[rishi_kapoor]

Originally Posted by no_sweat

9750 (70-300 MM AF III USM Lens (w/o bill)).

Hey is this a Sigma or Canon lens? Canon 70-300 USM is retailing at 540 USD on Amazon so I am really surprised at this price. Thanks.

[shajufx]

Looks like there are plenty of enquiries on beginner level DSLRs. If you guys can group (citywise) and get a quote for 3 or 4 DSLRs together, I am sure any retailer will give a better deal, atleast some free memory cards, cleaning kits, bags, filters, goodies etc.

[Hurrycane12]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

In that case get the Canon 450D. With the 550D, the price drop is big, and you can get the 18-55IS kit for as low as 28-30K

Thanks will check it out, may come back with some questions if i am confused hope you will not mind.

[no_sweat]

Originally Posted by rishi_kapoor

Hey is this a Sigma or Canon lens? Canon 70-300 USM is retailing at 540 USD on Amazon so I am really surprised at this price. Thanks.

Thats a Canon all right - The $540 must be IS type - The 70-300mm w/o IS goes around for $100- $150. This lens is given free in certain deals - search Amazon for 1000D - my config+accessories for $600.
A Canon 50-250MM w/ IS for 12.5 w/o bill was also available. I chose more zoom power instead. If anybody in US, then this is THE option to go for.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by shajufx

Looks like there are plenty of enquiries on beginner level DSLRs. If you guys can group (citywise) and get a quote for 3 or 4 DSLRs together, I am sure any retailer will give a better deal, atleast some free memory cards, cleaning kits, bags, filters, goodies etc.

Now thats a good idea!

Originally Posted by Hurrycane12

Thanks will check it out, may come back with some questions if i am confused hope you will not mind.

Sure, fire away, but as someone suggested earlier, the Pentax K-X is really really a very very great cam as far as entry levels go. Truly a masterpiece, from a company that understands photography, not just technology.
If you find one in BLR(Pentax has started India operations) it will be good. Otherwise, you can stick to tried and tested Canikon combo

Originally Posted by no_sweat

Thats a Canon all right - The $540 must be IS type - The 70-300mm w/o IS goes around for $100- $150. This lens is given free in certain deals - search Amazon for 1000D - my config+accessories for $600.
A Canon 50-250MM w/ IS for 12.5 w/o bill was also available. I chose more zoom power instead. If anybody in US, then this is THE option to go for.

Canon makes 70-300 and 75-300 USM III. Both are cheap lenses. I have the latter, which I plan to sell once I get a superzoom. Its an average lens, will give you sharp pictures around F8-F11
However, if you are a pixel peeper and cannot afford L then 70-300 IS is the way to go, and if you are on a still lower budget the 55-250IS is a great lens too!

[shajufx]

Tanveer, you forgot something. Everyone who buys from smartchaps.in writes a testimonial. Now please go ahead and copy paste what I am writing below:

"Its an amazing experience, I got the lowest price in the world in the shortest time delivery. I strongly strongly recommend them to everyone".

Dont try to search for me, I am running away literally !

[abhishek_bmw]

@Saju: Fantastic idea.Atleast 5-6 guys are going to buy DSLR.

Its an amazing experience, I got the lowest price in the world in the shortest time delivery. I strongly strongly recommend them to everyone

Must put double "T" in in the word "shortest" to make it stronger
@tsk1979 and all: What about Sigma (70-300 mm f 4-5.6) at that price bracket?

[shajufx]

Only an Indian can do this in an international forum. Hope its not someone from our 'potential' buyers here ! Dont look for me, I am running far far away ! Btw, its not me.

[abhishek_bmw]

@Saju:

"intrest","leans","healp" and "male add".
Shame.Thank God he didnt wrote clearly,"I am a poor Indian".(Though 091 is enough).

[Ace F355]

Originally Posted by shajufx

Only an Indian can do this in an international forum. Hope its not someone from our 'potential' buyers here ! Dont look for me, I am running far far away ! Btw, its not me.
Attachment 325371

lol, I think he really got carried away with a random fascination of being a wildlife photographer after watching 3 idiots.

[tsk1979]

ROFL
To be frank, I got the lowest price. This lens retails at 499$ in the US, which is 600rs cheaper than the price I got as per todays exchange rate .
As for shortest time possible... well If I do not put that in feedback, they may not publish my feedback.

As for Sigma, its a decent lens. Costs 8-9K in grey I think

[Abbas]

Guys amazon is offering canon sx20is for 379$ and free shipping within US. Its retails to around 24k in india. I am planning to go for it.

Whats your say guys?

Also, additional lense can be mounted on this cam if i need to in future?

[clevermax]

Slightly off-topic

While formatting my 8GB CF card used in the camera, I found that the camera does a FAT32 formatting with 8192 bytes in each allocation unit.

The files that are going to be stored in this card are RAW and Jpeg files having sizes about 11 MB and 3.5 MB respectively. This made me wonder why should the card have a small allocation unit like 8K.

I formatted it again in the PC with each allocation unit having 64K. (command to be used under windows - format <driveletter>: /FS:FAT32 /Q /A:64K)

The camera accepted the card without issues. It seems that it is faster now. I expect a performance gain with the data transfer, that I will come to know in due course when image files and folders starts piling up after some clicking.

Anyone here tried this?

[HellwratH]

I had a very interesting experience shooting birds, especially the ones with white feathers that they were being marked as overexposed, even though I had set the EV to -1 and below. While researching about it today, I came to know that it is actually the JPEG created by the camera to display on the lcd that is blown out and it may not be so in the actual RAW file. I know I should have figured this out earlier, but yes, I learnt something new today. Then, I came across a very interesting concept called the UniWB. Has anyone tried it here? To keep it simple, using this technique, the histogram on your camera's lcd (the jpeg one) would be as close as to the real information in RAW format. So, that would help us achieve correct exposure that was earlier under-exposed (like in my case of shooting birds). Here are some links,

Camera's histogram reliable to the RAW data - Luminous Landscape Forum

GUILLERMO LUIJK >> TUTORIALS >> UNIWB. MAKE CAMERA DISPLAY RELIABLE

[navin]

Originally Posted by shajufx

Only an Indian can do this in an international forum. Hope its not someone from our 'potential' buyers here ! Dont look for me, I am running far far away ! Btw, its not me.
Attachment 325371

what got me laughing was the term "Male Address".