Be Excellent To Each Other

Would I be correct in assuming that both Compact and DSLR cameras have the same size "Tripod-Fitting-Orifice"?

I plan on squeezing more out of my Fuji F30 while I'm saving up for a DSLR, having had a snoop around the manual aperture and shutter settings I now want a cheapish tripod/gorilla pod for better results.

Yeah, I think its standard across all cameras.

This tripod seems reasonable, there are lighter ones or beefier ones reduced in price too.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0000WXD0W/ref=s9_simh_gw_p23_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=0E98BH6YWWBHF0A4YYM1&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467198433&pf_rd_i=468294

there's plenty on here including some ultra cheap gorilla pod knock offs:

http://www.dealextreme.com/search.dx/search.tripod

I'll have a look, cheers. Those (Stop...) Hama (Time!) ones I linked above are supposed to be duff for long exposure shots as the heads are flimsy.

You might be better off getting a cheap gorilla pod type one that you can keep for your compact camera and then getting a decent tripod as part of the deal when you get your SLR.

My 40th Birthday present came today - a Panasonic GF1 with the 20mm pancake lens Dr Gaywood has demonstrated to such good effect.

I'm not allowed it until it's my actual birthday though so I've a month of waiting. I ordered it early because Panasonic have a £50 Cashback offer that expires on the 5th April but having it there is killing me not being able to use it.

If anyone is interested in my current/soon to be usurped old Panasonic Lumix DMX-FZ28 give me a shout.

You do realise the GF2 is out the end of april, don't you.
possible lie

Heh - I've seen mention of it but April seems far too early and I am not Dr Kildare.

I'm planing on getting a fixed focal length lens, now that I have had a pay rise. Thinking of a Canon 50mm F1.8 as we have some friends with that one and they like it very much.

I'm looking around for good prices, but if anyone spots something super-bargainous while looking around for other things do let me know, ta.

(It'd be great if I could get it from a bricks-and-mortar shop in London somewhere, so I can take it on the trip to cornwall over easter, but I realise this is probably unlikely.)

Hmm - prices seem to have gone up a little. I paid £60 for it two years ago, now you're looking at £75.

That's about what I've seen it for, or £90 quid on the high street. I'll have a trawl around for second hand prices too, maybe.

Hmm. I've been looking for a good prime lens for my Canon for a while. Is this one a good choice? I don't mind paying a little more.

(Mods - Camera lens thread? Worth it?)

My lenses have risen in price, too. The wide angle has gone up by nearly £200 in 18 months Glad I bought it when I did now.

There's no sign of a GF2 yet. There's a G2 and GH2 coming, but they were older bodies than the GF1 anyway.

I just bought this, and I wish I'd bought it a year ago.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-EF-S-10-2 ... 464&sr=8-1

It's an excellent lens, and a good reasonable focal length for most situations. What do you want the lens for, mostly? How much is "a little more"?

I was going to put in the stampy boots, but on this occasion you deserve some antique pillorying.

You sir, are the point missing point missar!

Yes. I had my SX20 stills on my Vinten ProTouch 5 the other day which attracted a few odd looks as the head is bigger than the camera.

That's the one. I found the receipt a few weeks ago, and only paid £440 new from Warehouse Express 18 months ago. That's quite a price hike. Great lens though!

Cunt.

Yes, they're all the same until you get to medium format cameras which then jump from 1/8" to 1/4". You can get adaptors but it's irrelevant as a tripod strong enough to support a medium format camera would cost more than the dlsr you want to buy and would weigh about 30lbs or more.

Ooh, we have a camera gear thread. Fancy that.

Does anyone have any bag recommendations? I have a big bag that takes my camera and all my lenses, but I'd like one that I can just put an SLR in (400D) with a lens already attached, for walking around purposes.

Cheers.

Zardoz, I have a GorillaPod Compact, or whatever it's called. You can have it if you want. It'd cry with my current camera.

What size is the sensor in your Canon. I'm assuming it isn't full frame unless you dropped about £1500 on the body?

So you need to factor in the magnification of the sensor against what you would use the lens for mostly. If it was mainly for shots of your good lady wife and bairn then go for the 50mm as it will turn into a nice portrait lens even with a 50% increase in focal length. If you want superfast (i.e. F1.4 or F1.2) then it'll be pricey, but an F1.8 or F2 will be very cheap. Read some reviews. Do bear in mind a decent lens will hold it's value for years, hell some really expensive glass I have will sell for what I paid for it 10 years ago as it's increased so much to buy new.

http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/can ... /page6.asp this is the F1.4 50mm

http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/can ... /page5.asp this is the F1.8 50mm

Both are the conclusions as I suspect you won't want to read the anally exhaustive reviews that dpreview do, buy you can click back through, obv.

Both my sets of sticks came with 1/4 screws (although the Vinten came with some interchangeable larger screws I use with my jib). I'm sure my cheapie Libec didn't come out at over £200 though.

Don't think I've ever seen a 1/8 screw. Even my Fuji compact snappy snap thing has 1/4 inch on it.

Crumpler make some decent ones, as do LowePro.

What you're looking for is a holster style bag that you wear across your body that you can slide the camera in and out of easily.

Really? A compact with 1/4 screw on it. Blimey. That's a bit overkill for load bearing purposes isn't it.

Or a Slingshot, which sits as a backpack with one strap, but slides around to your front for quick access to your camera. And knowing Craster's frame, a small Slingshot bag would look hilarious.

I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth. Means I could slip the camera into my camera bag and bung it on the tripod I already have with me.

3 or 4 people I know have one and they all rate it very highly indeed, and even though the price has gone up a bit it does still seem like quite good value so well worth trying IMO. Getting a faster one is quite a lot more, and may be overkill depending on what you want to do with it. I'm of the mind that I'll try the slightly cheaper one first and then I can sell it and get an upgrade should I really need/want to, rather than buying something expensive first time that I might not get full use out of.

What you all want is one of these!

Chaps, I need to take some IR photos (to spot heat leaking from a house).
Apparently this can be done with many digital cameras, requiring a modification. I have a Canon 400D but also a couple of older compacts I'd be more willing to hack about.

Has anyone got experience with this or knows more about it?

Thanksing.

There's a geeky guide here on how to convert a compact into an IR camera. Hopefully that'll give you some tips: you can just use film negatives as the IR filter, apparently.

Good stuff, cheers Malabar.

Looks like my trusty old Olympus might be sacrificed for this cause.

Wont work. Infrared photography is different to thermal imaging, you'll need special gear for that.

Dammit, yes, I just read that too.

Oh well!

You are thinking of thermal imaging, not IR imaging. IR imaging is easy, in fact some Handycams include it as standard.

An embarrassing mistake.

*embarrassed*

Good job the Doc isn't around to mock you with pure science.

My new camera dreams may become a reality sooner than I thought Probably before the month is over.

Still lots of umming and arring over what I should go for...

The Panasonic GF1 is a little too far out of reach price wise (I'd want the pancake lens so the cost is very ouchy).

Been looking at Canon 450d (Current favourite at £469 with a 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens) and Nikon D5000 (Good odds £479 with a 18-55mm VR Lens)mostly, not a lot between them apart from the D5000 does 720p Video and has a fancy LCD back panel. These cameras would be at the budget limit so any extras like prime lenses would have to be bought further down the line.

Or...

I could go for the entry level Nikon D3000 (Outside bet at £349 with a 18-55mm VR Lens) and have money left over for a prime lens, beefy memory card, bag etc. (Also ran The entry level Canon 1000d doesn't come with an image stabilised lens so I've ruled that out). The only thing with going down this route is would I regret not getting the best camera I could afford at the time.

Help me Hive mind photo spods, you're my only hope.

I predict the hive mind being divergent on this issue, with Canon fans saying buy the 450D and Nikon fans saying buy the D5000.

Well yeah, that appears to be the general internet opinion too.

At least it's not as bad as the PC / 360 graphics/game experience divide.

Hello! In answer to some of my lens questions, I need it for taking pictures in dim places like pubs. I'm happy to spend around £100 (£150 at a push but it'd have to be noticably better than a £100 one), so it won't be scarily good like that one Craster linked to (which was £70 cheaper on simplyelectronics.net, my Invisible Hand plugin tells me). I have a Digital Rebel - here is all the information about the sensor:
• 22.7 x 15.1 mm CMOS sensor
• RGB Color Filter Array
• Built-in fixed low-pass filter
• 6.5 million total pixels (3152 x 2068)
• 6.3 million effective pixels (3072 x 2048)
• 3:2 aspect ratio

[edit]I just point the camera at things and press the button, so I need one that focuses for me and all that.

Go for whichever feels best. Lenses make more difference to your happiness than the body, I reckon.

The only one I haven't held is the D5000. So far the 450d felt the best.

I'll have a fondle later this week.

So you want small and fast, basically. Get the 50mm 1.8 prime we talked about on the last page.

EDIT - Alternatively, borrow mine and see what you think of it.

Just seen this incredible offer! I'd love it if that's ok, I'd pay for postage, obv.

Sold. Handily, we'll probably be in a pub for me to test it

I forgot I'd offered you that. PM me your address and I'll whack it in the post. No need for postage – it should be pretty cheap, and PayPal will just eat it up.