What focal length(s) do you find most useful?
My walk around lens is a Nikkor 24-70 2.8, which is about like a 18-55 on a crop body. What I use if I take pictures of my tank is a Nikkor 60mm macro lens. I would much rather use a 105mm macro, but I have yet to justify the $900 price tag.
When shopping for a (probably used) digital SLR, I am trying to decide whether to give consideration to the current lenses we already own. I believe I heard you say at the meeting that you find manual focus is often helpful.
I find MF to be helpful when doing macro shots, when you are so close to subject you don't want to have to fight with AF picking something in the background that it wants to focus on. But with MF you have to be steady, if you move forwards or backwards any, your focus plane will shift. If you aren't very steady, just use a tripod.
Since we never consolidated after getting married, we currently have two sets of SLR equipment. They are not used due to the hassle and expense of film processing. We pretty much just use a Canon Powershot 560 point-and-shoot or iPhone 4S camera, whichever is handy, but they're not cutting it for the hitchhiker ID photos I've been trying to take. (Admittedly I have not tried anything other than the catch-all auto mode, with and without macro and flash.) I also have a Canon Powershot G2 that needs a new battery -- it has better manual settings, but it has to have it's particular cable to connect to the computer, and I hate that.
Something with the iPhone you can try is when you are taking a picture, hold your finger down on where you want to focus, if you hold it long enough it will lock the focus and exposure. With other camera's... Try not to use a flash... It will generally just create unflattering results.
(wife's film camera, Canon EOS Rebel, she probably got all of this as a kit)
Canon EF mount, autofocus:
Canon Lens EF 50mm 1:1.8 II
Canon Zoom Lens EF 80-200mm 1:4.5-5.6
(my film camera, Pentax MX)
Pentax K mount, manual focus:
SMC Pentax-A 1:2 50mm
SMC Pentax-M 1:1.7 50mm (this lens, though fast, has a dent on the frame that will probably prevent attaching any filters)
Kiron 80-200mm f/4 MACRO 1:4
Out of these 2 I would stay with Canon if you were going to stay with something. There would be more support out there for it than Pentax. There are some avid Pentax users out there but not near as many as there are with Nikon/Canon. I'm not 100% sure how the EF lenses work on the EF-S cameras. That is something I would do more research on, but I don't think there would be a big problem with it.
I understand that I'll have to "convert" these focal lengths due to the smaller sensor in cameras in my price range. The main problem I seem to have trying to get pictures through the glass on the tank is being able to focus close enough, and I don't know if these lenses would help with that or not.
The 50mm's generally don't have a very close focus range, although if the first Pentax you listed is actually a 1:2 magnification then that's not bad. The Macro part of the Kiron 80-200mm is basically just saying that it can focus closer than normal. It has a 1:4 magnification when for macro you want 1:1.
As far as converting them, basically they will just appear to zoom in closer than they would on a 35mm or full frame camera.
My initial research suggests these lenses are not particularly expensive lenses that should keep me form converting to another system. However, they might be good enough to get started with an inexpensive digital SLR body that we can let our teenage daughter learn on too. She's in journalism class this year.
What I would do if I were you is look for a used entry level Canon DSLR. People are constantly selling used entry level DSLR's because either they out grow them, or they just realized they suck at photography. That way you could save some money, let your daughter use the camera with the cheaper lenses... and maybe pick yourself up a true macro lens. They also will generally come with a 18-55 kit lens and some form of zoom usually.
If a NARC member has a digital body that will work with these lenses (especially the Pentax mount, since I think that will be harder to find among coworkers, etc.), I wouldn't mind a chance to try them out and make sure they are still working well.
Suggestions? Please keep in mind, the more I spend on camera equipment, the less I spend on reef equipment and livestock.
(If someone has a hankering for old film equipment, I'm open to trading or selling these. I have some basic darkroom equipment and an entry-level enlarger too, but it will definitely need a cleaning, and may be missing pieces by now. PM please as that'd be really off-topic.)
