Camera for Beginner? I have been looking at the T6i, but have no clue as to what I should buy. Help?

[guererja623]

I am a dummy when it comes to photography. I have 6 children that play sports, and have paid out 100's of dollars over the years for action pictures. My husband suggested I get my own camera and take some pictures. I would use the camera to take mostly pictures of my children playing sports. It's football season, and I have 2 high school varsity players, 2 peewee players, and a cheerleader. I sit up high in the stands around the 40-50 yard line(I feel I can see equally both ways here,) and I would be around 50 yards away(give or take a few) from the actual field. Kick off is 7:30 here in Texas, and it's very close to sundown. When it gets dark, the stadium lights are lit up like any other Friday night football game you can imagine. I want to know what camera is a good camera for beginners. I have been looking at the T6 and the T6i, but have no clue what the difference is. They both come with a bundle, EF 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses. What is the difference between a DSLR and SLR? I just need it broken down in plain English so that I can make a good choice. Which would you choose and why?

[kvbarkley]

SLR = Single lens reflex, a film or digital camera with a mirror - generally a mirror that lets you see what the lens sees and then swings out of the way for you to take the picture. A DSLR is a digital - not film - version of an SLR that puts digital images onto a storage media, usually SD cards for the class of camera you are likely to buy.

The T6 would be fine for you, but I would not get the bundle with the 75-300, that is not the best choice.

Is video a concern?

[diverhank]

The difference between DSLR and SLR is the D for digital.  The SLR part stands for Single Lens Reflex which basically means that the camera uses through the lens view for the viewfinder and it does this by the way of a mirror so you can both view the image through the lens and capture that same image on the sensor when you press the shutter button - the mirror flips up allowing the image to reach the sensor.  SLR has been around for quite a while, back in the film days.  Nowadays, a DSLR does not use film anymore. Instead it uses a CMOS sensor to capture the image.  So SLR is commonly used to describe a film single lens reflex camera and DSLR is used for digital cameras - both the T6 and T6i are DSLR.  The term mirrorless is used to describe newer systems that do away with the mirror but otherwise has the same quality sensor and other functions.  Mirrorless is not used to describe the common point and shoot and phone cameras which are technically also mirrorless.

The advantage of the mirrorless is there is no cumbersome mirror system that flips up and down while pictures are taken and so they can be built smaller and can shoot faster -more frames per second.  The downside of that is the viewfinder is not real time (if done electronically, there is a lag between what you see and what you will get- which is important for fast action shooting).  Cheaper cameras sometimes use optical viewfinder but they are not through the lens and they don't match what your picture will look like.  Therefore, for now, the DSLR still reign supreme especially for action photography.

Regarding the T6i and T6, I think they are fine for what you want to do.  The T6i is a much more capable camera.  The T6i has 24 megapixel versus T6 18 megapixels.  It has touch screen and swivel screen, 1 extra stop ISO performance (more sensitive to light), better auto-focus (more focus points), faster frame rate (5 frames per second versus 3) with much faster shutter lag...many of these factors will favor action shooting so if money is no object, I'd get the T6i.

[guererja623]

Which lense should be used for this? I asked the photographer that normally does the pictures. She recommended getting the 75-300mm for action shots, is that a bad choice(due to the 1st response to my topic)?

[kvbarkley]

Get the new 70-300, it has better optics, focusing and IS.

[guererja623]

I know this is a Canon forum, but I'm new and have no idea about the differences in lenses. I just looked up the one you said and this comes up. Is this a good camera? Nikon D3400 DSLR Camera w/ 18-55mm & 70-300mm Lens, Flash, Filters and 64GB Kit

[guererja623]

And I know this sounds ignorant(as I am to this all),but what is the difference in the mm on the lenses? Which is better or can I get an example of what type of pics they would be used for? 18-55mm in comparison to the 75-300mm or 70-300mm?

[kvbarkley]

The 18-55 and 75-300 refer to focal length, which means how close something appears in the lens low focal lengths, like 18, are wide angle lenses and give you a wide angle of view. Long focal lengths, like 300 mean that items far away can appear much closer like a telescope, which is what you need for football.

Go here:

https://learn.usa.canon.com/resources/articles/Comparators/fov-comparator.shtml

And select the EOS 60D/70D/...Rebel and you can see the difference between the 18, 55, 75 and 300 mm focal lengths. The other number we have *not* talked about is Aperture, such as F4.5-F5.6, for those, the smaller the number the better, but also heavier and bigger.

Another option for you is the EF-S 55-250 which is smaller and lighter than the 75/70-300. You can use the above website to see if you think that 250 will meet your needs compared to 300 mm.

[diverhank · Accepted solution]

The larger the  mm number, the more magnification of the image you will get.  The answers will vary greatly depending on who you ask but to keep it really simple (at the risk of being technically wrong)...think of the image magnification you'd get with a binocular in terms of x...I'd use 50mm as the base...representing 1X.  So 18mm divide by 50mm will give you 0.36X and 55mm would give you 1.1X and 300mm will give you 6X.  To complicate things, depending on the camera sensor size, the final image is further enlarged.  For example the T6/T6i (a cropped sensor camera)  will give you a further 1.6X magnification compared to a 5D Mark III camera (a full frame camera).  The numbers aren't important, rather the idea...a number larger than 1 gives you more magnification - bringing the subject closer to you.

For DSLR cameras (full frame), 50mm is normally considered 1X - for focal length less than 50mm, we call that wide-angle (lenses).  For FL more than 50mm, we call that tele-photo (lenses).

[guererja623]

OK guys, I got my new camera last week and tried a few pictures at our Friday night football game. Well....they suck! Everything is sooo blurry and looks like I was running while taking the pics! Some of them you can't even tell the number on the jersey! I took them in sports mode and continuous setting. I took some Saturday at our peewee games that look ok, but that is daytime and no stadium light. Any tips to help me out. I will be trying some more tomorrow night at our football game.