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A question for photographers

R

rootaxs

Platinum Member
We currently have a Canon S2 IS, which is a decent camera and offers a lot of features for what it is. However, it's subpar when it comes to focusing on fast moving objects (or in our case, our little toddler). We have more blurry photos on this image-stabilized camera versus our old Fuji S5000.

I'm thinking of taking the plunge into the dSLR world and would like to get everyone's opinions.

My main question is -- Would a good prime lens, matched up to a decent body, work well enough for taking toddler shots with indoor lighting?

I don't have much of a budget to work with, so it's either i get a used D50 body and a good lense, or go with something like a K100 kit with the image stabilization feature. I prefer the former because it seems to have faster and more accurate focusing, but if the K100 with its kit lens would still fare much better because of the IS, i might consider it.

Thoughts?

Thanks!
 
IS will not help if your images are blurry due to your kids moving around. It will only help for a more or less stationary target in low light.

If you want fast focusing you need to get a lens that has a fast focusing motor. Canon's USM, Sigma's HSM, and Nikon's Wave all fit this bill. I don't know if I would use a prime for this stuff either because of the limited framing options. Maybe go for a good zoom with fast focus.
 
Thanks for the response! 🙂

Now that you mention it, i guess IS really isn't my concern - but more on the issue of the camera not being able to focus quick enough. I keep missing shots on the S2 since it takes 2-5 tries to get it to focus (sometimes it never does).

I just looked at those HSM's, they're a little over what i'm willing to dole out right now. What's your opinion on sub-$300 lenses compared to what an S2 is capable of*? I'm thinking even kit lenses would still outperform this.

(*say, compared to a D50 w/ the D50 kit lens or D70 kit lens?)

 
The Pentax's are really good cameras, but Canon and Nikon have better choices of lenses.

For indoor work, get a 24-70 or 28-70 in f/2.8 or faster.
 
Originally posted by: Nyati13
The Pentax's are really good cameras, but Canon and Nikon have better choices of lenses.

For indoor work, get a 24-70 or 28-70 in f/2.8 or faster.
Click to expand...

I'd like to know where you can get a 2x-70 canon lens faster than f/2.8 🙂


You might be better off with a prime IMO, but that all ends up on your personal shooting style.

 
Thanks, all!

If i do end up with a prime, i was actually considering the 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor, i figured that would be fast enough and would be a good daily lens to "lug" around. I really don't mind the lack of zoom, i hardly use the zoom on my S2 (again, because of the inability to focus properly).

 
Originally posted by: rootaxs
Thanks, all!

If i do end up with a prime, i was actually considering the 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor, i figured that would be fast enough and would be a good daily lens to "lug" around. I really don't mind the lack of zoom, i hardly use the zoom on my S2 (again, because of the inability to focus properly).
Click to expand...

That lens is probably the next purchase for my D50 (assuming my wife gets me the SB-600 for Christmas 🙂 )
 
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