Help With Camera Setup

CoopaTroopa · **Posted:** Wed Dec 05, 2012 11:39 am

So I have to do some product analysis for my marketing class... and part of that is to get consumer feedback and opinions.
I have a $5,000 budget +/- $100 before tax to spend on a camera setup, I'm looking for...
1) one high quality camera and lens
2) "the ultimate camera package" that includes anything you would want for $5,000 including camera,lens,tripod,cases, and anything else you might want minus editing software.
I have no experience in photography what so ever so I'm really looking for your feedback
It would also help if you could say why you chose certain things, what you would prefer or didn't like, and customer service reviews would be awesome.
Please don't direct me to a site where I can simply read an "expert's" review, I would much rather prefer your experiences!
Thanks for any help!

ABQKJ · **Posted:** Wed Dec 05, 2012 9:20 pm

What are you shooting? A you looking for a table top "studio" for small product photography?

ATXKJ · **Posted:** Thu Dec 06, 2012 9:21 pm

What ABQKJ and yellocoyote point out are excellent points - you can get a great camera
but if if doesn't fit your purpose it's not any good and there are a lot of options out there.

We went from Canon to Minolta to Nikon - and I like the Canon best
couple of issues - cameras used to be about Optics - now days - it's as much software
so some non-optics companies - Sony, Samsung, Panasonic - have some decent cameras.

However I still think Canon has the best combination - the December - Consumer Reports has their Camera report
for High dollar SLR - which is what I'd be looking for - they recommended Canon EOS 60D - list is $1050.

but there are a lot of pretty close one's -and you need to read the article for what they were looking at - and decide if that's what you want.

also if you spend that much money - consider a photography course - community colleges are pretty good (UT has some non-credit stuff too)

CoopaTroopa · **Posted:** Fri Dec 07, 2012 12:00 am

Thanks for the replies guys but I actually think I found a lot of helpful information on The Photography Forum... They arent as nice of a crowd as you guys haha

jjohnson1892 · **Posted:** Sat Dec 15, 2012 12:07 am

I've been shooting photography for about 6 years now and have run through a few cameras.

Best experience was with a Nikon D90 (it was my dad's and my first time really using a DSLR). It's very user friendly, with a lot of auto modes, but also has manual modes so you can try to experiment with it. The body runs for roughly $900 nowadays.

Best lens I've ever used (for general purpose or being the only lens I could carry) is the Nikon 30-200mm f/3.5-5.6 lens. Great image quality and fairly fast. Comes with VR and AF on it so it's a solid walkaround lens. It can go from $500 to $800, depending on sales and all that.**Note** I learned after a few years to get a polarizer for every lens I know. It makes the difference from "good" photos to amazing photos. They're about $100 a pop, but can be used between lenses with the same radius.

Tripods are a lot like cars, they all do the same thing and it comes down to small preference differences and different price points. I've used the same carbon fiber tripod that I got 4 years ago from Best Buy for $175. No complaints.

Case and bag setup is my favorite part of the photography game

Favorite bag by far is the Lowepro Rover pack. It's a solid adventure bag (price goes between $250-350). Best camera case (hard case) is a Pelican 1500. Literally bulletproof and I have a small arsenal of Pelican cases because they're simply amazing. They run from $60-150.

Hope this helps

Help With Camera Setup

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