Any photo buffs out there?

[tank03 1]

I've recently made the switch from a 35MM SLR camera to a digital SLR (Canon Xsi). Aside from having to buy new lenses/filters/and flashes, I now need to find a decent photo editing software that's relatively cheap, the software that came with the camera isn't that good. I know Photoshop is "The Best" out there but it's more money than I wanted to spend.

 

I recall a thread about photography a while back and was curious if anyone had any suggestions as to what they use.

[+Sundowner 4,837]

If it came with Digital Photo Professional (DPP), its usually a pretty good starting point, Zoom browser etc are not that bad but can be a bit of a resource hog, otherwise Photoshop Elements wont let you down.

 

BTW was your previous 35mm a Canon too?

 

My stuff:

Canon EOS 20D

Sigma 28-105

Sigma 50-500

& a bag full of memory cards...lol.

[tank03 1]

If it came with Digital Photo Professional (DPP), its usually a pretty good starting point, Zoom browser etc are not that bad but can be a bit of a resource hog, otherwise Photoshop Elements wont let you down.

 

BTW was your previous 35mm a Canon too?

 

My stuff:

Canon EOS 20D

Sigma 28-105

Sigma 50-500

& a bag full of memory cards...lol.

 

My previous camera was a Minolta Maxxum. I've got a handful of lenses (28-80, 70-300, 50 prime) that won't fit anything but a minolta. I also have a bunch of screw on filters (UV, Cir-PL, crosshatch, red, green, yellow, ND) and Cokin squares that are now obsolete because of the magic of digital processing. I still use the Cir-PL, and ND filters from time to time, but all the other stuff can be done on a computer.

 

The first thing that I instantly loved about going digital is that it's free to take pictures. When I used to have to pay for film and processing I sometimes got stingy about whether a shot was worth it or not. Now I can take hundreds for free.

 

I am leaning towards Elements, if only because I didn't know of anything else.

 

When you shoot, do you shoot in JPEG or RAW format? I understand the advantages of RAW, but it takes up so much more space on the card.

Edited January 26, 2009 by tank03

[+Stary 2,427]

Just starting this beautiful hobby, my girl friend got me interested in SLRs

 

Very basic stuff for start:

Nikon D80

AF-S DX VR 18-55

 

Saving money for:

AF-S DX 55-200 (or 18-105)

good tripod (current one is a toy)

 

NEF (RAW)

[+Muesli 2,161]

Just bought a couple of days ago;

-Nikon P80

(10.1 MP, 18x opt zoom, adjustable ISO diaphragm and so on)

I like it a lot already!

[+Sundowner 4,837]

I normally shoot in RAW+JPEG[medium], it gives you the best of both worlds really, but you are right they take up a lot more space on the card [and take longer to write to it], cards are pretty cheap at the moment tho. once you get used to working with raw you wont look back IMO.