recommend me a dslr camera set-up

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alecstilleyedye

nothing in moderation
Moderator
i've been tasked to find a camera that's good for taking good shots in low-light conditions, such as at charity events and gala dinners. i'll also need a zoom facility (10x or so) and it'll need to be fairly easy to use, with auto focus and decent auto settings (my skills are more in framing the shot, than understanding all the technical stuff). something that works well without a flash.

i've got enough photoshop knowledge to edit colours, white point etc. post-event, but what i need is sharp images.

any recommendations?
 
D

Deleted member 26715

Guest
I'm going to jump in & ask what your budget is, I have absolutely no idea of the answer but it's something I quite fancy buying in the next 12 months, but there is a mind boggling array available from £100 to £waytoomuch.

Alan...
 
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JoeyB

Go on, tilt your head!
I took the plunge into grown up camera land at the beginning of the year when my little girl was born. I went for a Canon 550D with the standard lense. I got a Canon refurbished model (looks like new) for about £380 I think...love it!
 

Panter

Just call me Chris...
I suspect that the problem will be with your requirement for 10x zoom at low light levels.
I don't know what focal length that would equate to but I imagine you would have to spend several thousand on a lens that will open wide enough to allow that?
A budget 50mm f1.8 is pretty competent in fairly low light without flash but that's a fixed length with no zoom.
 

akb

Veteran
Is this for your own personal use or are you purchasing for a company? What is your budget? Will you only be shooting charity events and gala dinners? Have you used and SLR or DSLR before?

Initial comments, to gain crisp clear shots you will need a camera body with high ISO performance and a 'fast lens'. Something with a low F number (or aperture) such as F2.8. But this will come at a price. I shoot weddings quite a lot of the time, my initial set up (cameras and lenses) cost over £5000.
 
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alecstilleyedye

alecstilleyedye

nothing in moderation
Moderator
Is this for your own personal use or are you purchasing for a company? What is your budget? Will you only be shooting charity events and gala dinners? Have you used and SLR or DSLR before?

Initial comments, to gain crisp clear shots you will need a camera body with high ISO performance and a 'fast lens'. Something with a low F number (or aperture) such as F2.8. But this will come at a price. I shoot weddings quite a lot of the time, my initial set up (cameras and lenses) cost over £5000.
it's for a company. most of the shots will go online, and outdoors a half decent compact is ok for that; however, at indoor events with low light, it's impossible to get decent shots that have any motion in them, even allowing for stabilising the camera.
 

Hacienda71

Mancunian in self imposed exile in leafy Cheshire
I bought a Nikon D3100 which is I suppose a budget DSLR at £400 ish. It does take superb pictures even in low light conditions.
 

defy-one

Guest
I bought a Sony Alpha A300 a couple of years ago. They bought up Minolta and i'm very pleased with it. It was cheaper than the Cannons and Nikons and gave me livebridge,which the others couldn't in the same price range.
the whole family picks it up and uses like a compact,but has all the features associated with a proper dslr.
Hoping to add a long lens at some point
 

Lee_M

Guru
indoor, low light, movement and 10x zoom

Four things that generally preclude cheap cameras, or at the very least having and knowing how to use a decent flash properly

as per one of the other posters I used to do weddings (before people decided buying a digital camera automatically meant they were a good wedding photographer!) , and I spent a fortune and a long time getting to be able to do those three together.

At the minimum you'll need a good DSLR ( smaller cameras have smaller sensors which means nosier and porer in low light).
Low light and zoom means you need a good quality zoom - mine all cost between 1 and 2k

I also have a 30xzoom bridge camera for convenience, but without a flash its useless in low light
 

summerdays

Cycling in the sun
Location
Bristol
If it is mostly for use on the internet then presumably you could crop the image to zoom which would reduce the need for such a big zoom?
 

pplpilot

Guru
Location
Knowle
<£1000 decent photos in low light. Forget it. It's not going to happen. Something like a Nikon D7000 with a fast 1.8 mid telephoto (the 85 1.8 for eg) will be a very good choice, the high iso performance is good. I have a D700 and a bag of fast lenses and happily without question shoot at and above 6400iso from what I can see the D7000 is not far of the performance of the D700. Forget kit variable aperture zooms f3.5/5.6, they just wont cut it in low light.

Good quality in low light cost money, its as simple as that -

D700 180/2.8 @2.8 iso 10,000

646023421_qbBBH-X2.jpg
 

jamin100

Guru
Location
Birmingham
Yeh I'd suggest something like a nikon d7000 with pheraps a 2nd hand tamron 17-50 f2.8 or 28-75 f2.8

There not the fastest lens focus wise but like others have said with a £1000 budget your going to have to make compromises.

I used to shoot football and used a d90 with 70-200 f2.8 and that was outside and could be a struggle in the winter months.

Just got rid of all my kit now and have gone down to a nikon j1 just for family photos. Iso up to 3200 is very usable though even with the smaller sensor
 

Kiwiavenger

im a little tea pot
ive got a Pentax K-r, 12 MP, iso can go very high (25600) and can get noisy in low light and you can use all the old Pentax K mount lens so can pick up a steal. (i got a 2.8f 28-200 zoom for £65) you can also get a AA adaptor for it as well.

i think i picked mine up for £480 new in january, possibly have had an upgrade ( i know the firmwares been updated but havent updated mine yet) but a half decent bit of kit for my needs at the moment.
 
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