Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with dslr and digitalcamera

Are Sony lenses really all that bad?

stewiethegreat — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:16:11 -0800

Buying my girlfriend a Sony Alpha A350-DSLR; what kind of lenses should I buy? I've read bad reviews for Sony lenses. I'm buying my girlfriend a Sony Alpha A350-DSLR as a gift for a very special occasion. Until now, she's had a Nikon D100 and we were caught between getting a D200 or 300 or going for the Sony Alpha A350, mostly because she loves her Nikkor AF 28-105mm D IF 1:0.5 Macro lens, which is the only lens she has.

She wants a waist-level viewfinder which the A350 has, so I think I'm going to get her that (though any final thoughts on that would be appreciated) however now I'm torn over what kind of lenses would best replace her Nikkor AF 28-105mm macro lens.

I've read that Sony lenses are not that great, and the one that I handled in the camera store felt cheap and plastic-y. Anyone have any lens-related advice? Are the older Minolta lenses the only others that would fit on the A350? Thanks in advance!

I want a Nikon camera; I love to take a photograph, so hivemind, please help me choose!

odi.et.amo — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 05:49:15 -0800

What camera should I buy? I want to buy myself a camera for Christmas, but I can't pin down exactly what I should get. I want a camera that will take good quality pictures and that has plenty of manual settings for me to fiddle with as I learn about photography.

Portability is somewhat of a factor - I'm going to England next year, so I wanted something good enough to capture the beauty of old cathedrals but still be manageable as I tour and travel. I will also be taking the typical silly pet cat pictures and landscapes, as well as pictures from a moving car while on drives through the country.

To this point, I was planning on getting a Canon S5 IS. Decent image quality with occasional red fringing in certain situations, and small enough that I could stick it in my purse for travel.

On the other hand, I still want a DSLR. The Nikon D40 appeals to me quite a lot, for several reasons. I've used a friend's before, and loved it! For me, there's just nothing like the heft of a good camera. Also, my parents have several lenses from their Nikon film SLR - shouldn't these work with the D40, thus saving me oodles of money on good lenses? (money is another important factor here...) I'd consider Canon's entry DSLR, but the appeal of re-purposing my parents' unused lenses is strong!

If the answer is a DSLR, what bag would work that can carry my purse-ish stuff as well as the camera pieces and still protect me from the riff raffs and pick-pocketers?

What should I do, hivemind?

Best lens for K10D camera

blue shadows — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 12:48:55 -0800

I am planning on buying my first dSLR camera, a Pentax K10D. What would be the best lens to go with it? I can only afford one, so I was going to get the Pentax 24-90 zoom but I am not able to find one. What other similar lens would you recommend?

SD card failure; impending heart failure

stevil — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 13:52:12 -0800

My SD card has died (or has it?) - filled with pictures. Is it possible to get the pictures back, if Windows won't even "see" the card? I've got a SanDisk 512 SD card, and I just got a Nikon D50 DSLR camera. I took it out about 10 days ago and took 200 pics, some of them actually GOOD. Took the SD card out, and with a USB-based-SD-card-reader I look at 'em and showed 'em around and so on.

I left the SD card sitting in the USB reader sticking out of the USB port on the outside of my PC (WinXP). This may have been my mistake.

Today I went to move the pictures onto the hard drive, edit 'em and post 'em on flickr. I can't. The Removable Drive shows up in My Computer, but I can't open. I can't right click on it. It just goes into deep slowdown mode.

I tried using another card (in fact, a memory stick) in the same USB reader and that works fine. It's not the reader. I put the card back in the camera. Oh-oh. This card cannnot be used.

What the hell?

Have I trashed the card? Was it from sitting out? If Windows won't recognize it, I can't even reformat it, let alone get the pictures off of it?

Any ideas or experiences here?

Thanks

What should I look for in a Digital Camera?

weston — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 18:36:49 -0800

What should I look for in a Digital Camera? Is there any indication of what takes better pictures than another? I'm familiar with resolutions and megapixels... I don't know about things like lenses and A/D converters, and what other issues may exist. Also: I'm interested in being able to wirelessly trigger the shutter, possibly at ranges up to several few hundred feet, though it's not an essential feature. Does any model out there come with this?