Which Camera?
 

Okay so, for a crhistmas present (excuse to buy a camera) I am considering purchasing a camera that will be used for car pictures, cricket shots and the odd surfing shot, I will use the camera for movies but they are not my priority.

As far as brands go, my experience with Canon has been great and therefore I am basically only willing to buy a Canon as I have no reason to test a different brand.

I'm a beginner, as in, I know close to F all about photography, and hence, I am looking at around a $600 budget for the camera itself. I looked around and a Canon 550D can be had for around $600 with the standard lens. Will this camera be able to zoom in with the standard lens at the WACA and take a good picture of the Batsmen playing a shot. I watched a review and it said it can take 3.7 frames per second, so does this mean I can aim my camera at the batsmen and hold the button down so I maximise the probability of me obtaining the "perfect" shot?

So is the Canon 550D overkill for what I have just explained? Would a $400 camera be more than enough to do this? My mum has a digital camera that isn't an SLR which I have used and it produces pretty good pictures but not quite as good a quality as I'm hoping for. She has a stand that I can use to eliminate ahnd shake.

Or is the Canon 550D not good enough? Will I need to purchase a better lens to produce quality pictures of batsmen playing shots.


Any help or advise is much appreciated :) THANKS

As your first DSLR camera the 550D will be more than enough, get it with the twin lens kit (18-55mm & 55-250mm) and you will be able to take good photos in most situations. You'll need the 55-250mm at the WACA (I went when I first got my 600D).

Be warned, as soon as you get a taste for it photography is a moneypit! Before you know it you'll be buying the full range of Canon L series lenses ;-)

If you plan on taking photos at the cricket, make sure the lens you get is less than 300mm. 300mm and you aren't allowed to take it in (that includes something like 70-300mm lens').

It sounds like you want some fairly actiony shots with surfing, cricket and cars (depending if they are stationary or not..) . The frame rate matters to a certain extent, but you'd probably eventually want a fairly fast lens.

I've seen some great surfing shots taken with the 450d (a few models before the 550). Which is very easy to use and a great entry level piece of kit, so I'd guess the 550 is an improvement on this.

[QUOTE=Dawn Patrol;632824]If you plan on taking photos at the cricket, make sure the lens you get is less than 300mm. 300mm and you aren't allowed to take it in (that includes something like 70-300mm lens').[/QUOTE]

The way around this is to purchase 2x converter (if you can put up with losing a couple of stops).

[QUOTE=Dawn Patrol;632824]If you plan on taking photos at the cricket, make sure the lens you get is less than 300mm. 300mm and you aren't allowed to take it in (that includes something like 70-300mm lens').[/QUOTE]

Curious to know if and who checks this?

Need to get some stickers made up to cover up the 100-400 then! :D

I have the Nikkon D90, amazing camera. Great hobby and the photos of our children growing up are priceless. The video function on the D90 is not great, I believe they rectified this on the next model.

^^ Nikon D7000 is a good bit of kit. Advice I was given is go with the brand (either Canon or Nikon) that most of your friends have that you are likely to be able to borrow lenses. despite most of the guys on here being Canon fanbois :) a couple of good friends both run Nikon so we went that way.

[QUOTE=Kato;633015]Curious to know if and who checks this?
Need to get some stickers made up to cover up the 100-400 then! :D[/QUOTE]
The same staff who check your bags and esky. Sheffield Shield... they probably don't bother, but for domestic one dayers, 20/20 and international matches, they check.

Any sniff of a large lens and they look over it pretty closely.

[QUOTE=TROLLEY;633038]The same staff who check your bags and esky. Sheffield Shield... they probably don't bother, but for domestic one dayers, 20/20 and international matches, they check.

Any sniff of a large lens and they look over it pretty closely.[/QUOTE]

Interesting, never taken a DSLR to the cricket, but just found this on the WACA site for Cricket Australia games (intl/20-20).

"not to bring into the Venue any photographic, video or audio recording equipment for any purpose other than private non-commercial purposes, which may include, without limitation, smart phones (including iPhones, Androids etc.), video and/or audio recorders, camera tripods, monopods or lenses with a total-focal strength of greater than 200mm and commercial digital video equipment;"

With the advent of huge CMOS on cameras you quite often get an increase in apparent lens size. As such, on my Sony my 240 fixed aperture lens winds up being bigger (probably closer to 350mm).