help on choosing a camera

[gunner1802]

ay up, i'm mega new to photography and need advise on which camera to buy. At the moment its a toss up between a nikon D90 or a canon 550D.
Any advice will be helpful.

[sk66]

I wouldn't buy a D90. I'd get a D5100 or D7000.

No help on the Canon line.

[gunner1802]

many thanks for the reply, why would you not choose the D90?? out dated maybe or the fact that the D5100 and the D7000 are just newer models and out perform the D90??

[sham123]

I own nikon D90 and love it.
I'd exchanged it with the other for about a month with my friend and I'm not impressed. So I would say for for d90.

[sk66]

The D90 is outdated/discontinued. The D7000 out performs it and has more "control" (although much is in the menus) and a better sensor. The D5100 has the same sensor as the D7000 but less control.

I've never used a D5100. I have used a D90 and it left me hanging as some settings I'm used to using are not there. (i.e. focus tracking with lock on). They are all there in the D7000.
The D90 is also slower in focus and tracking than the D7000 is. I do think the D90 was a little larger (if memory serves me well) and felt a bit better in my hands.

My D3 recently died (ok, I killed it). It was insured and I have the money to replace it. I bought a D7000 to use while I wait for the D4 to be released. I could have bought anything in the Nikon line.
I paid $1k delivered for a "factory demo" D7000 with less than 20 actuations on it. That's comparable to a D90 and even a new D7000 is only a couple hundred more than a D90.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not in love with the D7000. I'm used to the pro level models and it's not there. But IMO it is the best entry/prosumer model out there. I chose it over the D300s. (there's very little the D300s is better at, nothing critical, and it costs twice as much)

[inkista]

Canon 600D, unless you're budget-limited. The flash master in the pop-up will make a huge difference when you hit the Strobist, like we all do. Also, I like flip-out screens.

Personally, I don't think there's a whole helluva lot to choose between the two cameras you're looking at. I'd look at the lenses and see which ones I want, and who's got the better selection that fits what you want to shoot.

D5100 has the focus motor issue. Just be aware of what that is and how it affects your lens choices (D3xxx and D5xxx models can't autofocus unless the lens has AF-S).

[gunner1802]

Cheers all for the advice, can you tell me more about these motor issues on the D5100 with regards to lenses etc.... i'll mainly be shooting wildlife, landscapes and possibly a bit of motorbike racing. Any info on what lenses to purchase would be greatly appreciated too. Sorry to be a pain in the arse but i really need to be sure before i spend any hard earned money. Many thanks

[inkista]

With Nikon, the focus motor for the autofocusing can either be in the camera body or in the camera lens. You need at least one for autofocus function. The two entry-level tiers (current models are the D3100 and D5100) of Nikon camera bodies do not have a focus motor, so the lens has to have one if you want to autofocus. The tiers above that all have focus motors, so this issue does not apply if you end up with a D90, D300, D700, D7000, etc.

Lenses that are designated as "AF" do NOT have a autofocus motor, but will autofocus on a body that has one. Lenses that are designated as "AF-S" do. So, the AF 50mm f/1.8D ($125) does not autofocus on a D5100; the AF-S 50mm f/1.8G ($220) does. While most of the zoom lenses you're likely to use on a Nikon body have AF-S (with the notable exception of the 80-400 VR), the primes [lenses with a fixed focal length] that you can easily afford may not.

The lenses will still mount and still work, but you have to manually focus them. This may be fine for landscape, portrait, and macro work. But once you get into action photography or if you have bad eyesight, autofocus can become more critical. So, in your case, look at the lenses you want to get for the motorbike racing, and see if they have AF-S on them. If you're getting the D5100. If you're getting the D90, no worries.

Nikon did their autofocus system this way to retain backwards compatibility with their old manual focus lenses.

Canon completely redesigned their mount system when they went to autofocus, so all lenses have a focus motor, and none of the bodies do. But you cannot use old Canon FD/FL manual focus lenses on the EOS mount, the way you can still use old Nikon F manual focus lenses.

Adapting manual focus lenses from other mount systems is a different story, but most shooters don't even got there.

[Shokinen]

Nikon is slowly updating most of their lenses so this won't be an issue anymore in a few years.

But a valid point to consider at this present time.

[gunner1802]

Inkista...you're a legend, many thanks for all your help. I've no doubt i'll have more questions in the future though. taa very much