WHAT CAMERA SHOULD I GET?!

[toweltrick]

Ahhh, back to beating that dead horse with such a question. But I'm so unsure on what DSLR to get! I just need some secondary opinions because maybe someone else will point something out that I'm overlooking. 

Currently I have a Olympus OM-D E-M10 mark II and a film camera, the Olympus OM2n. Recently I tried using my E-M10 to photograph a sports event (thankfully I was just doing it for fun and not professionally) and it failed MISERABLY! The camera's auto focus cannot find anything fast enough and when it does.... its the background and not the player you are trying to focus on. There is no manual override on the lenses I have so I couldn't intervene and fix this myself. I was looking at lenses to get that I could focus manually with but micro four thirds (or Olympus lens mount) lenses are so expensive I came to the decision to just get a different camera.

Right now I am pretty set on the Canon EOS Rebel T7i. Is there anything I'm overlooking? Any other camera someone would recommend near that price range? The T7i looks to be a pretty amazing camera.

Thanks for any help.

[TTMartin]

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@toweltrick wrote:

GUYS! I got the T7i with the 18-135 lens! 

This will start the beginning of photography as a side job for me. I am looking to use this camera for portraits more than anything else. 

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You should consider picking up the EF 50mm f/1.8 STM lens for a portrait lens. It will give you a shallower depth of field and a nice smooth bokeh. 

You want to avoid the EF 50mm f/1.8 II because it has inferior build quality, poor focus consistency, and 5 flat aperture blades that can lead to poor quality background blur (bokeh). 

[John_SD]

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@toweltrick wrote:

My requirement for quality is not very high. I am usually only posting on Facebook and Instagram. 

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You don't require anything near professional-level gear. Go with the T7i, which is really way more camera than you need.  

[John_SD]

toweltrick wrote:

GUYS! I got the T7i with the 18-135 lens! 

This will start the beginning of photography as a side job for me. I am looking to use this camera for portraits more than anything else. 

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Good choice. The 18-135mm will be more than sufficient for Facebook and Instagram.  

[RobertTheFat]

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@russ49 wrote:

If you want to experiment with your Olympus on sports, I've noticed as well as read that a mirrorless camera will focus using the chosen aperture and not the widest aperture that  the lens is capable of. If you use the widest apperture that the lens is capable of your autofocus will work at its max because of more light being let into the camera. When using an OVF (Optical View Finder in a DSLR like the T7i) you are always using the lens at it's max apperture for the focal length chosen. See if that helps. For example I have a 18-150mm lens the max apperture at 18mm is f3.5 and at 150mm it is f6.3 so using the lens at 18mm and f3.5 you will get better autofocus then at 150mm and f6.3 because of the great differnce in light transmission. Using the lens at 18mm is not at all ideal for sports but is just to emphasize what I'm saying. If you have this lens set to 18mm and F5.0 then a mirrorless camera will use f5.0 to try to focus but a DSLR (T7i) using the OVF will use f3.5 to focus even though your actual apperture is set to f5.0. Using the DSLR in "live view" with the above scenario it will use f50 apperture to gain focus just like the mirrorless because you are using the DSLR in a mirrorless setting.

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That is baloney. The aperture at which a zoom lens will focus depends on the lens, not on whether the camera is mirrorless or not. And it has nothing to do with whether the camera is in "live view" mode. You are confusing mirrorless vs DSLR with whether the lens is a "constant aperture" lens or not.

And virtually all modern prime lenses will focus at maximum aperture.  Again it has nothing to do with mirrorless vs DSLR.

[russ49]

I stand corrected, I had read and always kind of believed that the real reason ovf's were better in low light because they never stopped down a lens like "live view" would do. However trying my
Canon M5 variable aperture  18(3.5)-150(6.3)mm lens at it's widest  aperture focal length (18mm) and at f/3.5 it focused immediately on about a -2EV target. Then I raised the aperture setting in aperture priority mode to f/22 and it also focused immediately. When raising the focal length to 70mm which gives a widest aperture of 6.3 I could not aquire focus on the same target no matter what I tried.

[RobertTheFat]

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@russ49 wrote:

I stand corrected, I had read and always kind of believed that the real reason ovf's were better in low light because they never stopped down a lens like "live view" would do. However trying my
Canon M5 variable aperture  18(3.5)-150(6.3)mm lens at it's widest  aperture focal length (18mm) and at f/3.5 it focused immediately on about a -2EV target. Then I raised the aperture setting in aperture priority mode to f/22 and it also focused immediately. When raising the focal length to 70mm which gives a widest aperture of 6.3 I could not aquire focus on the same target no matter what I tried.

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Of course "maximum aperture" means "maximum aperture for that focal length", and many (most?) digital cameras can't reliably autofocus at f/6.3. Some can, and a few can even do it at f/8, but those tend to be expensive, professional-grade cameras.

And even in live view I don't think any cameras stop the lens down while focusing unless you hold down the "DOF preview" button. They can be made to show you the effect of stopping down, but I think they make that correction electronically, not by actually moving the aperture blades.

[russ49]

And you know I've stopped down DSLR's a few times using the viewfinder (especially film cameras which had no LCD screen like my Canon AE-1) but never thought to do it with live view in a DSLR because I held the belief that is was done automatically. Most of my DSLR lenses I have no manual control of the aperture.

[ebiggs1]

I suspect too much reading and not enough doing.  Don't get me wrong reading about photography is good but hands-on is the best teacher.  You have the drive to learn and that is the most important part so keep it up. 

[RobertTheFat]

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@russ49 wrote:

And you know I've stopped down DSLR's a few times using the viewfinder (especially film cameras which had no LCD screen like my Canon AE-1) but never thought to do it with live view in a DSLR because I held the belief that is was done automatically. Most of my DSLR lenses I have no manual control of the aperture.

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But most cameras have a "depth of field preview" button. While you hold it down, it moves the aperture to the value it will have when the picture is taken, whether that value was set automatically or manually. Either way, the fact that the aperture was set via the camera, rather than by turning a ring on the lens itself, is irrelevant.