Also I highly recommend joining the talk photography forums. Great people and great advice/tutorials/inspiration :)

Another benefit of a DSLR is you can view the histogram on camera screen. To me personally, once I learnt how to read it properly, I found myself doing an awful lot less corrective work in photoshop. However, this feature may well be available on higher end compact cameras too.

For the kind of shooting you are planning to do, I would recommend upgrading your kit lens (the 18-55mm lens). The canon kit lens is terribly soft/cheap. Have a look at the Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 non vc lens. Its a stunning lens at a very reasonable price and it will greatly enhance your shooting pleasure. It comes highly rated in the photography forums and I will vouch for it.

When it comes to zoom lenses, the greater the zoom adjustment, generally the poorer the optics are. When lenses are designed, they have several pieces of glass inside of them. The larger the zoom range, the more optics are needed and the more optics will equate to lower picture quality due to light defraction through each optic. This is the soul reason prime lenses (fixed focal length) are so much more sharper than telephoto lenses because there are less optics between the subject and the camera sensor. There is however a slight exception to this rule with high end telephoto lenses, but these come with huge price tags. I have just sold the same zoom lens as you listed because in the 4-5 years I have owned it, I only used it once.

If you want to do night photography a sturdy tripod is a must. I currently have a shitty tripod I bought from asda for £14.99 which is pretty unusable at full extension :lol: I have no experience with a gorillapod so can't comment there sorry. I'm looking to spend about £300 on a good tripod later in the year.

:thumbs:

Remember to form some sort of expectation. "Just taking pictures" rarely leads to anything spectacular.
Start out by copying other photographers' work, it'll give you a sense of what is needed to acquire a certain style.

Like Whittie suggests, use Flickr. If you're going to photograph an area or landmark, look online to see what others have done and get a sense of what works for you.

And don't be shy about showing your work. It might be shit, but you'll not improve if you don't know why it's shit.

Ordered the Gorillapod. Practising around my flat to learn the techniques (I know this is limited, but it saves me having to learn the very basics when I'm out and about), then I'm going to try and get some night shots after work one evening.

Thanks guys.

quote:

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Originally posted by Whittie
no need to go out and buy more or new lenses etc.

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Imo, He has the right equipment, so need need to go out and buy more or new lenses etc. It's personal pref to be fair!

But by all means, James, the camera is right there, so get out and shoot.

Like I said above, the equipment comes second to actually taking pictures.

I've got to say I think that's a very minor benefit compared to the restrictive size and weight of the kit.

Of course, a lot of this is based on personal opinion and experience, but when I look around at family and friends who've purchased DSLR's the story is pretty much always the same. The camera's not being used.

More hands on, big buttons for everything clearly labled etc.

quote:

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Originally posted by Whittie
You learn a lot more with a DSLR imo.

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You learn a lot more with a DSLR imo. James has the perfect equipment as it is to get some lovely shots around London.

Do everything in Manual mode, you'll learn what everything is quicker that way; easiest way to replicate an image that you're after is to check the settings on flickr what others have used;

Example;

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38181284@N06/6142375485/

Settings: 150 secƒ/22ISO 10019 mm

Not only will you learn about your camera, you'll know what settings to use before you get the camera out.

For lack of a better term, point and shoot.

From a user perspective I find CSC's are not much different from DSLR except they're slightly smaller but with a smaller selection of more expensive equipment.

Between the more advanced travel zooms and enthusiast compacts like the Canon G15 you'll find quite a few smaller cameras today, that pack enough punch to rival a mediocre DSLR setup.

Hold on - when you say compact, do you mean a CSC? Or a point and shoot tiny camera?

Photography as a hobby is a question of just getting out taking pictures. Your equipment comes second to that.

You need to look at photos and consider what kind of photography you want to do. There's not a cheap and good way to cover each niche, unfortunately.

I have a compact as well, which I use if it's not practical to take the DSLR.

I'm wanting to do photography as a hobby, so I assumed a DSLR setup was the way to go?

[Edited on 25-03-2013 by James]

Also, unless you really dig photography I can guarantee you'll get fed up with carrying about the kit and it'll end up back on your shelf gathering dust.

A very basic rule of photography is that the best camera is the one you have with you.
Some of the most memorable photo's I have are taken with a cheap Sony micro compact that's water, impact and dust resistant. It's technically not a particularly good camera, but it fits snugly in a pocket so I tend to bring it everywhere.

The 18-200 is highly regarded for what it is. A cheap all round lens.

For what you want to do I'd say sell up and go compact or spend the cash to get a proper high aperture lens, as that's the only way you're truly getting the benefit of owning a DSLR.

These days the compacts have become good enough to rival (and often better) DSLR's in just about anything but one area. Bokeh. You can still achieve a shallower DOF with a DSLR and the right lens.
If you don't want to spend the money on an all round lens with large aperture and don't want to be confined by a prime, I'd have to say compact is the way to go.

Just to add, the kind of photography I will do will vary. I'd like to do some night photography around London, some sports photography and some landscape photography while I'm out mountain biking.

So I've decided to dust off my DSLR and get to grips with how to use it.

I have a Canon 350D, which I know is a bit dated now, but it's fine while I get to grips with the concepts. If I enjoy it enough, I will upgrade.

I have the following kit:

Canon 350D body
Canon 18-55mm lens
Canon 55-250mm lens (this was a bit of an impulse purchase and I don't use it much)
2 x Memory cards (1GB and 2GB)
Lowepro basic DSLR Camera Bag

I've been doing some research and decided that the following bits might be useful:

Gorillapod DSLR Zoom
Lens Hood
UV Filter
Some sort of day bag - possibly a Lowepro Photo Hatchback

I'd also like a "all-rounder" lens and have been looking at the Canon 18-200mm, it seems to be quite highly regarded.

Thoughts?