Suggestion to buy camera

[gsingh991]

Hello, I am noob to all the camera stuff. So i need help. I am in the market to buy a canon camera anywhere from 300 to 400.

[cicopo]

You'll need to tell us why you want the camera, what things you'd like to capture (sports, evening sports, landscapes, kids or pets in action etc) for people to make recommendations. Also it would be good to know if you want to learn photography & the techniques that make you better at it or do you just want to point & shoot & accept what you get.

[gsingh991]

I would like to capture sports, landscapes, pictures of events during night time. Also i go to alot of cars show i want clear pictures of cars and i want to take pictures while the cars are moving. i would be sitting in passenger seat taking pictures.   i would also like built in camcord in it to make video of events i go to. and yes i do want to learn how to properly photograph and i want to learn the techniques. Because i love taking pictures.

Thank you for the tip and you are right. I will delevop the techiniques. Its that its my first camera ever and i am going to be keeping for long time so i want something good. 

[ScottyP]

Your wish list is very broad, and it spans the whole range of hard photography challenges for a camera so well I'd almost think you were playing a prank in asking it.

[gsingh991]

No sir im not playing a prank. The things i listed thats mainly what i want to do.

[ScottyP]

Everything in photography is a trade-off. A crop sensor camera gives you a telephoto advantage which is handy because a good quality telephoto lenses are very expensive. . But the crop frame sensor robs you of the width of the full frame camera.

Your budget would give you the sports ability if it is daytime outdoor sports. The latest "supertelephoto" camera will do e job. You are going to need more money if you are wanting to do indoor sports for sure. For that you need a good camera body or two, with seceralminterchangable lenses.

[ScottyP]

How about a t5i? http://www.canonpricewatch.com/product/04826/Canon-EOS-Rebel-T5i-with-18-135-Kit-price.html

It is good at the video and e lens covers wide landscape to telephoto sports. The only thing missing is the lowlight performance. But that is going to cost money.

[cicopo]

Your budget & experience level need to be worked on to even start shooting in low light / darkness if what you're shooting moves. Worse yet you're looking for a single camera (a guess based on budget) to do what most serious photographers have learned requires at least a few expensive lenses & a good camera body or 2. Some of what you'd like to do can be done with a Point & Shoot but it will need to allow full manual control when needed & you'll have to learn how & when to go that route, but in the end you'll need to go the DSLR route but that doesn't mean you shouldn't start with a good P & S & spend some time learning how to use it while you learn the basics of photography.

You'll need to learn how to capture action, how to pan smoothly, when to bump the ISO up & what the downside is when doing that, what DOF (depth of field) is & why that's important along with many other photography terms. At least you'll have the benefit of seeing your results right away unlike those of us who learned on film & kept notes so we'd know the setting used for the shot that worked & the one that didn't. You'll also have the benefit of auto focus, which is VERY HANDY. Back in the days before AF we picked a spot on the track, focused on it & then waited patiently for something to happen while you panned through that zone.

[TCampbell]

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@gsingh991 wrote:

I would like to capture sports, landscapes, pictures of events during night time. Also i go to alot of cars show i want clear pictures of cars and i want to take pictures while the cars are moving. i would be sitting in passenger seat taking pictures.   i would also like built in camcord in it to make video of events i go to. and yes i do want to learn how to properly photograph and i want to learn the techniques. Because i love taking pictures.

Thank you for the tip and you are right. I will delevop the techiniques. Its that its my first camera ever and i am going to be keeping for long time so i want something good. 

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Wow!  That's quite a spectrum.

Any camera can take a photo when the lighting is great and the subject isn't moving -- it's not challenging for the equipment to focus and get a good exposure.

It gets challenging when you start to pick on areas of photography that stretch the limits of what most cameras can do.  This is where point & shoot cameras begin to no longer be adequate and higher end cameras are needed.

Most cameras struggle with action shots for two reasons... (1) they cannot lock focus fast enough and (2) the lag time to focus and shoot means the subject has moved on from the previous focused location by the time the camera captures the image -- resulting in an out-of-focus image.

All DSLR cameras have come a long way... I'm only going to mention cameras currently being marketed.  Of those, a few stand out.

1)  A T3i has a 9 point phase-detect auto-focus system, but only the center point has the dual axis (cross-type) focus sensor.  The other 8 are single axis only.

2)  The T5i has a 9 point phase-detect auto-focus system, but ALL focus points are the dual axis cross-type focus sensors.  This provides for more accurate ability to lock focus.

3)  The 70D has a 19 point phase-detect auto-focus system, again ALL focus points are the better cross-type points.  But the 70D brings two more advantages... (a) it has a much faster continuous frame rate for action shots (7 frames per second) and (b) it has a new sensor that allows for the more accurate phase-detect auto-focus system ON THE SENSOR which can be used in live view and when shooting video.  No other camera can do this.  Normally the phase-detect AF points are on a separeate focusing sensor array mounted in the floor of the camera and it can only be used when the reflex mirror is in the "down" position.  When using live-view, that sensor array cannot be used.  Other cameras resort to "contrast detection" based auto-focus which is not NEARLY as fast and also requires that the camera "hunt" for focus.

Since you asked for advice on a camera will do well for action shots as well as for video, the 70D is unquestionably the best model available... but it's well above the price range you mentioned.

In your price range, only the Canon T3 is available... it'll be fine for landscapes and do well even with night time shots in low lighting (however... for really low light it's a good idea to invest in a lens with a very low focal ratio -- these lenses naturally collect more light when the shutter is open making it easier for the camera to function in limited lighting situations.)  The T3 is a great camera, but it wont compare to a T5i or 70D when it comes to sports/action or video.

Does that mean a Canon T3 can't be the camera for you?  Not at all... photographers took more complicated pictures with very limited cameras before all these modern cameras existed... but it will mean that it will push you to get better at learning the techniques that work. 

One last comment... when you see gorgeous car photos... those photographers are in control of the lighting.  The camera doesn't do anything for the lighting -- that's your job.  The camera can only take advantage of the lighting available -- be it natural light or artificial light that you added.