Cameras for beginners. Tips membeli DSLR pertama anda

Nowadays DSLR is moving towards it's new era where at the end of it, owning a DSLR is just as common as owning a handphone. You can still remember clearly perhaps how mighty high a person was when he owns a handphone back then. A mother would even use it as a token of credibility of her son when she's about to ask for a girl's hand. "My son owns a handphone you know. So easy for him to call me anytime".

I guess owning a DSLR will be so common for another 5 years?  Due to tremendous numbers of buyers/owners out there, the market price is dropping bit by bit making it more and more affordable. Series of models are being manufactured to accommodate different levels of users financially.

So, for your very first DSLR, you'd probably be asking, which one should you buy? I'm not a pro. But in this entry, I will give some tips on deciding your first baby.

BUDGET - Of course. The very first thing to be thought of. How much are you going to spend for it? 2K?4K?. The best thing of owning a credit card personally for me is to have it used for 0% installment plan. You don't have to save your money for years to buy your dream camera just to realize that you can buy a whole lot more things like 40" LED TV and etc. Saving it is a hard thing and to spend it one shot is wayyyy harder. I would suggest using your credit card if you have many more plans for your cash.

WHAT DO YOU WANNA SHOOT? This is my personal review and experience after using both Nikon and Canon machines.

a) Nikon
-Rich in colour. You just need to set your camera's saturation +1 and you can already print your pictures or show it in your blog as per captured. The colour is already nice without any touch-up required.
-Nice user-friendly functions and buttons. The buttons are well organized making it easier for the user to maneuver it and getting used to it's functionality.
-Red lovers. The picture taken by Nikon has tends to have a reddish factor. If you took a person with red shirt for example, the red looks popped up than the rest of the colour. Low light picture will look a bit burnt on the face due to this.
-More users are using it making it much easier to buy second handed lenses or to swap with your friends.

b) Canon
-High Speed capture. Well, this is what I always hear anywhere when I ask about Canon's pros point. Most people will say that if you want to take F1 racing car on the run, Canon will do it better for you. I'm not really sure on this one, but that's what you will hear about it. For me, as long as your shutter speed is high enough, it's so easy to take still picture of a running F1 car.
-Nice Potraiture shot. Canon users prefer to call it 'natural colour'. I like the skin tone shot by Canon. It looks more natural and soft. Maybe due to it's blue factor. The saturation can also be boost. But personally, Nikon does it better when it comes to colour boost.
-More users are using it making it much easier to buy second handed lenses or to swap with your friends.

I will always recommend only these 2 brands because I've used it personally and the users are way more than the other brand. Easy thinking = if lots of them are using it, means it's better than the rest right?

The only thing plus I will advise is that Nikon body comes with body-motor for D80 and above series. Well now D80 has been discontinued, I'm not really sure which model replaced it now. D3100? Body-motor is handy when the lense that you used doesn't have it's own motor inside. Simply say if the lense cannot auto focus by itself, your body can do it for you if it has body-motor. One example of lense that cannot auto-focus by itself is 50mm lense. A prime lense that is the cheapest to have and gives great result.

50 mm lense for Nikkor

I bought my first DSLR - D40. It was a very nice beginner camera and I decided to buy it after a webpage that keeps on recommending it. It really is nice. But using the lense above which is a lense that you would definitely buy to get a great portraiture - I need to use manual focus. Yeah..you will be hearing people saying, "manual lagi cun la", "aku memang lagi suke manual fokus tau". For me, if the subject is moving, it's hell. Some people might have a pair of perfect eyes that can act as an extinguish auto focus. But even for them, after 10 pictures, the eyes will start to wear down.

Because of this, I changed to my stolen D200 =p.  I'm not really sure how the newer models in the market now. But the thing I wanted to convey here is to buy at least the one with body-motor. All Canons have body-motor installed in their bodies. That's why I will always recommend Canon if budget is an issue because you need to buy higher model for Nikon to have the body-motor.

Here are some websites that can ease your research to buy your first DSLR

1)  http://dpreview.com/ - you can pick 3 cameras from any brand and you can see all the specifications of each in a table where you can start to compare
2) Kenrockwell.com - This guy has used many kind of cameras. He might not be reviewing some models yet because he is a photographer, not a cameraman - that what he said =]
3) Canon.com.my - Canon's official website. You can pick any models and get to compare each one of them here as well.

Ok. So I hope this would help a bit. Sorry yah other brand users like Olympus, Sony and etc. I can't give any comment on these brands coz I've never used them. 

Oh, you might need to check your budget way into the future because, usually the best set is to have;

1) The body

2) The wide lense (to take pictures of group of people) usually the kit lense 18-55mm is suffice

3) Tele-lense (zoom lense where you can take pictures of lion from afar) 70-300mm without VR or IS is the cheapest one

4) The flash (really need it because indoor, you wont be able to get a decent picture unless with a pro body with high ISO power)

 Once you get these 4, you can consider your set as complete. The 3rd item might be the least option though. Enjoy photographing guys!!