Saturday, September 09, 2006

Help wanted: DSLRs

The time has come readers. After almost a year of yearning and waiting, the planets seems to have aligned and I have finally decided that it's about darn time to upgrade our 3 megapixel camera to a digital SLR.
I don't know what it is but recently everything seems to have converged for me to buy a DSLR. Ikelah has been saying I should for months, Puan Mama Sarah had even mentioned we should get a DSLR as a combined gift for our anniversary and even my normally frugal father has been encouraging me to buy one (he said "belilah dua lens, siap dengan telephoto" and texted me the price of a Canon D400 in Malaysia). I have also had enough of looking at our mediocre quality photos from our travels (yeah, blame it on the camera! hahaha).
However, I need your help readers:
  1. With a budget of £500 (roughly RM 3500) which camera should I get? That budget needs to include AT LEAST a 18-55mm lens.
  2. The DSLRs I am currently looking at are: the Sony Alpha, Canon D350, Nikon D50 (at £500 would come with two lenses an 18-55mm and 35-200mm), Nikon D80 or Nikon D70. Any particular suggestions on which camera to buy that would fit into the budget?
  3. Should I get the camera in Malaysia or here in the UK? Some friends are coming over to the UK and they could help bringing the camera over.
  4. Any particular stores - either on the highstreet or internet with the best prices for the camera?
  5. What other equiptment would I need? My interests in photography include taking macro photos, buildings, travel photos, nature, food, portraits, people and children. (however, a macro lens would have to wait until next time I break the piggy bank :)

The best two so far I could come up with are:

  1. A Canon D400 with a 18-55 mm lens in Malaysia for RM 3599 (conversion rate is 7 nowadays, right?)
  2. A Nikon D50 in the UK with an 18-55 and a 35-200mm Nikon AF-S lenses is £500 in the UK.
  3. A Nikon D50 with one lens in Dixons is £377. But only one lens.

I would extremely appreciate your comments as I'm having a headache deciding what and where to buy. Once I reach a decision, I'm thinking of buying the camera as soon as I finish doing nights oncall (which is this Thursday).

I am so excited, and can't wait to buy the camera!

ps

the £500 is a rough guide, I am willing to spend slightly more as long as the returns are worth it.

57 comments:

dith said...

Sorry (being camera illiterate)I can't help you with the decision but I've an advice for Nisak:
this new digital SLR should cover several years of Mynn's birthday present! So in all, kira economical jugak! haha

Anonymous said...

One thing about DSLR, if you dont already know, most of them are not able to offer live preview on the lcd. You'll have to use the viewfinder.

The sony has a few nice features, i.e. super steady shot which is an image stabilization system built into the body of the camera instead of the lens as with canon and nikon. This gives image stabilisation to all lens attached to it. another feature is the Dynamic Range Optimiser which does basicly what u did in your last post, tapi bukan cut n paste la. it will selectively brighten dark areas. but the big problem with the a100 is that noise level at high ISO is poor compared to the canon. but if you stick to ISO 400 and below u should be fine.

I D50 is tempting at that price, tapi its a bit old and is only 6mp (but thats not important). Basicly is a tried and trusted camera but lacks some newer feature.

You might want to look out for cheap canon 350D since the 400D nak kuar.

If you want to buy the 300D or the A100, you might want to wait a bit since baru keluar and a lot of shops still want to rip off the early adopters.

Anonymous said...

many thanks uncle de.
i now abit already about the sony alphas feature -- image stabilisation gaining a couple of stops even while hand held but i didnt know about the dynamic range optimiser. modern, cutting edge features like that is really2 why i like the sony. i read about the noise levels above iso 800 as well.

so uncle de, you're saying the canon 350D is better than the nikon D50? the canon 350D is around £500 with an 18-55mm lens, which is within my budget. if you guys agree it's a better camera, i may buy the canon because i know the nikon d50 is actually very222 basic, and now is getting old (sorry O-K and Ikelah).

satu lagi is, i've been waiting for the nikon d50 utk giler2 turun harga for one year now -- tak turun sangat in my opinion. i should have bought the camera much earlier - boleh bawak during our travels.

in terms of megapixels - i think 6MP is more than enough for my needs. even if i buy a 6MP camera i think i'd be setting it to capture at 4MP to save memory space.

above all in deciding which camera, i would like EXCELLENT picture quality <- that's top priority.

appreciate your opinion(s)

Anonymous said...

dith
hehehe i think i'll by the camera myself lah dith. I wouldnt ever let nisak buy the camera for me. it's really too expensive.

Anonymous said...

did i say 350d lagi bagus? err i think d50 and 350d about on par with each other. if you have the money go for the a100 or 400d la....and whats this about saving memory? aiya....i dont think ive heard of anyone buying a dslr and shoot at lower res.

Anonymous said...

uncle de
hahaha, okay point taken -- kena shoot at max res.

um, so you think D50 and 350D on par -- in that case i'm more towards the nikon D50 because its significantly cheaper. £500 would buy the camera and 2 lenses.

the a100 IS definitely tempting. what's the cheapest price on the market huh uncle de? so far i think it's around £700 with lens right?

mynn said...

ps
uncle de

i have a feeling that the sony a100 definitely have good technology, but i don't think the picture fidelity is on par of canon/nikon, what do you think? pedigree tak de lah sony ni.

having said all that, i think i need the image stabiliser for my jittery hands from my caffeine saturated blood

Anonymous said...

mynn,

you probably haven't realized this, but you have have created quite a chain reaction with this post. well, there's been a chain reaction over here at least :P

to my (functional but untrained) eyes, your photos have been pleasing to look at, regardless of whether it was taken with your regular camera or the w800i. the content of the picture and the story it tells is what's important ultimately, i think.

(oh, and uncle de is laughing his guts out in the background as im writing this..)

Anonymous said...

haha, uncle de pun nak beli camera ke???

jom uncle de, kita beli camera! would appreciate your bargain searching skillz.

auntie de
typical oestrogen driven answer!!!!

Anonymous said...

Auntie De:

I echo you 200%!!!

I guess these people are just so screwed up looking at the latest functions of these cameras and they are so lost that they 'think' that those photos from the new cameras look better!!! When in fact, they are just the same eh? (last2 kena GIMP jugak kan Mynn?? hehe)

Anonymous said...

D80..

it uses the d200 processor but wrapped in a body the size of a d50. SD card also...

the grip is firm unlike canon 350d, though canon has good features and an amazing lens collection.

the canon 400d is out, replacing the old 350d..man....if i had all the money in the world i would buy both of 400d and d80.. hehehe... I have yet to test run the 400d though..so next chance i get i will test it out..

My recommendation the d80.. reason

the lens is 18-135 mm.

this is good enough for a wide angle lens.. many wide angle lenses are 14 to 16 mm. the 18 just abouts get there. so eliminates the need for a wide angle lens except if you really want to get a panoramic view in one shot (boleh cut and paste several pics jer) that leaves the telephoto lens (300-600 mm) as well as the macro lens.

Then at night go buy the canon 400d heheheheh i love all the new features including the integrated cleaning..much like olympus...

Anonymous said...

Hehehe I am getting the shivers reading this post...

I happen to agree with the ladies by the way. But then again, getting a new camera is so exciting and so much fun...

The dangerous things about these DSLR babies are that the purchase of the camera is only the beginning. Then you start thinking of all the accessories to spice up your baby... lenses, flashes, tripod, remote, etc... and therein is the start of a beautiful relationship between the DSLR and the wallet...

:D

dith said...

.....and I echo KKL 200% too!!!

Anonymous said...

ehem dr roza, wasn't it you who bought the DSLR for ikelah in the first place???
also, the better the camera, the less need for GIMPing to improve the picture.

O-K
i agree with that canon has less built, but as you said the options for lenses are very2 good (not that i could afford the lenses pun, they cost as much as -sometimes much more than- the cameras!)

the reason for d80 as you said it's 10MP, but there are options to get lenses 18-200mm on Nikon D50s as well. how much is the Nikon D80 in malaysia dude?

KKL
yup, buying the DSLR is just the beginning -- banyak lagi kena "invest" in --tripod, all varieties of lenses, shutter release remote controls, camera bags, micro fibre cloths, filters, photoshop software, memory cards ...

that's why i didn't rush to buy a DSLR i know it's going to be too life/money/time consuming.

too bad i've made up my mind auntie de, KKL & dith :p

ps
and nisak encourages me to buy the dslr too, imagine that! i guess she wants prettier pictures for her blog too.

Anonymous said...

Latest:

OMG, Canon 400D is £530 from Play.com

with lens!
That's within our budget. nak bie?

Anonymous said...

I think this £530 canon 400D may be the one ...................

any objections, comments? is the picture quality good enough? compared to nikon D80 is it better/worse?

help!--itchy--hands--reaching--for--wallet---

Anonymous said...

Too late guys

I HAVE BOUGHT A CANON 400D WITH 18-55MM LENS!

thank you for all your comments & help. i really found them helpful.

anyone else interested (ehem uncle de) head over to play.com. it's £70 off.

Ikelah said...

Hmmm...so u plan to join the dslr club? the question, what club? what camera?

1. canon or nikon club/lens mount? when u talk about buying a dslr, u must never forget about lenses, interchangable lens. in sports, u can never beat the range conon can offer. in quality wise generally it was claimed nikon produces excellent lenses. price? depends on quality. support in malaysia? u can get new or second hand nikon lenses slightly more than canon.nikon crop factor is 1.5 and canon 1.6
carl zeiss is now making lenses for nikon mount but it is very expensive. voigt lander (tak sure spelling), excellent lenses lenses selling in malaysia is mostly nikon mount.

if considering the club, i'll go for nikon. OK will be getting 18-200 VR or 12-24mm soon, there is a high chance of borrowing and trying out the lenses if you choose nikon. ;)

2. CCD/CMOS... get the latest of its class. just forget this d50. the latest in your range will be d80 or 400d as mentioned. both will be at 10MP. they have the latest ccd/cmos and firmware. of course if u have more cash its better to go for nikon d200 or cnon 30d but with the same amout of cash u can have more addons...lenses for instance.

3. what 400d has in advantage is the dust cleaning system which is significant in slr users. no mater how careful you are, there is always dust. olympus has its mech. and canon includes theirs in 400d.

in d80 it includes a builtin slide function for presentation where u can add music. it ISO setting is up to 3200 which is an advantage in sports outings.

nikon ususally provides excellent manual exposure and white balance control (bracketing and fine uning-you have to check it out).

canon on the other hand has an excellent multiple focus point focusing.

4. price? d80 body RM3500. second hand 18-55 lens the range will be RM250-350. D80 with Nikkor AFS 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF DX Lens the price will be RM4395.
i dont know about canon 400d as it is still not in our market.

5. As OK had mentioned if i have the cash, i'll go for d80, at least the body and a simple cheap 18-55 lens. then i'll get the better 18-200VR lens, lens that was recomended for d200!

6. my kenalan:
nikon dslr club: OK, P5, boogey, dr hari, my uncle, myself.
olympus dslr: khin
canon: mr guna

my final word, dont just let our recomendations influence your choice of buying. go out and try it urself before buying(macam mag review je). ;)

good luck.

Ikelah said...

isk... it took me 2 1/2 hrs nak tulis(in between patients la)... dia dah beli 400d. excellent choice indeed. nasib tak beli d50 or 350d. congrats.

Anonymous said...

dammit! dah terbeli 400D

i forgot to consider the "club" factor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

tapi one other i know is a canon user is mr rosli othman... so i could "exchange" lenses with him (yeah right). but seriously ikelah, many22222 thanks for your recommendations and advise. i found it very helpful. i'm afraid the D80 is abit beyond what i could currently afford. but for you i think it's an excellent upgrade ikelah (hasut, hasut) ...
:D

Ikelah said...

i think its okey, canon provides better after sales support especially useful for professionals.

as long you are with canon or nikon, its safe enough. the only thing is that back home, the nikon club/group seems more active than canon thus more lens talk and tradings.

like i mentioned earlier d80 or 400d. and i choose d80 just because of the lens pool and i have an excellent coolpix5700. in the sites, 400d was given excellent rating. we will be waiting for your 400d photos esp from an artist like u. ;)

As for d80....tak ada la... i just need to improve my poor post production knowledge. ;)

Anonymous said...

Wah! Wah! Wah! Wah!

Bestnya dah nak beli DSLR!!
Congrats on making the decision to move forward in the world of digital photography :)

Anonymous said...

bukan dah nak beli.. dah beli dah pun... isyk isyk...

Anonymous said...

Dear bro,

Congratulations for graduating to the school of DSLRs. Your first year will be heaven discovering the tricks and joys of SLRs.

The great thing about shopping in the UK is that you can always return your pruchase should you feel you need to.

I love Canon and almost bought the 350D when it came out. The specs were comparable with the D50 which had come out much later. In fact it was closer to the D70s in some ways.

However, two reasons made me not buy it. The first was the small grip that did not feel as natural as the Nikon. and the second was a glitch that canon have not corrected, this is an excerpt from a review site:

A word of warning: don't open the card door while the activity light is flashing, especially if it's writing images out to the CF card, you'll lose any images in the cameras buffer and not yet written out to the card. Opening the CF door immediately powers the camera off. Switching the camera to the OFF position doesn't have the same effect, the camera will continue to write out images.


The best part about the canon is the bright colourful pictures it produces...

I know you will not regret this purchase.

Enjoy the DSLR my brother... you have one hell of a tool in your hands now!

Anonymous said...

aiya so fast one dah beli. so far memang 400d cheapest kat play.com, and did you go through quidco? boleh dapat 2% back. about £10 la kot.

what made u go for the 400d? a100, around the same price as the 400d, would have been an interesting choice . im sure the d80 was beyond your budget and the d50...so last year..the itch wouldnt stand fro that...hahaha

Anonymous said...

uncle de
you are ABSOLUTELY right about the sony alpha 100. after buying the 400D i did more research (something you're supposed to do before a purchase) and the alpha is only £600. this £100 difference would offer two extra things

1. the anti shake function which
(a) REALLY helps in taking good photos and
(b) is not offered by similarly priced nikons or canons
(c) the price of an antishake lens is FAR more expensive!

2. The lens offered in the £600 bundle is 18 -200 !!! which is far longer than the canon's 18-55. To buy a -200 lens is another £200!!!

so, actually overall the sony is MUCH better value ...

having said all that: i tak menyesal getting the canon. not at all... (we'll see, ada 14 days return policy if i decide to go for the more money saving alpha, hehehe)

O-K
darn, i didnt know about that flaw at all. thanks dude, i feel like i'm welcomed into the world of DSLR photography with open arms by you and ikelah :D

unfortunately after this i cannot blame my poor photography on the camera anymore!!

dyanna
i'm so happy. have been on a high last night. can't wait to see what i can do with a DSLR, cant wait to see much improved pictures in terms of colours, fidelity and resolution.

ikelah
i really appreciate you spending 2.5 hours just to write the above ikelah! if i had more money i definitely would have gone for the D80. but, i could only stretch the budget a certain amount. especially for a first time DSLR, i think the 400D is good enough.

after this, i'm hoping for teachings from the DSLR veterans: OK, ikelah & Rosli.
yoroshiku onegai shimasu!

--
ps. you guys have just witnessed a live "itch" of yours truly. see? dangerous isn't it? within 24 hours a purchase could be made.

pps.
now i have to find a *bleep* compact flash card! why not SD, canon?? i have tons of SD cards i'm not using...

ppps
terkejut PMS pagi tadi

Anonymous said...

lupa nak tanya

guys, now what do i need after already having the camera? also i would appreciate long lectures and discussions on DSLRs after this from you guys.

Anonymous said...

alamak,lepas ni mesti self conscious, kena tepek mekap tebal2. takut la ada orang tu focus dekat, nampak sume gejala2 tak molek ni.. haha..

will be looking forward to more gorgeous pics from u mynn!

Anonymous said...

Woohoo!!! Welcome to the Canon club! (Walaupun my Canon is the point and shoot Ixus iZoom tapi mengaku jugaklah).

I do miss OK's d50 sometimes. There is a certain seductive pleasure in getting behind a DSLR. But the iZoom is what I am more likely to carry around due to its pocket-size. Also OK and I can swap SD cards: very convenient when 1 of us runs out of memory.

Anonymous said...

mynn, mynn, i have not got a chance reading this post dah beli? cepatnya...

uncle de of Quidco, so... did u tutor Kichi or did he tutor you? teehee!

Ikelah said...

KKL: point and shoot club lain laaa...hahaha. ini dslr-canon sebab boleh kongsi tukar lens. ;)

myadvice:

firstly, after getting the camera, belek, baca manual to know the functions. bila dah ok... pinjamkan pada uncle de agar dia boleh double check because while itchy you will tend to make mistakes and understand wrongly. lepas tu pinjamkan pada uncle de seminggu untuk dapat berkat. ;)

back to the buying discussion, i'll say: for an SLR canon or nikon. the in thing of slr is the interchangable lenses. if ur not keen in changing lens, just stick to the prosumers. nikon, canon, sony have great prosumer cameras. i lost my prosumer sony 717, a 5MP prosumer before getting my coolpix5700.
as for sony, it joined with minolta-konika and develope the a100. remember konica-minolta maxim 5d, 7d... the dslr? failure. they have builtin anti shake thus making all lenses added act like the nikon VR standard.
for the spec of course its cheap but what lens are you getting? the sony lens or the sony carl zeiss lens? for videocam for instance, i'll get a sony with carl ziess lens for the image quality. the same goes for nikon, as it produces excellent lenses that will give excellent images. as for the sony branded lens, it using the konica-minolta A mount and lenses rebrand as sony(except the carl zeiss).

further more as a photographer, u'll go for camera with dedicated buttons to play with. u have ur subject in view, u closed to the viewfinder, composing, adjust the ISO, the white balance, the aperture, the shutter speed, adjust EV if not in full manual, recompose, wait for the right moment and take a shot. what is great in nikon and canon, those can be done by playing with the buttons on the camera. this is what it lackes in sony. read not only from camera reviewers but photographers who use the camera.

again dont regret on 400d, a good buy and the thrill is when you will have this preoccupied haunt in ur mind,"wht lens next". prime lens, zoom lens, wide angle, telephoto, macro.... plz dont send it back unless u go dor d80. ;)

isk....asyik mengomen je... ni dah lebih 2 jam(campur tengok patient).

"if u want to get a ferrari, make sure it has buttons to be pressed not pulldown menu to be clicked"

;)

Mama Sarah said...

the next thing i know they will be discussing about "where to go".

hmmm... asal jangan lupa anak-bini sudahlah.

Anonymous said...

auntie de
hahaha :D tak pe auntie de, boleh GIMP. ala ... tapi kalau ambik gambar auntie de bukannya kena GIMP pun dah macam SYT ... kan uncle de?

nnydd
whoops terbeli. however, i've surveyed the prices for around 3-4 days and the cheapest canon 400D is from play.com. practically sama dengan harga that my father survey kat duty free singapore. the canon 400D is £620 everywhere else... knowing that from play.com it's almost £100 cheaper i immediately made the purchase -- especially because it's within the budget. also, i know canon has great pedigree & heritage. it was easy to make the "kill".

KKL
yeay, Canon club! i've always loved ixus cameras and you're right, they're much more pocketable to carry around. you know what, bringing the 400D camera around in damp, rainy england carrying grubby fingered sarah and amar just give me the shivers (imagine them touching the lens **shivers**) i think when it rains or if the place is risky i'd still carry the point and shoot sony (we'll see).

puan mama sarah
teringat i hari tu i tanya Rosli nak buat apa weekend ni? dia kata "nak pegi zoo". ingatkan nak pegi zoo dengan isteri & anak rupa2nya pegi sorang utk ambik gambar!

ikelah
hahaha i like this part:

"pinjamkan pada uncle de agar dia boleh double check because while itchy you will tend to make mistakes and understand wrongly. lepas tu pinjamkan pada uncle de seminggu untuk dapat berkat. ;)"

oooh, that's a veryyyyyy subtle way to tempt uncle de into the DSLR club, LOL.

thank you for explaining why I shouldnt get the sony alpha! i feel much more comfortable with the purchase now. i think sony alpha infact does come with the Carl Zeiss lens (from what i've read) and i am looking forward to buying different types of lenses: antishake telephotos, macros and wide. i think ..... probably i want macro more than telephoto, but we'll see.

also love the ferrari quote. hehehe.

yup, i'm definitely happy with the purchase. very happy... entah2 nanti kitorang balik malaysia we'll go on photography expeditions with you & your family, and O-K & KKL , ikelah. (kalau KKL tak pregnant lah masa tu)

guys
puan mama sarah pun excited jugak with the news of getting the camera. terus suruh beli the compact flash card, and she called her brother to convey the good news. our next discussion was: where to go next utk test drive the camera? hehehe, tengah in planning stages...

Anonymous said...

Bila mau angkat L-lens sebijik? haha

Anonymous said...

Epsom

Anonymous said...

iKelah
Alaa saya tak layak ke mendapat associate membership? Sebab I am married to someone who has a DSLR? Kongsi tukar SD card tak kira ke? :D

Didn't understand the rest of your comment though. Hehehehe.

Mynn

*Dengan rela hati membenarkan OK pergi kalaupun pregnant... hehehehe*

(Actually between being pregnant or going on a photography trip I know which one I'd prefer).

Anonymous said...

KKL
so you're saying, rather than going on a photography trip, you'd rather "make babies" eh? ... hahaha.

(you trapped yourself into that i'm afraid, KKL)

Ikelah said...

hahahaha.... mynn... dia ounye plan kalahkan ur photography trip.....she is really looking forward for her tikus or what so ever to give expected results so that she can go home and celebrate her anniversary with her hubby and us(lamb shank).

associate club.... hehehe... boleh exchange sd card yer. ;)

about the kit lens offered for alpha... dia tak tulis carl zuiss and the price of the lens tak mahal macam carl zeiss kalau beli seperately.;) canon n nikon!

Anonymous said...

Tsk tsk tsk Mynn

*throws a smelly trout at Mynn*

Sometimes you read too much between the lines... :)
Hmm on the other hand I do need someone to rub my back or massage my swollen feet... so scratch that. OK has to stay at home during my pregnancy to tend to my every whim.

iKelah
Lamb shank? You're buying? Yay settle kawe nak balik bulan depan lah. Kita buat gathering lepas Raya eh? Bukak puasa kalau makan kambing alamatnya tidooo la lepas tu...

pycnogenol said...

Semua-semua yang di tulis dan di komen tu, kawe tak paham langsung. Tak ajak join kelab pun tak apa, kawe tak kecik hati.
Awok awok sume pi ambik gambar dan post kat sini aje lah.
Kawe nak tengok dan enjoy saja.

Anonymous said...

dan juga mencukupkan bilangan 40 di sini. now, entry baru pulak ye. :p

Anonymous said...

pycno potong trip!

Anonymous said...

sony a100 tu kit lens dia memang la bukan carl zeiss, ada ke memana camera offer kit lens carl zeiss? Anyway the lens is so-so je as i guess most other kit lens are. anyway i dont think so it will matter much at the moment since all the lens should blow away your current cybershot camera...hehe

Anonymous said...

uncle de bangun lagi...?

bila nak beli A100? £600 je with lens ....... :)

tak tahu lah when i'll be getting the Canon 400D tu the website says 15/9/2006. some shops like jessops.co.uk dah ada the canon in stock dah. oh well, a waiting game from now on.

currently reading alot on dslrs. reading about various lenses & reading reviews of cameras. also: i searched "canon eos 350D" on flickr to see pictures produced by the camera and the picture quality is very2 good (i suppose they're using very good lenses as well).

can't wait!

ps uncle de
entah2 we're coming to visit you guys soon lah. tunggu your hdtv sampai lah. boleh kitorang buat visit pegi Llangollen or something:):)

Anonymous said...

if youre looking at canon, forget the 350D, get the 400D... spatial resolution is 10MP... but keep in mind, canon lenses are darn expensive...

keep one thing in mind... CCD sensors are superior to CMOS in terms of picture quality. Dont believe the mumbo jumbo sales person telling you CMOS is better. there are more sensor noise sources in CMOS imagers rather than CCD BUT CMOS sensor battery power lasts way longer than CCD and thats a fact. tak percaya, simply compare the canon 350D battery to a Nikon D80 camera... Canon uses only 3.3V battery wheras NIKON multiple voltage battries... this is because to support the CCD picture transfer, high voltages and power is required... In CMOS, a single 3.3V powr supply will do...

anyway, i wont rcomend anything... its better you research around yourself before buying :)

Anonymous said...

Mynn, Llangollen is pretty and I simply love watching the body of water over the Llangolleh bridge. There is this old ruin on top of a hill you can visit for, weather permit, an uninterrupted view of the beautiful country. It is a low-level walking activity (15 mins walking uphill) but may not be suitable for buggies.

If you are up to it you can put an hour extra and get to Lake Bala. An ancient lake, created by a glacial slide and UK's largest freshwater lake. Ada activities area for kids too.

If you are still feeling energetic, add an hour or so from Lake Bala to Dolgellau (sebut: Dol-geth-ke-lai, lebih kurang) and Barmouth for an absolutely breath-taking view of the Mawwdach Estuary. Standing on the rail-and-foot bridge that spans the estuary towards the mountains and the river is my best spot in the whole of Wales, really!

Any trip along Llangollen->Barmourth will blow you away, promise. Definitely a trip to do before you return home. Pegi mynn... pegi.

ps: Uncle De evolving to an owl kut!

Anonymous said...

oh baru perasan you got the 400D... good choice... get one thing, the circular polarizer filter and the 50mm f1.8 lens... murah tapi fast lens and good for potraits...

uncle de did mention yang you cannot view the LCD like point and shoot cams... you should know the reason because u have a DSLR now... to keep the hot display from warming up the sensor in order to reduce dark current noise...

by the way, im using 350D and will b getting the 400D body in Malaysia, Insya-Allah...

when u post pics from your 400D, gimme a holler would you :)

Anonymous said...

izhal
thanks for your comment on CMOS vs CCD, i didnt know before that there was a difference and i didn't know that the canon was CMOS and Nikon D80 is CCD.

(but i do know mobile phones use CMOS)

and cayalah - you're using a canon too :D haha...

i see where this is heading: people are going to be divided between the Nikon camp & the Canon camp (and uncle de would be alone in the Sony Camp, hehehe).
However I hope not.

izhal - this is maybe a spoiler, but rest assured, when the camera arrives I'll be posting up "unboxing" pictures & as soon as i could get it going, some trial pictures as well...

nnydd
still awake at 345 am? burung hantu betul... thanks for your guide on llangollen/wales. i've been to llangollen bridge before and the view there as you said is fantabulous. sooooo tempting nak pegi the places you mentioned.....

Ikelah said...

lupalah izhal, pakar CCD kita pakai rebelxt, 350d. ;)

Ikelah said...

genap 50. ;)

go for canon or nikon!

Anonymous said...

Actually kalau ada duit i would buy both.. so tunggu kaya sikit I will get both.. muahahahaha.. and have both sets of lenses.

Anonymous said...

Is CCD really better than CMOS? I'm no expert in this area but I do know that both nikon and canon uses CMOS sensors in their high end pro model. maybe some CMOS sensors are better than others.

Anonymous said...

Actually if I were to buy a DSLR, I would probably get a D200 with the 18-200mm ED AF-S VR DX lens... haha i can always dream cant I?

Anyway looks like this entry is well on its way to beating mama sarah comments record...i think it was 50+ gak kan?

Ikelah said...

ok, why both? any particular advantage?

uncle de...
the one you quote is my dream camera too ;) body about RM6500 and lens RM2700 in malaysia...the lens was so hot with limited number that it was bought above normal price by a friend. it should be around rm2400 for the lens.
i guess it would be cheaper there. grab it if you have the chance.

said to be all rounder, much appreciated by pro besides the d2x (in nikon club)


sorry, tak tau sangat pasal canon except that the L-lens or the white big lenses are great. ;)

Anonymous said...

baru bangun tidur ni -> terkejut tengok comments >50! i have a plan for another entry but when i was constructing it, this *bleep* blogger beta wouldn't let me upload the pictures using internet explorer at work! grrrr. i have to do it the hard way i guess (i.e coding html)

i've just realised buying a DSLR is almost like joining a golf club. suddenly the interaction with your colleagues, bosses, and friends changes... i was browsing and reading websites on DSLRs last night while oncall when my senior registrars saw me. it lead to lengthyyy discussions on cameras with my seniors and colleagues i've never really befriended before. just like how business people make relations while playing golf!

wah, i've never knowned owning a DSLR is like a ticket into VIP club :)

ikelah
fuu, tak sangka, uncle de REALLY knows what's in and what's out in the world of DSLRs. extensive research is uncle de's forte.

uncle de <---> izhal
the engineers are starting their obscure discussions on sensors. lock horns!

pycno
haha:) kesian pycno feeling left out! i've come to realise you're not much into tech pycno -- which is rare in men. Bea is lucky! that's equivalent to a guy who doesn't like football!

Anonymous said...

pycno
dont you worry, you are not alone. Come, let's have non-techie, non-footie club. A trip to Bangkok sounds really good; I'd like to plan again my aborted train ride.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations for the arrival of your new baby ;)

I don't understand most of the comments here haha. Anyway am looking forward for photos captured with the new camera.

This is not oestrogen-drive talking but I am rather content with my ixus asalkan boleh ambik gambar hehe.

Where to next? Agree with nnydd, North Wales has so many beautiful places. These are my suggestions:
1. Drive along A470 around Bala and Snowdon area. The mountain view can melt your heart.
2. Drive from Bangor to Beaumaris then turns back towards Newborough Warren. The scenery is just fantabuluous!