Budget DSLR for Beginner Guide

Even I said this is Budget DSLR guide. But you should prepared about RM 3,000 if you don't need any bag, accessories or add on. For RM 4,000 you can get quite some add on that covers most of your need.


Before I got my DSLR, I am just using canon compact camera SX200. I bought it because it has 12x zoom. When I was younger I always like ultra zoom or super zoom camera. I thought camera with greater zoom is better. But that is not the case. Eventually I know the widest and longer end of zoom range didn't offer much image quality.


Before you start, you got to decide what Brand of DSLR you want to buy. Personally I won't get anything other than Canon or Nikon, the reason is simply because both of this brand is already long in market. They are also many 3rd Party lens available for it. As for Sony,Samsung, Olympus and even Ricoh don't have much choice. But you can still make your choice. 


If you go for canon. Get the Canon 550D Body which cost about RM 1900. For Nikon get the Nikon D5100, that cost about RM 2,000 which is about RM 100 more expensive than canon, but of course with better features and screen function like canon 600D. But we are not here to compare the performance. Of course for canon you can get a 600D that cost RM 2300 + which is RM 400 more expensive. 


Next you will choose between wide angle, portrait, general photography OR Telephoto and Macro. Or you can get Both the lens depending on your budget, If you are on RM 3000 budget you can only get one of the lens. I suggest you go for shorter focus length with general photography, wide angle landscape and portrait photography. Generally, 70% to 80% of time you will be using the 17-50mm Focus length. Since you will be using it a lot, you should be getting something good and not too expensive until you are ready to go further

I suggest the Tamron SP AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di II LD Aspherical [IF] Lens  that cost about RM 1200. With either Nikon or Canon Mount, it will come close to RM 3100 to RM 3200 budget. Perhaps you should top up a few hundred if you can get a better bargain. This lens is sharp enough to give you very good image quality. It is cheapest among the sigma, Nikon and Canon brand. If you have extra budget better save it now, don't go for VC version that is 500 bucks more. With 500 bucks you can get another decent and fun lens. 

Many of you will be wondering why we should not use the original kit lens, which has the same zoom range from 18-55mm. This kit lens has F/3.5 to F/5.6 which I personally think is too slow. With F/5.6 at the longest end, you can't take a good Bokeh portrait picture. At the widest F/3.5 the image quality is really bad and most of the time you have to stop down to get a decent image quality. But the lens will cost you RM 600 if you purchase it separately, but of course it should be cheaper if you get it with the camera body. For canon, now you have upgraded version that have a bit of image quality. But nonetheless, I would recommend Tamron Lens with faster aperture, better image quality and decent price tag. 

That's it, you can now start shooting good images with this budget body and budget lens. Tamron lens generally covers wide angle at 17mm till 50mm that you can shoot quite a good portrait. If you have extra 500 bucks budget you can get another cheapo lens that allows you to do some telephoto + Macro. Get the cheap RM 600  Tamron AF 70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di LD Macro 1:2 Lens

This Tamron lens, is cheap and let you to learn about wild life telephoto without Image stabilization. Why no IS/VC? because with IS/VC the lens is about RM 1,000 more. and it will sacrifice its Macro capability. With a price tag at RM 600, you can't complain much about the sharpness. It is basically quite good compare to the same entry level lens even on canon 55-250mm, the sharpness is comparable. Remember, we would just like to experience and practice telephoto shooting. Thus we do not want to have something price between 1k to 3k which will still be a slow lens with lousy image quality. Other than F/2.8 or F/4 constant aperture from any brand I would not recommend investing into telephoto yet. So save up if you want to have a good telephoto lens. But most budget and best quality I would recommend a sigma 70-200mm F/2.8 or Canon 70-200 F/4 IS.

With This telephoto lens, you can have good macro photography from a distant. It is fun lens to play with. Once you reach the level of professional, you will feel this is a "toy" lens. That's the time you need to upgrade your lens. Remember on longer end just stop down to F/7.1 or F/8.0 to have a great image. Just capture it with higher shutter speed and ISO. dont worry about the noise, you can reduce it if you capture it in RAW. 

With a budget around RM 4,000 you should be able to start practice on all the focus length. Once you know have identified your interest, you should be able to move to better lens.

For Portrait, get the sigma 50mm F/1.4, yes PRIME lens without zoom that will have best image quality compare to zoom lens. 

For longer end, get 70-200mm F/2.8 or 100-300mm F/4 or equivalent. 

Don't focus too much on ultra wide angle until you have upgrade to full frame.  

If capture the moment, it is pretty easy if you have the suitable gear. But you will not have a stunning image. Once you feel that your crave for more image quality, is time for you to upgrade to full frame and put both tamron lens in your cupboard or sell it with your APS-C body.

When you move to full frame, most of the time you will want a prime lens to get the best out of everything. Each prime lens with superior image quality should cost you more than RM 5000. with that you should seriously consider your investment plan before blowing up your wallet.

Budget ultra wide angle lens for APS-C

For APS-C canon mount there are few options like below:

Lens	Coverage	Mount	Weight	Length/Diam	Street Price (est.)
Tamron 11-18/3.5-5.6	APS-C	EF/Nik	375g	78mm/82mm	RM 1824
Tokina 12-24/4	APS-C	EF/Nik	570g	89.5mm/84mm	RM 1600
Canon 10-22/3.5-4.5	APS-C	EF-S	385g	90mm/83.5mm	RM 2560
Sigma 12-24/4.5-5.6	Full frame 35mm	EF/Nik	615g	100mm/87mm	RM 2240
Sigma 10-20/4-5.6	APS-C	EF/Nik	470g	81mm/83.5mm	RM 1600
Nikon 12-24/4	APS-C	Nik	500g	89mm/81mm	RM 3040

source from:http://photo.net/equipment/wideangle-dslr
If you are interested about all above lens performance and also features, feel free to visit the link above.

Personally, if you have the budget I would recommend to go for Canon 10-22 if you plan to stay on APS-C for long. Since full frame body will be more expensive we are going for Budget Stuff. The second best will be sigma 12-24 if you plan to for full frame later. Of course if you want to go for the widest sigma 10-20 will be the best at the price tag of RM 1,600. But bear in mind if you are going to shoot landscape, the aperture is not really a problem since we will be using some where slower than F/8.0 

If you are low on budget, and you want to have another wide angle lens, perhaps there will be another alternative solution. Wide lens conversion lens.

 This conversion lens cost about RM 150 to RM 250 depending on the quality. The focus length multiplier is 0.45x according to specification. But I doubt it can be so wide. The conversion lens comes with many diameter, I got the 67mm for my Tamron 17-50mm. There are many version of conversion lens. This is the slim type, that does not come with Macro capability. I don't like wide angle macro, it is not very feasible to have macro lens with 17mm focus length.














This is the conversion lens being "screwed", attached to the front of Tamron lens. Theoretically this should make the lens focus length become 7.65-22.5mm. But it seems the conversion rate is not that WIDE. From the landscape images I got from this converted lens, it is about 12-35mm. Which is about 0.7x only. Perhaps I will get another real 0.45x conversion lens later. But I doubt any lens can reach 7.65mm focus lens yet.

All images are taken from same spot outside my condo. I doubt this is 7.65mm Focus length. I think it should be around 12mm. according to the 50mm test.

This is the non-converter 17mm. As you can see from the comparison. The converted lens is indeed wider and can capture more stuff.

 This is the 24mm non converted focus length. I took this image to make comparison below image. Which is 50mm converted.

 This is 50mm Converted image. Theoretically it should have 22.5m But it seems it is not wider than 24mm as compare to above. So I took another 35mm and also 42mm. Later for comparison. The closest I found is about 35-36mm.

This is 36mm non converted image I took after I took all above images. The settings and angle might be abit different. But nonetheless it is almost the same like a 35mm. The yellow crane has moved from previous shot. So don't use the yellow crane at right side for comparison. This image pan to right while the above image pan to left.






Well now you have a cheap 12-35mm F/2.8 with the cost of RM 200. It is F/2.8 remember and the zoom range is from 12 to 35 is about 3x from what you have on any general zoom. Keep in mind that the performance at wide open is not as high as non converted F/2.8 but it still can give you very good image quality depend how you capture it. If you are going for landscape and HDR this will be a very good converted lens.

HDR Pangkor

Happy Chinese New Year!

Photography is about heart and creativity

Perhaps nowadays DSLR comes with cheaper and cheaper body and more affordable lens.

I remember the older days I was not even using DSLR, but yet I am able to capture the memories and images I wanted back then. I just wanted to tell everyone who wanna start photography as their hobby, they need passion, heart and creativity when capturing the moment. Sometimes it is not how stunning the photo it has to be.

Sometimes when we are looking back to the analog film, we do not have so many shots count like today digital world. We don't even have live view, we don't have so many electronic "helps". Even though the image quality can't match today full frame DSLR, but yet the memories of past keep the photo shining more than the stunning images you capture today. 

When I started many many years ago, I just had a handphone to take photo. back then DSLR is more expensive. We don't have so many third party lens until Tamron and Sigma came later. That time was around year 2000 when I was going to start my college. Even compact camera was very bulky that time.

But many of the handphone started to integrate with digital camera function. That's the time, where more and more people get in touch with photography.