Hey,

Looking at purchasing my firs DSLR. I've been around to harvey norman and joyce mayne and can't seem to find them at the right price.

http://www.d-d-photographics.com.au/canon450d.htm

Anybody used that website before? Is the 18-200mm lense any good? Would you consider that a good buy?

get quotes from different places and bid them off against each other. harveys generally meet prices especially if you have it in writing. get them to match it, then take it back to another store, you'l soon get yourself a decent deal.

Can anybody with some serious insight please let me know what the lense is like that it comes with...

Thread cleaned and warnings handed out.

ROCK ON
R~R

I'm also buying my first dslr in the next 2 weeks, so i might give that a go

will be interesting to see what the lowest price i can get is

Just buy from photo continental. Cant beat their service. Not to mention good prices. Harvey Norman really wont go as low as them I think.

Thank you.

What are your thoughts on the 18-200mm lense? Basically after a good quality lense, and also fairly multi purpose....

Thats a long focal length to cover from a wide angle/zoom to telephoto...

I am guessing you dont want multiple lenses and are on a budget?

theres always cameras direct (www.camerasdirect.com.au) they import their cameras, so no actaul canon warrenty, but offer their own for free.

im lookin at the same camera, and its like 1249 for the twin lens kit

I'm on a bit of a budget. Not too fussed on how many lenses. Would you reccommend the twin lense kit instead?

Twin lense kit is a great starting point for a beginner it lets you understand in what sort of range you will be shooting in future

My thoughts are when buying a body basically to keep an Aust warranty. Have heard of people getting camera's "lost in the mail" etc (Only P&S thankfully) but it's something you don't want to risk, whether it's $200 or $20,000 as well as having an actual shop to go to when you're a beginner so I'll do a plus one on Lances idea of going to PC.

Heaps of staff at Photocontinental, plenty to look at and having a decent show room to test out the camera instead of a alleyway like Ted's on Adelaide St.

Also agree with Lance on the twin lens kit, you get two lenses rather than one so if, god forbid, you drop one, you still have another but the main reason is the twin lenses split the focal range which means you're going to get sharper glass as it's less of a compromise because the greater the focal range a lens covers, the more it gets soft, CA, BD etc.. etc.. Just go have a browse at Canon's L lens list, there's only ONE that covers a BIG length (38-300) and it's trash apparently (for the $) so that gives you a big indication already that the 18-200 isn't going to be red hot, i'd expect the same quality from the kit lenses (Which are basically the cheapest lens from that manufacturer) as I would from the 18-200 which is more like a 'travel lens', which means you pack the one lens to cover all - but you have to knowingly expect the compromise.

Another good thing with the kit lenses is, you can always use them (well the telezoom) to sell to take a bite out of a serous lens. For a better lens to start off with I'd personally recommend either the Sigma 17-70 (cheap but sharper than anything for the cash ex primes) or the Canon 17-85 but this stuffers from barrel distortion (BD) and Chromatic Abberation (CA) at times, mostly it's BD as you'll take a picture of say.. a brick wall and it'll look ballooned at the sides, but it's got a great focal range, IS & USM so it's a great lens to keep on you until you can upgrade to something like a 24-70 or an 18-50/55. My copy also started to suffer lens creep even though I treaded it better than I probably would my baby.. If i had one..

Also if your looking to get into photography & advance and you know you'll only have this body for say 12 months-2yrs then perhaps try for a 400d and use the spare cash for a better lens you can keep once you've moved to the next body?

So bored.. Who wants another espresso?.. ME!

Good to know.

I just decided to go all out and get a 50D kit because it comes with the 17-85mm lense and means I don't have to upgrade. I know someone who is willing to teach me how to use it properly.

Plus I got a pretty good deal. 50D + 17-85mm lense + $85 lowepro bag + 4gig extreme 3 CF card + spare li-ion battery + 67mm UV filter + 5 year aust warranty for less than $2800.

Should have got a second hand 40D plus some L glass for that amount.

Yeah, 40D + 24-105 = killer.

I was going to get the 50D.. but opted to buy the 40D with the 17-85mm lens kit. In total it saved me approx $700. I checked the difference between a 50D & 40D and there wasn't much that was worth the extra $700

I'm just going with the fact that i'll have a slightly better camera, which is 1)brand new with 5 year warranty and 2)should therefore last me a long time without upgrading etc apart from lenses.

Yeah good pick-up regardless, now go wow us with it!