Ive finaly bitten the bullet and decided to get a "proffesional" digital camera. Ive always had a compact digi-cam and im sure ill still continue to use it for quick pics etc but my only "professional" camera to date has always been film in the forms or a Practica MTL 5b, Pentax K1000 and my Nikon F55d which im sure a few of you have noticed at meets (dave is just jealous )

Anyway, ive not exactly been "againced" digital but I have always seen far better results from film than I have digital but Ive decided that I take far too many photos of random rubbish to justify using film to take them as it costs me alot of money (even though i get a 45% discount at work to process and print etc.).

I was torn between few digital SLRs and very very high end "amature" digital cameras.

the Fuji 9500, Samsung pro815, Fuji S2 and the Nikon D50 were the main players in my quest for the camera that suited me.

I read through reviews and scrutinised sample photos from each of the cameras and I was quite suprised to see the Samsung come out on top! Being the non-photographic name out of the 4, it was an unlikely choice.

The Nikon was too expencive for what it offered, the Fuji S2 was getting outdated and took too many batteries , the Fuji 9500 had horrendous grain reduction which ruined your pictures and well, th samsung did exactly what I wanted it too and more!



Here is the review that convinced me to purchase one - http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/samsungpro815/

They also have reviews for pretty much every camera thats worth reviewing! Definatly a good site when researching which to buy


But of course, with a new camera comes new pictures I havent really taken any yet as its pouring with rain and theres nowt much inside to take photos of heh, so I got my sexy model "big kitten" to do some posing for me I cant upload the full res piccy as its huuuggee (5mbish) but heres a lower res one



awww, aint she cute

Very nice Chris, an unusual choice though, but Samsung do seem to be producing better cameras now than they ever did. How come you didn't go all out for a DSLR rather than a bridge camera?

I've had a D50 for a while now and it's a cracking camera. My one complaint is that there is no depth of field preview. I'm guessing the 8MP swung you towards the Samsung? In my experience nobody needs more than 5 million MP unless you're going to enlarge more than A3.

nah for me, anying in the region of 6mp upwards was fine, as you say, for general photography, you dont need stupid MP.

Decided againced a DSLR simply because for the price they are going for, I could puchase a bridge camera for less which is offering more and still producing the same, if not, in some cases, better results!

The lense on the pro815 is superb. The only thing that lets it down (slightly) is the jpeg processing on the camera. Shooting in raw (takes longer to process but worth itfrom what ive seen) solves this and you get amazingly crisp and acurate results. For a film addict to say this, its gotta be good We had one in for repair at my work a while back and I had a play around with it, I liked it then but wasnt in the market for a DSLR.

To match the lense on the 815 pro (equivelant to 27mm-400mm F2.2 - F4.6) ide be looking at a rediculous ammount of money, and then alot of money on top of that for the body too. Im not saying ill use te 400mm end of the camera but its always nice for it to be there incase heh

It made more sence to get a bridge camera than an DSLR

As for Samsung, well as I said, it was an Unlikely choice but far the better camera out of similar ones in its class (like the fuji 9500) and it seems that samsung are actually trying to tackle the photographic market. I read the trade mags at work (pixel, PMA mag, calumets monthly thing etc) and they have all reported on Samsung taking a strong hold on the market

Samsung are only going one way, and that's up. Their DSLR cameras are basically rebranded Pentax cameras and they are outselling Pentax already!

Have you tried the full 400mm zoom yet? I find on bridge cameras that the downside of having an all in one lens is poorer quality and graining on the zoom at extremes, although I haven't used one of these Samsungs yet so don't know, but if you won't be using the 400mm much that's not an issue. What ISO range does it have?

Another thing, have you abandoned film altogether? My other camera besides the D50 is a Nikon F80, and although the D50 is a great little camera the F80 pips it for quality. Two identical shots taken on each camera will always show the F80 being a better camera. Maybe the newer Nikon DSLRs like the D80 or D200 would be an improvement, but film isn't dead yet and I think at some stage it will make a revival once all the techy addicts move on from their digital compacts and the market matures and balances out.

looks great. i love taking pictures and always have my camera in my bag. would be great to get an SLR just cant afford it right now!

only 50-400 unfortunatly but I found on alot of the other cameras that anything above 400 would just ammount to a useless picture of grain.

ill take a full 400mm piccie for you in a min

in the mean time -



such a poser

soo cute looks just like my bros cat

That's nice, the face is lovely and sharp. The hairs on the back are slightly soft, a bit of practice will sort that though. I'll let you off as it's new.

Here's a shot from my D50 taken with the standard 18-55mm kit lens, cropped and converted to b&w in photoshop.

nope, still got all my manual (dont really use em anymore) SLRs and the Nikon F55. The digital is for me to experiment with and play around with. Most of the photos i take end up on the here so seems silly to use film etc, where as I did photos at babzs sisters wedding earlier in the year and wouldnt dream of using digital for that!

Film has the subtle qualities that make a photo "professional". Digital is convinent

anyway, heres some 400mm at various iso. ive put on the pics what they are! BTW, these are straight from the camera except ive cropped them down to around a 3.5mp size and had to compress them a bit to get them to around 600kb each colours are as are on the camera!

manual focus is a bitch without a proper viewfinder the only thing i miss about a proper slr it focused well at the 400mm range! just wanted to focus on the telephone wire and the AF wouldnt select it.

Nice. Its one of the best times of year to take photos, i love it when the leaves change.

That's pretty good. It's a bit grainy at 400 ISO at 400mm but a lot better than I thought it would be. It's a nice toy.

Indeed It is a toy The Nikon is the daddy

I was tempted by replacing my film nikon (F60? was one of the cheaper end) with a Dslr, but they are just MASSIVE!!!
I meanthey weigh well more than twice as much and are upto twice the size.

so got a halfway house, a fuji s5600, not an slr, a compact camera with a bigger lenses. Goes upto 1600iso, and is fairly clean at 1600!!!!

The main thing that put me off the fuji cameras was the noise reduction they apply on higher isos. they look ok but when you zoom in there is no detail atall.


The samsung weighs quite a bit but its comfortable. Plus, im old fasioned and stand by the point that big heavy things are usualy better than the small light ones

I know that rule!!! It means big volvo estates are better than the vast majority of fiats

It depends what you want to do with it.
personally I take a lot of shots in action, so I go mountainbiking with a cam strapped between my backpack webbing (in a resonably hard case, so it will protect the camera in an accident, but not smash all my ribs etc).

with the nikon F60 and the fuji 5600 they weight next to nothing in comparison and are farily small, so I can be riding with a group. bomb to the head of the pack, whip camera out, then take fantastic pictures of them (so cam has to be as fast as poss) whilst they are fecking up and falling over all over the shop:slayer:

I'm trying to get a fully waterproof case so I can take it on rivers too and take pics when we are kayaking.
the old nikon was good because it had a 28-190mm lenses (therebouts), so it could get pretty damn wide pictures when a group is floating pretty much right infront of me. Or pull some in from afar, but the fuji's (fujinon:yuck: ) 38-380mm is better at long range, so I can stand on a bank att eh bottom of a section and get shed loads of pictures with a decent amount of boat in it.

Know anywhere I can get a case for it? I only need major functions to work, i/e on off (quite hard as its a switch!) and shutter button. leaving it in auto does most of what I want to do

har har :devil:

Just one last picture

This is my old Olympus Camedia 310... cracking little camera although it now looks a little battered and bruised heh



The photo was taken in raw at 50iso using the super macro feature. Converted and adjusted in Adobe Lightroom and then cropped and finalised in photoshop

Oh wait, 1 more the sun decided to appear. Again, Raw @ 50iso, slightly darkened in lightroom then cropped in photoshopp



Ahhhhh just another Mooody

I'm jealous! i want a new camera now!

While we're on the subject of cameras does anyone have an idea what a Nikon D70 without lenses is worth?