Camera Labs

Hi guys / gals,

Hoping someone can sway my decision here.

I'm into wildlife photograhy but increasingly branching out into landscapes, architecture, people pics etc and already use a canon 550d which I'm very pleased with. For the wildlife I use a Tamron 200-500 which I think is excellent but of course very limited for anything other than zooming in on birds and other flora / fauna.

I recently purchased another Tamron lens - AF 18-200mm LD aspherical and so far so good but I tend to take most of my pics on the hoof and finding it a real ball acher having to switch lenses .. it's risky from a dust / damage perspective and wastes time. So have decided to purchase a second camera body that I can permanently afix the 18-200 to for landscapes etc.

Best option so far is a 2nd hand canon 450d at £219 but wouldn't discount an older canon, nikkon, pentax - the tamron lens fits all I believe.

Any ideas? I'm not wanting to lay out bundles of cash for a what is in effect a hoofing around camera body, but I submit many stock photoe so it has to fit that particular bill.

Any ideas?

A used 450D for £219 sounds great to me. You could go older still but at that price level the savings will be minimal to the further reductions in camera functionality.

If you got the Canon version of the lens, that only fits Canon. Tamron makes versions for many camera systems, but you need to match the lens version to the system!

And a two body system for wildlife works great for me, although I pair a 15-85 with 100-400.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

One consideration might be to look at some compact body mirrorless cameras. They're not perfect for all photography, but for the purposes you mention could be a very useful thing indeed. I picked up a Sony NEX-5N for the purposes you mention - when I go birding, I often like to have a second camera body on me to shoot shorter focal lengths, either if a bird is too close, or there's some particular landscape shot or detail closeup I want to shoot - it's more convenient to not have to change lenses, so I go with the second body. I weighed the idea of a second DSLR body, but in the end, WEIGHT was most of the issue...it's simply more convenient going with the much lighter and smaller NEX, even with a 'superzoom' type lens onboard, then even the smallest DSLR (as Popo mentioned, moving to any other brand's mount means you'd have to get a new superzoom lens to go with that mount). I can have the NEX hanging around my neck, or on a belt holster, and barely notice it. Yet it still has an excellent 16MP APS-C sensor with full low light capabilities and excellent dynamic range, and via cheap adapters I can use any lens from any mount and any brand on the NEX, if I feel like playing around or traveling light with just the NEX and leave the DSLR home. There are at least 2 current superzoom lenses available for the NEX bodies - the Sony 18-200mm and the Tamron 18-200mm.

Just something to consider. The M4:3 cameras from Oly or Panasonic might similarly work for such a purpose, with the smaller sensor their lenses can be a little smaller too - whether it would meet your IQ needs depends on whether you would be doing a lot of high ISO shooting with it.

If weight and size are absolutely of no consequence to you at all, then the second DSLR body idea would make sense, especially if you stuck to the same mount you have, that way you could share lenses between both bodies as needed.

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Justin Miller
Sony DSLR-A580 / Sony 18-250mm / Minolta 50mm F1.7 / Sigma 30mm F1.4 / Tamron 10-24mm / Tamron 200-500mm / Tamron 90mm F2.8 macro / Minolta 300mm F4 APO
Sony NEX5N / 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 / 55-210mm F4-6.3 / Pentax K adapter / Konica K/AR adapter / bunches o' Konica & Pentax lenses!

Galleries:
http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg

Hey thanks guys, been really useful already n it aint even wine time!

Weight IS a huge factor, unless i'm in the car I never carry a tripod. Not explored these mirroless cameras but will do. I guess a major factor has to be quality of image for submission purposes and for sure have had several great pics rejected because of 'noise'

carry on the good work guys and Justin, just viewed some of your pics and they are great!

The mirrorless and micro 4/3 cameras are starting to give very decent results, and their size/weight is definitely practical, but you will probably have a hard time finding one at a very good price point yet. In a few years there will definitely be some cheap second hand ones, but for now, expect to pay the price of a new T2i(550d) for them.

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Cameras: Canon EOS Rebel T2i, Canon S90
Lenses: Tamron: SP70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di VC USD, Canon: EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens, 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 III, and EF 50mm f/1.8 II
Retired camera: Fujifilm Finepix s700

The 450D is a great camera and you won't miss much apart from the better screen of the 550D.

450D and 500D are very similar and I have the 500D but when I got to hold the 450D of one of my friends the screen kinda irritated me

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Canon EOS 500D + Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Canon EF 24-105mm 4L IS USM + EF 100-400mm 4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 100mm 2.8L Macro IS USM + Sigma 12-24mm 4.5-5.6 EX DG HSM + Canon Speedlite 580 EX II + Nissin Speedlite Di 466