I am searching for a good SLR camera and the necessary lenses to take some quality shots on an long trip this summer. Having used a high quality point and shoot camera for many years (they're so darn light and easy) I am unfamiliar with many aspects of SLR cameras. I am wanting to buy a good to high quality SLR and prefer minimal electronics. Now I know there are paddlers out there with strong opinions on the camera body and lenses of choice. Most of my photography is landscape work with occasional close ups of sea stars or funny looking humans. I am open to all suggestions and thoughts. Nikon? Canon? Pentax? This is a black hole topic and so I am especially interested in specific "I've used this camera for years and love it" suggestions. Thanks for whatever feedback you offer. Brian Windrope _________________________________________________________ You did not say if you were going to be taking pictures on the water. If you think you will be taking pictures while in the kayak you might want to stay with a water proof point and shoot. I have taken pictures in the kayak and I'm looking at a very nice picture my father took of my wife while we were paddling down the Loxahatchie river in Florida but for me this is not something I do often. Or get a water proof, we hope, pouch for the camera. I find myself using the kayak to get me from place to place. I don't use the camera while in the kayak. In the past I have used a drybag to protect the camera and lenses. I think I'll get some dry boxes before much longer. Which brand? I don't think it really matters, the major companies are all equally good with some good and bad points. I have an old Cannon T70 that is about 15 years old that my wife is starting to use while I have a Nikon N70 that I bought a few years ago. I bought into Nikon because Cannon changed their lense mounts that made my non Autofocus lenses obsolete on the new Cannon bodies. Nikon did not do this so I'm hoping that I won't get burned in the future. Figure out which lenses you think you might want and make sure that the brand has what you want. From the information I have been digging up, professional photographers opinions, and my experience, buy lenses from the manufactuer of your camera body. Cannon and Nikon make execellent lenses that are very hard to beat. Check out photodo.com for MTF ratings on lenses. This rating system is not the greatest thing in the world but it does give an indication on the sharpness of rated lenses. I think it is going to be difficult limiting the electronics. Landscape pictures do not require autofocus but taking pictures of people and animals is really made much simpler with autofocus. I generally do almost all landscape or close up photography and some animal pictures. I have thought of buying a more manual, simpler, camera that would be easier to deal with cold weather. But the Nikon camera's in this class lack autofocus and that is just too important for me. You will have to decide if you can live with or without autofocus. If you are taking pictures in cold weather, say below 35 degrees, just keep a set of spare batteries in you pocket under your coat. When the batteries start going in the camera just switch with the "warm" set and keep on shooting. Nikon makes a manual camera, I thnk it is the FM/T. That is not quite right but if you are interested I can look it up for you. The T stands for Titanium which the entire body is made with. The high end professional bodies like the Nikon F5 are supposed to be very rugged. But that means spending some money. BUT rugged does not mean waterproof. You also need to ask yourself how much money you can spend. What lenses do you want but don't have the money for at this time. What I have for landscapes and people is a 24/2.8, a 35-70/2.8, a 105/2.8 micro and a 70-210/4.5-5.6. The latter lense will eventually be replaced with a 80-200/2.8. I'm also going to get a 300/4 with a 1.4 teleconverter one of these days. The 105 is good for people, landscapes or closes ups of bugs, flowers, and other small things. The first three lenses will handle landscapes and people quite well. The 70-210 lense is good for some people pictures and animal shots but the quality is just not there for ME. It is not a bad lense I just want better. If may be just fine for you. Quality. If you have not figured this out yet, camera bodies and lenses have a wide range of prices. From OK to really really out there. You can spend a small fortune on photography equipment. Spend your money on the lenses, not on the body. Tis far more important to have good quality lenses than a body. Dont spend most of your money on the body and the go cheap on the lenses. Don't buy and F5($2200) but then put a 70-210 zoom lenses on it for $290. Make sure that the camera body can use all of the lenses in the brands line. For instance the Nikon N50, now discontinued but still for sale, cannot handle all of the lenses made by Nikon. Some lenses you might be interested in having. Whew. I threw out a bunch of stuff at you but hopefully it will help. Here is a bunch of web sites that might be interesting to you. Any brand related stuff will be Nikon since that is what the system I have bought into. I'm sure there are Cannon and other brand sites out there.... http://www.lisp.com.au/~mmphoto/nikon/ - Nikon related web page. Many links to reviews. http://niftywebs.com/photoweb/page13a.html#General Tips - Photography tips. http://www.moose395.net/index.html - A professional wildlife/landscape photographer site. Very good. Equipment reviews and techniques as well as articles he has written. Moose, the guys name, has a book about all of the Nikon equipment up until 1998. The book is very good if you are interested in Nikon stuff. The photo.net site is also good. Find the discussion groups that are there for more information. Hope this helps... Dan McCarty *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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