhep/kim_schoolgirl (indoor)
http://www.pbase.com/ronhep/moka (indoor)
http://www.pbase.com/ronhep/erika (indoor)
http://www.pbase.com/ronhep/katerina_catsuit (indoor)

And an E-10 vs. 6900 comparison (no nudity)...

http://www.pbase.com/ronhep/e10_6900