Good camera shop

Hey everyone,

I’m considering the purchase of a entry level digital SLR in the next few months. I’ve been looking at Canon and Nikon; it’s a hard decision, either the forthcoming Nikon D50 or the Canon 350D.

I wonder if there are any good camera shops in Taipei? Where do the pros go? I’d like a place that will let me bring a memory card and try out the cameras. And I’d like to talk to people who talk to pros all the time and really know what they’re talking about. English would be nice but not necessary.

So far it’s hard to decide. In favor of each company are:

Nikon

  • faster flash sync for fill flash
  • quicker access to common functions on D70 (though maybe not the case for the D50), many low end D-SLRs sacrifice usability and bury functions in menus.
  • D70 kit (I hope D50) comes with a good mid-range zoom lens that would cost me $600-700 US with Canon

Canon

  • they’ve been leading in the pro market for a while; Nikon is still catching up
  • much more R&D money, many say tech is years ahead of Nikon
  • seems to have better lens technology
  • fast telephotos seem cheaper for Canon; Nikon seems to reserve newer technologies for pro lenses
  • better auto-focus and image stablization (some say you must use Canon if you want AF), though it may be a while before I buy $30k+ NT professional telephoto lenses

Check out “camera street” across from Hsimending. Not sure of the exact street name, but I’m sure that someone can get it for you.

I know that place. It’s where I got my Sony DSC-T1 a year ago. I was there last week too; I just didn’t have the time to talk to a lot of people.

Gary,

you may have checked this already, but here’s a link well worth looking at http://www.dpreview.com/

All the best.

I’ve looked at that quite a bit.

And many many other sites. There are better sites written by pro photographers that talk about technique, day to day use, and other things that will matter more for what people use most of the time.

I’ve been spending more time reading about camera systems (lenses and flashes mainly) and technique. It’ll help me make a better decision.

www.bobatkins.com/photography
www.bythom.com
www.kenrockwell.com
www.imaging-resource.com
www.outbackphoto.com
grumpysworld.com/photoguide/camera.htm
photo.net/
robgalbraith.com/bins/index.asp
luminous-landscape.com/
fredmiranda.com/

and many more. Then then various books. I pretty much want to know all the photography terminology and theory before I buy a camera. Then I’ll know if one particular feature is important to me or not and how I’ll really use everything available.

Going into any one brand with all the accessories and lenses costs quite a bit. One camera being slightly better than another this year isn’t too important to me.

Go with the D70 if you want to purchase now, or wait until the D350T comes. The best place to buy a camera is on the camera street. It is called Bo-ai Road. 2 blocks west of Nova, about a 5 minute walk. Check a map or just ask someone to point you the way at Taipei Main Station. All the shops there will have around the same prices. Bargain a bit.

P.S. Make sure you ask if it is “Kung Shee For” meaning it is the local version and not a gray market version or “Shui For”. The gray market version is usually several thousand NT cheaper, but they don’t come with a factory warranty, so if it breaks you will be in trouble or will be charged an arm and a leg to get it repaired. (Pardon my poor pingying translations.)

If you don’t have any lenses now, I’d say go with the Nikon D50 or D70 replacement. I’ve read through many a flamewar re: the differences between the Canon and Nikon dSLR bodies and it all seemed like nitpicking to me. On the other hand, there seems to be a general consensus that the Nikon kit lens is superior to the Canon kit lens. I have the DRebel and have been pretty uninspired by the kit lens. I’ve tried replacing it with a 3rd party WA prime (Tokina 17mm) for $300US, but using a prime at that wide is a bitch, so I’m thinking of selling that and saving up for the 17-40L for ~$600US.

So unless you’re going to be real fancy and immediately spring for a couple of lenses along with the body, or you really have your heart set on some Canon telephoto lens (which I don’t think you really need to worry about unless you’re a hardcore bird or sports photograhper), I’d say go with the Nikon. Probably the more relevant question is whether to go for the D50/Digital Rebel or the 20D/D70 replacement.

Why do you guys prefer the D70? I’ve read a lot of comparisons. yes a lot of people say the D70 kit is better.

At first I was very attacted to it for some D70 features and it’s included lens. I would miss some with a Canon 350D.

But have you explorered more sites than just the popular camera review ones? Read a lot about all the different lenses from both companies in the consume range? The pro range? EOS? Canon’s history and how they leaped ahead of Nikon? Do any of you disagree with Nikon’s autofocus being a joke? About the differences in the consumer range of lenses?

One kit or camera being better than the other is not a big deal to me. The entire system is what I’m trying to understand. There’s a lot out there. And it seems more and more reading is required, or more books, or talking to pros that have years and years of experience with both.

The few sites I’ve seen written by pros who have used both systems for many years all have switched to Canon.

Check out the sites above. Anyone know of others written by pros who know a lot about either Canon or Nikon and have used practically everything made by one company or both?

Among consumer digital DSLRs, it’s hard to say. But among pros, Nikon has a lot of work to do to win them back.

FWIW, I intend to buy a D70 some day when they get a bit more reasonable, mainly because I’ve always been happy with Nikon, and the gear from my current SLR will fit it (except the bloody flash, for some reason!)

I wouldn’t get too worked up about it, to be honest. How much difference could there be? Ken Rockwell seems very happy with his D70, and he talks a lot of sense about film cameras. Nikon appear to have finally got their autofocus up to speed. Canon and Nikon lenses are about as expensive as each other. If you’re going to use proprietary glass, then I’d go for Nikon, as they have a better reputation for wide angles. if you’re going to put cheapo glass on then it’s not going to make a damned bit of difference what with the ghosts, flaring, and lack of contrast, and possibly colouration (but of course there’s Photoshop for that).

I have been impressed by Nikon’s TTL flash system, but I’ve never used Canon’s. What I need is a decent slide projector and a film scanner…

I’ve got a D70 and am overall very happy with it. I know people with the DRebel who are happy with it. I’ve seen killer work with both. Yeah, the Nikon kit lens is reputed to be much better (sharper, faster)…but I don’t have it, I had a bag full of Nikon glass in the first place, so I bought the D70 body only on the gray market (NT$27K). 6000 shots later, not a problem.

This whole Canon vs. Nikon thing is kind of funny, they are BOTH excellent manufacturers and you’ll get great results from both. I’ve seen the manual for the D50 and it looks like it will be good also, but my guess is that the price point won’t be that much lower than a D70.

One major difference is how Canon and Nikon have decided to handle the noise that is generated at high ISOs. Nikon leaves more there, but gives you a sharper image. Canon removes more of the noise, thereby creating a less sharp image. I run Neat Image, so for my purposes, I’d rather have the final say in the noise/sharpness mix, but if you don’t use something like Neat Image or Noise Ninja, you might find Nikons 1600ISO shots a little too noisy for larger enlargements (they are fine up to 5x7, IMHO)…

Oh, and a D70 with SB800s and SB600s as flashes (yes, multiple, and SB800 will act as a master iTTL flash controling multiple 800s/600s) is, to be honest, killah. I’ve got a single SB800 that I shoot off camera using the built in flash at minimum power as a trigger and am planning on picking up a pair of SB600s in a couple of weeks. That is DEFINITELY something that Nikon has gotten right…at the expense of older flashes that I believe aren’t 100% compatible with the D70/D2H/D2X/F6 TTL flash systems…

And I’m going to go ahead and disagree with KawasakiRider. I bought the gray market “shui huo” version of the Canon Digital Rebel last year. Yeah, it was warranty-less, but I ended up saving about $9000NT. I haven’t had any problems with my camera so far and I figure by the time that it’s finally on its last legs, Canon will probably have already upgraded their models several times over anyhow.

There’s nothing for you to disagree with. I just advised him to know the difference and be aware of what to expect. I didn’t say don’t get “shui fou”, I just told him the difference. Actually, I always buy “shui fou” myself. My D100 is a grey market version, I saved about $7,000NT. But the fact still remains, you buy grey market, you take a chance, no matter how small it is. BTW, Nikon are real asses about this, they will NOT repair any grey market cameras, even if you are willing to pay money. One of the greatest benefits of buying a local version is that they will clean your CCD for free. My buddie takes his camrea into the Nikon dealer in Taipei and gets his CCD clean every 3 months, they don’t charge him a dime.

Thanks for the tips.

Thanks for the info about flashes acearle. From a few people, they have said Nikon flash continues to be superior.

There are a few sites out there that are written by seemlingly very knowledable people who will give you good reasons why they choose one system over another. I don’t really wish to argue over anything, I just want very specific details about every system. That’s hard to find unless you talk to people who have used both a lot and are going to give you very good reasons why each of them have benefits and which ones they choose.

I can provide more links if you guys are interested.

As for noise, I haven’t tried messing with D70 images. I’ve tried applying Noise Ninja to ISO 1600 files I got off a Canon 350D. I was pretty impressed though I’m not very used to looking at images other than my point and shoot cameras. I was pretty happy with the noise levels though I would like more comparisons.

But I would like more details about each system. More people say Canon introduces newer tech in lower and midrange products. So for mid-quality high-technology, Canon has more available lenses with IS and USM.

Flash, mirror lockup, flash-sync, lens ranges, I’m not sure what else to consider.

And at least one site on railroad photography. The guy said what he does is very demanding of autofocus and thus he had to get rid of all his high end Nikon and go to Canon.

It’s hard finding people who have heavily used both and still choose Nikon.

I clean the CCD myself, so don’t really care. I rather save several thousand NT and just buy the grey market version. It just depends how you feel about taking chances.

BTW, some shops will offer you a store exclusive warranty. Meaning, that if anything needs fixing, they will do it for you, but you still have to pay for the cost for the parts.

[quote=“Josefus”]Check out “camera street” across from Hsimending (Ximending). Not sure of the exact street name, but I’m sure that someone can get it for you.[/quote] The camera street is Kaifeng St. mostly east of Bo Ai Rd. and also extends North of Kaifeng on the west side of Bo Ai. Be careful over there and check the price with other shops. Check for what type of warranty they have and what their return policies are.
There is one shop in that Camera street area that I find is more reliable than the others. I will post their name and address and phone number soon. If you don’t hear from me, PM for it. I have been involved in the purchase of no less than a dozen cameras (not all of them were mine) on that street over the last 8 years.

Soomething I noticed after I purchased my DSLR was that Nikon seems to have cheaper priced lenses overall. I went for Canon. But, I am sure either choice will be good.

Thanks Hobart,

I’m still not sure about Canon vs Nikon.

For lenses, it seems Canon has some cheaper lenses and has more options in the mid-range. I think their wide angle is about $300 US cheaper.

Though I do not like the menus of the 350D. So far I like the D50 but it’s missing white balance fine tuning.

Who knows.

You mean Hankou St near Taipei Main Station and Mitsukoshi?

Yellow Cartman, is it Hankou St. or Kaifeng St.? Hmm…I think you might be right…

Either will do. It’s the bit of Bo’ai in between them, and north up to Zhongxiao.

cool,

anyone read up about the new Nikon D50? I really like a lot of things about it. Too bad they took too much out. If it had all the features of the D70 and kept it’s compact size, I’d snatch it up in a minute.