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d3300 and advice on a lens

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Danseaman
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d3300 and advice on a lens

Post by Danseaman » Sun Dec 27, 2015 8:50 pm

Hi Guys, currently looking for a new kit, I'm using a Canon 1000D with a sigma 18-200mm and a Tamron 70-300mm. I've got my eye on a D3300 with a sigma 70-300mm. Really can't go above £400 and need a 300mm. Am I doing the right thing?
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talldan76
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Re: d3300 and advice on a lens

Post by talldan76 » Sun Dec 27, 2015 10:11 pm

Can I ask why you are looking at changing to Nikon kit?

why not buy a new Canon body, on which you can still use the lenses you currently own - rather than having to buy a new body and lens? You could pick up a 700d for just over £300.

Dan

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Re: d3300 and advice on a lens

Post by Danseaman » Sun Dec 27, 2015 10:41 pm

Hi Dan, thanks for the reply! I believe it's partly the Tamron lens letting it down?! So was going to change that! Also I've seen a Nikon D3300 with Sigma 50-300mm for £370, I'm open to any advice on a body and lens so my ears are open!

EDIT: currys currently doing a 700D with sigma 70-300mm for 470ish would that be a lot better than my 1000D with Tamron 70-300mm?
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andygolfer
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Re: d3300 and advice on a lens

Post by andygolfer » Mon Dec 28, 2015 9:47 am

good points from Dan re sticking with canon, the Currys offer with sigma 70-300 looks pretty good but are you sure the Tamron is that bad?

Dan told me about HDEW who are brilliant and they have this offer at present - EOS 700D with 18-55 f.3.5-5.3 with IS for £329
link: http://www.hdewcameras.co.uk/canon-eos- ... 1267-p.asp

That is a far better camera than the 1000D - I still have my 1000D and it's okay for statics and medium zoom pics but the 10MP limits it a bit with longer zooms especially without IS and my same lenses performed far better on my 600D which I bought 3 years ago.

With the above offer I would do the following:
1: use the 18-55 lens on the 1000D, I've done that and the results for statics & landscapes etc are very good, you could also put the sigma 18-200 on it as a more all round lens if you wish. By using two cameras it avoids changing lenses in the field which can cause dust problems.
2: use the Tamron on the 700D for now but read on....

Before you consider changing it, try the Tamron 70-300 on the 700D and take some pics (both static and moving ) with it on a decent day so you can keep the ISO fairly low (say 400 or lower) and speed up above 1-600th of a second to try to eliminate any blur due to camera shake (I don't know if the Tamron has IS hence this suggestion) and and different zooms from the mid range i.e. 150mm and higher at 200mm and 250mm and finally at 275 - just off maximum and at 300 maximum. Then have a look at the results to see if the lens loses sharpness at the top end, most lenses lose a bit at the maximum zoom and I always keep mine to a bit below - ideally about 90% of the maximum.
You could also try the same exercise with the Tamron on a tripod on just static subjects to see how sharp the images are if you think you are shaking the camera at all. All this will give an idea of if the lens is worth continuing with, also see if you can find any reviews of the lens.

Hope that helps and hope to see some results from you. If you wish post a pic or two from the current set up it might give an idea of the quality loss you are worried about. Paultojo or porkscratching might be able to advise as well as I believe both have done photographic tutorials in the past.

One last idea which has just come to me, take 2 pics of the same subject and same ISO and speed settings, one with the sigma at 150mm and then with the Tamron at 150mm to see how they compare, I would expect the Tamron to be equal or better as that would be it's mid-range setting, if it isn't then I suggest the lens is certainly an issue.

HTH
Andy
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Danseaman
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Re: d3300 and advice on a lens

Post by Danseaman » Mon Dec 28, 2015 10:09 am

Andy thank you ever so much for your in-depth reply, I see what your saying. http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/uu29 ... G_1108.jpg

Here's an image taken with my 1000D and Tamron lens at 200mm. As you can see it's not brilliant and the camera really does suffer with low light. I will give the test a ago later, but you have already convinced me to stay with Canon. Any help and advice is appreciated guys. One thing I will say about this forum is everyone is helpful and polite unlike another forum I am on!
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Re: d3300 and advice on a lens

Post by andygolfer » Mon Dec 28, 2015 10:45 am

thanks for posting that pic Dan, do you know what settings you used please?

Also I noticed it was on photobucket and that site tends to make photos a bit soft compared to others (e.g. flickR), did the photobucket image lose sharpness compared to the original?

thanks for the previous comments - we try to be helpful on here

andy
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Re: d3300 and advice on a lens

Post by Danseaman » Mon Dec 28, 2015 11:01 am

With out getting home and having a look then no I don't. I will try and get home later and upload one with all the setting included.
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andygolfer
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Re: d3300 and advice on a lens

Post by andygolfer » Mon Dec 28, 2015 11:37 am

Danseaman wrote:With out getting home and having a look then no I don't. I will try and get home later and upload one with all the setting included.
Dan - I've managed to get it off the image by downloading it and then looking at the file info : ISO 200, speed 1/500th, F10.

my thoughts on this are that going using F10 was probably unnecessary, I would have aimed for around F8 to get more light into the camera thus allowing an increase in the image speed, going to f8 you could probably have got to 1/800th - I'm not sure if you were using AV or TV, if you were on TV then setting to 1/800th would have reduced the aperture to around F8 which would probably have sharpened the image a bit for you, if the aircraft is travelling at around 150 mph then that's close to a foot of movement during the time of the photo, that needs compensating for in good panning to avoid any blur or reducing the movement by increased photo speed. 1/800 would make a big dent in that for you. There's a few discussions on here re using TV or AV if you can find them.

The other point is that you used ISO 200, I would probably trade a higher ISO to gain more speed as well, as long as the light is reasonable you shouldn't get any graining, if you do then it would need tweaking a bit.

I just tried a test with my 1000D albeit with my 18-55 lens on it
I used the house over the road from me - with it partly in sun and partly shade as the subject so a constant image
firstly at F10 and ISO 200 the speed came out at 1/200th, then changing to F8 at ISO 200 the speed increased to 1/320th
then I upped the ISO to 400, at F10 the speed was 1/320th and at F8 1/500th

so you can gain a lot of image speed which should help clarity and still get plenty of light onto the image just by a bit of tweaking, about 60% increase in photo speed with the two stop F number adjustment and similar for doubling the ISO and about 150% doing both.

Hope that helps (again!)

Andy
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Danseaman
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Re: d3300 and advice on a lens

Post by Danseaman » Mon Dec 28, 2015 12:09 pm

Oh great effort Andy! Appreciated usually I keep it on TV. Even with my mistakes would the 700D make a real difference. C&C always welcome
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Re: d3300 and advice on a lens

Post by andygolfer » Mon Dec 28, 2015 12:15 pm

Danseaman wrote:Oh great effort Andy! Appreciated usually I keep it on TV. Even with my mistakes would the 700D make a real difference. C&C always welcome

Thanks Dan. I'm sure the 700D would help you, it's far newer technology and 18 megapixels would give you far more detail which would help no end with the zoomed images. Then as I said use the 1000D for the statics with the smaller 18-55 lens.

BTW I assume you are using the image setting at the high end i.e. 'L' to maximise the original file quality

Andy
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Re: d3300 and advice on a lens

Post by PorkScratching » Mon Dec 28, 2015 12:28 pm

Danseaman wrote:currys currently doing a 700D with sigma 70-300mm for 470ish would that be a lot better than my 1000D with Tamron 70-300mm?
I suspect not.

Tamron and Sigma seem to get very similar reviews, so it's likely that a cheap Sigma 70-300mm will perform similar to the Tamron you already have.

The EOS 700D is a better camera than your EOS 1000D. But your EOS 1000D does everything that you should need - it has shutter and aperture priority modes, manual mode, evaluative and centre-weighted exposure, multiple focus points, AI Servo AF mode etc. You don't have to have the latest and greatest body to get good shots - I use an EOS 5D and an EOS 30D dating back to 2006. I'll probably upgrade the EOS 30D this year for one specific reason - high ISO performance is much better in modern bodies.

As others have said above, ensure your technique is not the cause of your issues before spending any more cash. Are you ensuring a high enough shutter speed when shooting aircraft in the air? Are you adjusting ISO and shutter speed to ensure you're using a sweet-spot aperture around f8 at all times (unless you're deliberately looking for a shallow or deep depth of field)? Is your panning technique good? If not, I'd suggest working on all of those first.

If you've done all that and you really want to improve the quality available from your kit, have a think about just upgrading one item, e.g. the body or the lens. It's no good replacing cheap kit with cheap kit. You have £400 to spend, so consider one of these:

http://www.wexphotographic.com/buy-cano ... s/p1010309

I know a number of people who swear by this lens - it's better than the entry level plastic lenses, and has image stabilisation, but is cheaper than the professional L series lenses. If you're willing to save up a bit more then you could buy a second-hand EF 100-400mm L:

http://www.wexphotographic.com/buy-used ... s/p1587639

A massive step up in terms of focal length and lens quality. That one is the cheapest second-hand one WEX have available so is a little tatty. Save up a little more and they have tidier ones available. In fact there's plenty available at the moment because the Mk2 version was released earlier this year and many people are upgrading.

Danseaman
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Re: d3300 and advice on a lens

Post by Danseaman » Mon Dec 28, 2015 2:07 pm

i am shooting on th L image files, i think I'm going to get the 700D and try the Tamron on there for a bit, and save for an IS 300mm
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andygolfer
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Re: d3300 and advice on a lens

Post by andygolfer » Mon Dec 28, 2015 2:33 pm

Danseaman wrote:i am shooting on th L image files, i think I'm going to get the 700D and try the Tamron on there for a bit, and save for an IS 300mm

I suggest you try the tests I suggested first to see how good the lens is,

good luck

andy
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