Looking for DSLR Budget £250 ish

[icanhazburger]

New toy

Have fun.

[joshwa]

That photo's great! Really pleasing to look at with the different areas of focus!

Thanks for posting your results on what you got - the A200 certainly seems like excellent value for money.

[shackahn]

Yeah I was quite fortunate as I haggled quite well with the sales guy.

I got the a200 a 2GB CF card and a UV filter for £300 which isnt too bad.

Thanks for the kind comments. I am certainly looking forward to playing some more with it, once I get better I will post in the Photo everyday thread which has some truly amazing pictures in it.

New toy

Have fun.

I feel a bit like a kid with a new toy, my girlfriend asked if it was ever going to leave my hand

[icanhazburger]

I feel a bit like a kid with a new toy, my girlfriend asked if it was ever going to leave my hand

My missus loves the fact I have a camera, because it now means I actually leave the house with her and go on long country walks etc.

[shackahn]

I was looking on the misfuds site and came across

70-210 F4.5/5.6 AF Silver/Black under Minolta AF lenses

would this be a good buy at £49 for a zoom lense?

I believe that all (at least the majority) Minolta lenses will fit on the A200?

Also when you see a macro lense, I take it these are for extreme close ups?

[BUFF]

I was looking on the misfuds site and came across

70-210 F4.5/5.6 AF Silver/Black under Minolta AF lenses

would this be a good buy at £49 for a zoom lense?

Minolta AF 70-210 F4.5-5.6 II Reviews at Dyxum.com , it was a cheap kit lens iirc.
If you look around you can find the Tamron 55-200mm f4.0-5.6 Di II LD Macro new for ~£60 or the Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 LD Di for ~£100 both of which perform above their price bracket.

I believe that all (at least the majority) Minolta lenses will fit on the A200?

All Minolta branded lens in Minolta AF mount will fit & work on Sony DSLRs (older Minolta MC/MD etc. won't).
Pretty sure that similar is true of Tamrons but some Sigmas require rechipping as Sigma don't licence but reverse engineer.

Also when you see a macro lense, I take it these are for extreme close ups?

correct.
Macro photography - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[colmo]

Minolta made a number of 70-210mm lenses; the aperture is the give-away - the f4.5/5.6 versions were cack, avoid them, the f3.5/4.5 is considered to be rather good, and the daddy is the straight f4 (aka. the 'beercan') - if you do ever find a good one, make sure you get a hood with it (I got lucky and snagged it separately on eBay).

I got my beercan from Mifsuds, and I think I got a really good one. I spent this afternoon shooting with it at the zoo, and it's a joy to use, with nice bokeh (out of focus rendering) and excellent sharpness even at max aperture if you can get the focus spot on. I just wish is wasn't quite so heavy or large...

None of the 70-210mm models are modern lenses designed for digital, so they may have more issues with chromatic aberrations in certain conditions than more recent digital designs (leaves against bright sky is a typical example). As long as you understand when this happens, and know how to avoid or fix it later, it shouldn't be an issue. The little Tamron 55-200mm is a newer design, and does have the huge advantage of being available new. I've looked at reviews of many of the 7x-300mm lenses, and so many of them seem to disappoint; Sony recently launched a new premium 70-300mm G; alas, it is much more expensive, though it is very good indeed. Unfortunately, getting quality at over 200mm is an expensive business

Macro lenses are not cheap, but they are a fine investment, and hold their value well. They are also almost universally (old or new or different brands) excellent - it is likely your first proper macro lens (there are plenty of other lenses dubbed 'macro' without actually being dedicated macros) will become the sharpest lens you own. My sharpest lens is probably the old 90mm Sigma I got for £60 on eBay a few years back - I could sell it for twice that now.

Macros come in a range of focal lengths, typically 50mm, 70mm, 90mm, 105mm and 180mm (Minolta used to make a 200mm). Their maximum magnification is generally the same; they are 1:1, meaning the ability to reproduce an object in life size on a negative or slide. Some lenses can only do 1:2, meaning half life size, (including my old Sigma, hence why it's relatively cheap). The different focal lengths vary your working distance; coin and miniature collectors will happily get on with a 50mm, shooters of skittish insects will use a 180mm or 200mm, and all-round users will settle for the 70mm-105mm range. Longer lenses also have shallower depth-of-field for a given aperture.

There are other means of getting extreme close-up; the main ones are extension tubes, and dioptre lenses - Nikon make rather good two-element ones, which are much better than cheap single-element ones, and Raynox also have a range of clip-on close-up lenses. There are more exotic solutions like bellows and lens reversal, but those are often only for extreme magnification.

[colmo]

Unfortunately, getting quality at over 200mm is an expensive business

Here's a hint - Minolta made (at least) two versions of a rather unusual but well thought-of lens:
Minolta*AF 100-300 F4.5-5.6 APO
Minolta*AF 100-300 F4.5-5.6 D APO

Mifsuds have one of each of these listed. Avoid any Minolta 100-300mm not designated APO, that was a different, inferior lens. Unless you can find the incredibly rare Minolta 100-400mm, this is the best way to get 300mm on a budget. 100mm at the short end may be a tad long, but you can't have it all.

[colmo]

If you look around you can find the Tamron 55-200mm f4.0-5.6 Di II LD Macro new for ~£60 or the Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 LD Di for ~£100 both of which perform above their price bracket.

I found this review on David Kilpatrick's own blog (he's own of the greatest authorities on Minolta/Sony SLRs) - he compares the Tamron 70-300mm favourably to the old 100-300mm APO:

Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Tele-Macro LD Di | Photoclub Alpha

And here is a review with quantitative measurements:
Photozone.de - test report (Pentax)

(Tip: Don't drink coffee late at night....oh look, the sun is rising....)

[HSK]

I'm thinking about getting one aswell (when i can get some money together soon). that pic looked nice.

[shackahn]

Thanks again for the replies guys.

I think its going to take me a while to learn about everything, but the help your providing really is invaluable.

I have read the links you guys posted up and they make for very interesting reading. I think I will go with the tamron lense, it seems a good price and punches above its weight like BUFF suggested.

I will probably invet in a true macro lense much later as como says it will probably be a big investment.

Do the F4.5/4.6 refer to anything in particular or are they just model numbers?

Thanks again guys

[HSK]

I look forward to seeing some more pics when u try it out more :-)

[colmo]

Do the F4.5/4.6 refer to anything in particular or are they just model numbers?

It refers to the maximum aperture of the lens:

What is maximum aperture and why is it so important?

As a rule of thumb, the bigger the max aperture (i.e. the smaller the F-number), the better, bigger and more expensive a lens is. As ever, research each lens to get a consensus opinion.

[shackahn]

I recently took this as well, at a local nature park

[colmo]

That's an impressive picture from a technical POV - a backlit swan shot can go wrong easily, but the exposure is bang on, with no burnt highlights. What metering did you use (spot or multisegment), did you compensate exposure, or did the camera do all the work? If so, then the A200 is an improvement on my A100 - I'd have been switching to the Hi200 mode (gone from the A200) to avoid highlight clipping, and would still have needed to 'chimp' the camera afterwards against the need to reshoot.

I think the trick with wildlife is to get the sun behind you to avoid shadows, unless you're after silhouette shots. The DRO+ mode is a real help when you have no choice in the matter - I suspect it was in action here.

You've hit the ground running with this camera

[BUFF]

I see that the A200 has won the TIPA award for best entry level DSLR 2008.
TIPA | Technical Image Press Association | Awards 2008