Digital SLRs - your top 5?

External Since: Mar 20, 2007 Posts: 2

I am venturing back into the world of photography after a ten year
absence. I intend to concentrate on sports photography so I will need
a digital SLR capable of taking good photos at fast shutter speeds in
potentially low light conditions. My budget is £600 -£800 UK pounds.
What would be the top five digital SLRs suitable for sports photograpy
in that price range?

I will also need a backup manual(film) SLR in case I run out of
batteries and I will probably try and get this second hand for around
£200. Any suggestions. Would I get a Nikon for that now that
everyone is going digital?

Thanks in advance.

Patrick.

External Since: Mar 23, 2006 Posts: 300

On Mar 20, 8:20 pm, "Patrick Finnegan" <finnegan.patr... DeleteThis @gmail.com>
wrote:
> I am venturing back into the world of photography after a ten year
> absence. I intend to concentrate on sports photography so I will need
> a digital SLR capable of taking good photos at fast shutter speeds in
> potentially low light conditions. My budget is £600 -£800 UK pounds.
> What would be the top five digital SLRs suitable for sports photograpy
> in that price range?

There are not all that many digital SLRs for each price range. Do you
have lenses already (that you'd like to keep using)? Do you plan to
get very long teles and want them to have stabilizing elements (to
help with "slow" shutter speeds)? [look up their prices if you're
thinking of saying "yes" because it's a nifty feature, though!].

I'd say the 3/4 main cameras that spring to mind at that range are the
Pentax K10D, the Nikon D200 (actually this one's a bit more, the D80
is closer to your range) and the Canon 30D. I'll refrain from
suggesting any of them, thank you!

Well, the only comment I'll make is that I have the D200 and I tried
the D80 in a shop (a friend asked about it). The D80 seems to be the
D200 with a plastic body, less external (physical) controls, somewhat
reduced feature set (eg autofocus modes), lower frame rate and overall
slightly slowed down (in subtle things like viewfinder blackout etc;
mind you, this is what it felt like and I'm very sensitive to
slowness; I could be wrong). It's not bad, I found it overall about as
quick-reacting as a 20D (the older version of the 30D) that I used for
a while, so it's satisfactory. But this kind of thing is invisible to
most people, so don't think too much about it (you can try the ones on
your shortlist to find out if you mind or can even tell any
difference).

>
> I will also need a backup manual(film) SLR in case I run out of
> batteries and I will probably try and get this second hand for around
> £200. Any suggestions. Would I get a Nikon for that now that
> everyone is going digital?

Isn't it cheaper and more convenient to just buy extra batteries with
the 200GBP though? Unless you want a film camera too for other
reasons, of course.