Looking for a DSLR

[teztwister]

Right i am looking for a DSLR and was wondering which would be the best one to get,my budget is about £400 maybe a bit more at a stretch,and were thinking about a Canon 450D would this be a good camera for the money.I am not to bothered about the make.Plus would like to keep it for normall photography if possible but mainly astro work

So any ideas ?

Thanks Tez

[jgs001]

Tez, I think the 450d is a superb camera, for normal and astro use. But it might be worthwhile looking at the 1000d. It doesn't drop too much on the 450d (spot metering, a couple of megapixels I think), and you may be able to save quite some money on it. There's quite a few people with it and they seem to like it a lot.

[Tinkerbell]

Lo Tez

3" screen and 14 bit image files, it's got to be the 450D

[marxy]

Heya Tez.

I agree with what the posters above have said.

If you're gonna be using it for normal daylight photography aswell then go to a photo store and have a play with all the makes. Some people prefer the Nikon layout (I'm a Canon man myself!) and some of the buttons are in different places.

You should be aware that if you have large hands, then some of the new small dslrs ARE small and can make it a bit cramped.

For astrophotography, they're all pretty much the same at this price point

Happy hunting!

[Ant]

For mainly astro then it has to be the canon.

If it was for mainly daytime and a little astro then, from wat I've heard, the nikon D70 is very good.

ant

[teztwister]

Oh sugar i forgot this thread,

But thanks for the replys,I do keep seeing alot of people on here with either a 300D,350D,400D, but not so much the 450D maybe because its a newer model.Anyway something has got to be said for the canons,being i keep seeing them so much.

What i really do want it for is mostly astro work,nebula's,galaxy's but be able to take normall daytime shots with it aswell.

Thanks Tez

[philf]

My understanding is that if you dont modify the camera then you can use it for both but your astro shots will not be as good because you need / want more red light for astro

If you do mod it then your astro shots will be better but your terrestrial shots not so good.

What you could do s buy it and not mod it, see how your pictures come out, see how you use it (if you use it) for everyday stuff and then make a decision about whether or not ot mod it

Phil

[Ben Ritchie]

I've got the 450D, and it's an excellent camera - very happy with it for daytime and nighttime use.

Remember that you only need to modify it for capturing H-alpha, which the IR filter attenuates rather severely. That's the principle emission line from the majority of diffuse nebulae, so they really do need a modified DSLR or CCD. But stellar targets, e.g. open clusters and globulars, are fine with an unmodified DSLR, and galaxies are ok too, they have small H-alpha component from star-forming regions, easily visible in, say, M33, but they're predominantly broadband stellar emission.

So if you want the DSLR for both daytime photography and astro use then not modifying is not a massive deal, it just affects your choice of targets a bit.