[adamp]

At the moment I have a Fuji FinePix s5800, and dont really like the results its giving me. Is the Canon 1000D a good camera to learn with?
I saw one in pc world, it has quite a big body which I liked. And what about the lens which comes with it, is this reasonable for railway photography?

-Adam

[Craig]

The 1000D is an entry level body. It should be fine for getting to grips with SLRs, but something like the 450D would be better as it has slightly better features. Which lens comes with it? It's usually the 18-55 kit lens, which again is ok but you might want something better (maybe a bit more zoom for railway shots).

[5872]

I have tested the 1000D before getting my Sony A300 - and I found it excellent for handlling.

[adamp]

Yeah it comes with an 18-55 lens, what would be classed as a good zoom lens? something like a 28-200 for example? As you can tell im still getting to grips, so I dont fancy paying like a grands worth on a hobby ive not completely understood yet.
Thanks

-Adam

[Richmond]

75-300 is up to the job for railway photography, on the 1000 this makes it a roughly a 115-480mm zoom and priced at around £150. Not worth spending tonnes of money until you upgrade the body, even so I use a 75-300 on my 5D and get some stunning images.

[adamp]

With the canon range can all lenses fit different bodies?

[Craig]

The 18-55 would be fine for getting started with. The main lens I use has the same range and I've used it for most of the shots on my website. The main thing to look for in a zoom lens is a fixed aperture (where there's only one f number) as that means the amount of light entering the lens won't change as you zoom. But that shouldn't be a huge problem while you're still getting used to the camera. An L in the lens name is a good sign of quality but you'll pay a lot for one of those, a bit too much while you're getting started.

This is a good site for lens reviews (the 18-55 is in the EF-S section):
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/

Any EF or EF-S lens will fit the 1000D.

[mumrar]

If you want a better quality lens and good performance with an eye to future SLR usage you could try a Canon EF-S 17-85mm IS of a Sigma 17-70 DC Macro. The Sigma doesn't come with image stabilising, but both have good optical performance that will far exceed the kit lens.

Always buy the SLR body with the kit lens first for money reasons, you'll need about £215 for the Sigma and £400 for the Canon lenses above.

Last piece of SLR advice, get a big memory card, and despite it being awkward to learn at first always shoot in RAW

[adamp]

Yeah Ive wondered wether I should do that, It improves quality for the web if im correct? And how do you go about converting it to an image?
Ill have to make my mind up on this 1000D

-Adam

[Richmond]

Some good advice coming out here, on the memory card front rather than buying one big card buy two that equal the same amount, then if a card develops a fault you can switch to the other.

As for RAW shooting, this is more about using your camera on manual rather automatic. On auto the camera saves in jpeg/tiff which makes life easier for processing your images, very similar to the way a polariod would produce your picture, with RAW and the manual or creative side of the dial, it is about you as a photographer deciding how the camera is going to capture the image and far more information is retained as the images have no compression so a better quality image is retained. If however you are going to only shoot for the web then auto is fine but you won't get the best out the camera until you do the switch.

1000D is a great entry level camera and will lead to a whole new dimension if you have used a compact in the past.

[Rebus]

Just a few comments to add to the previous replies here, in no particular order

The 1000D is the 'entry level' DSLR from Canon, but it is still capable of extremely good results. The biggest influence on the quality of the images it can produce is the the lens on the front, and the person behind it

The 18-55 IS 'kit' lens is pretty good for the money (far, far better than the previous non-IS version which basically was/is cr*p IMO) for starting out I don't think you will get better value/quality.
For railway photography you will probably need something 'longer' than the 18-55 type range, but this depends on your style of shooting and locations etc.
Spending more money in this area will pay dividends but to start with I'd opt for the 18-55 IS (make sure it is the IS version as I said earlier, the old non-IS is not woth having IMO)

IS (Image Stabilisation) is pretty much useless for any moving object (a train for instance!) but can be useful to help steady a shot of something stationary.
The maximum aperture of the lens will be dictated by the amount of money you spend. If you want fast f/2.8 zooms then they will cost big money, but for most things in good light the f/5.6 ish of most 'consumer' zooms is ok.

Memory cards - Good advice is to have at least two - as mentioned if one fails (I've never had one fail...so far!) you have another, but memory cards are relatively cheap these days so get a card that will hold a few hundred shots minimum (at least 4Gb).

RAW - Certainly worth shooting in RAW, if only to be able to change the White Balance accurately after taking the shot. This can be a PITA to sort out from a jpeg. Most of the time the cameras auto white balance will be ok but like most auto functions it can have a mind of its own sometimes You can of course set the WB manually but the presets don't always match the actual light.
You also have more room for correcting the exposure in post processing, but not a recommended method of shooting, try to get it right 'in-camera'.

The RAW file is actually the raw data that the sensor sends to the camera processing circuitry that produces a jpeg if you have the camera set to jpeg shooting.
This will apply the in-camera settings relating to contrast, colour saturation, sharpness, picture style etc. etc. When you process the RAW file you have the option to apply these how you want after shooting. i.e you decide how the image looks not the camera.

To start with I'd shoot jpeg to get used to the camera but I'd seriously consider using RAW asap to give you more options later.

Software - The Canon comes with DPP (Digital Photo Professional), this will process/convert the RAW files and quite a powerful piece of software. You can also use Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Adobe Lightroom or a few other programs to convert.

The best thing is to have a play...

Hope this is of help to you and (sort of) makes sense!

[16CSVT2700]

Originally Posted by adamp

With the canon range can all lenses fit different bodies?

Currently, the EF-S lenses may only be used on the Canon EOS Digital Rebel series (300D, 350D, 400D, 450D, and 1000D), and newer cameras in the midrange Canon EOS Digital series (20D, 20Da, 30D, 40D and 50D).

[Rebus]

To expand (slightly) on what 16CSVT2700 said ^^^

EF lenses fit all EOS bodies (Film & Digital)
EF-S lenses will only fit xxxxD xxxD and xxD bodies (but not the EOS 10D or earlier)
EF-S lenses do not fit on any 1 or 5 series body (1D MKIII, 1DsMkIII, 5D, 5D MKII etc.)

[Richmond]

Originally Posted by Rebus

To expand (slightly) on what 16CSVT2700 said ^^^

EF lenses fit all EOS bodies (Film & Digital)
EF-S lenses will only fit xxxxD xxxD and xxD bodies (but not the EOS 10D or earlier)
EF-S lenses do not fit on any 1 series body (1D MKIII, 1DsMkIII etc.)

Don't forget that they don't fit the 5s either, are designed to be used with cropped sensor digital cameras and the values on these lenses are designed for a sensor that has a 1.6x crop factor. Prosumer cameras have two points to mount the lenses and the EFS goes with the white square whereas the EF lenses match up with the red dot.

[Rebus]

Originally Posted by Richmond

Don't forget that they don't fit the 5s either, are designed to be used with cropped sensor digital cameras and the values on these lenses are designed for a sensor that has a 1.6x crop factor. Prosumer cameras have two points to mount the lenses and the EFS goes with the white square whereas the EF lenses match up with the red dot.

D'oh! - I thought I'd missed something out - Well spotted

Have edited previous post to reflect this fact.