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robl110
03-09-2011, 09:13 PM
Picking up a Sony A33 Saturday morning from National Camera. Going to use it for doing photos of my boy. It will also be nice to have around for car stuff etc.

For you camera buffs what do you recommend as the must haves in accessories right away? Flash, diffuser, telephoto, lens, tripod? What's the most important if I don't buy it all at once?

For the next couple months it will mainly be used for indoor shoots of the little man.

I am tempted to buy it all right away but that would be a large chunk of coin.

p51mstg
03-10-2011, 06:29 AM
Woot! Congrats!

Tripod. That's my vote.

Overall, I really like National Camera - have been going there for over 30 years! I think they ripped me on some trade-in items when I bought my last camera (Nikon D90), but they were great to work with in purchasing the camera.

I wish I would've done a little more research on lenses, because the Nikon "package" lens really wasn't what I was looking for, and it took another $500 to get what I wanted. But, I now have a 18-270mm lens, and this is all I want - no plans to buy anything else.

soulfisher
03-10-2011, 07:07 AM
Buy a UV or Neutral Density filter for the lens. It protects it from scratches. Anytime you buy a lens, get one of these filters to fit. A sturdy tripod is important. Make sure you don't scrimp, get one that will support your camera with a reasonable telephoto lens on it. One other thing you will want, a spare battery and a spare memory card. Nothing is worse then going to snap a cute picture of the child to only find out that your battery is dead or the memory card is full.

As for lenses, I agree with P51mstg, get a lens that has a good range so you have the benefit of wide angle and telephoto.

Photo tip 1: go into the menu and turn off digital zoom feature. You can always crop and resize the picture on the computer. Digital zoom just costs you resolution.

robl110
03-10-2011, 02:34 PM
I am going with National Camera because of the local support and free classes. I may buy some of the extras online to save some money.

Thanks for the tips. I will check out getting a different lens instead of the kit. Right now if I buy the kit I get $100 off the telephoto lens, not that I will go that route. Chances are I will buy the kit Saturday that comes with the 18-55 lens. Play with it as is for awhile and then start upgrading and buying more accessories. Sounds like a better flash is almost a must to get quality pictures.

Is there any real difference in memory cards besides size? National wants an arm and a leg for theres. I know I can go to Best Buy and pick up one on sale for half the price.

soulfisher: By digital zoom do you mean auto focus? I got so much to learn :photo:

soulfisher
03-10-2011, 09:00 PM
soulfisher: By digital zoom do you mean auto focus? I got so much to learn :photo:

Not a problem with the A33, they did away with the feature. Digital zoom was the camera enlarging an image electronically rather than through changing the optics as a telephoto lens does. Made pictures grainy.

As for memory cards, size and speed are the factors. SD cards are usually cheaper than the Sony cards. SD cards come in at least three speed ratings with a 10 being the highest. Matters most if you are taking pictures in rapid succession.

robl110
03-11-2011, 12:34 PM
Not a problem with the A33, they did away with the feature. Digital zoom was the camera enlarging an image electronically rather than through changing the optics as a telephoto lens does. Made pictures grainy.

As for memory cards, size and speed are the factors. SD cards are usually cheaper than the Sony cards. SD cards come in at least three speed ratings with a 10 being the highest. Matters most if you are taking pictures in rapid succession.

Cool, one less thing to worry about :baby:

Ok, so the Nat Camera SD cards are probably the better ones. I will check there ratings.

Can't wait to pick the camera up tomorrow and start playing :biggrin2:

p51mstg
03-12-2011, 08:08 AM
Rob - I'm sorry I forgot to mention my troubles with memory cards, and this is a good story to tell:

I bought my Nikon kit from NatCam, and they sold me a Class 6 SDHC card that they assured me was the absolutre best you could buy. For some reason, my camera would freeze up after taking only a few pictures. If I pulled the card and the battery, reinserted and then turned it back on, it would work fine. I thought it was the camera, so I took it back. NatCam exchanged it, no questions asked. But.... new camera = same problem!

So, I started searching online forums, and sure, enough other people had had the same issue. It was the memory card! I went to my favorite computer store, newegg dot com, and ordered up a Transcend Class 6 SDHC card. It has worked perfectly ever since. For the price NatCam charged me for their card, I got double the memory from newegg.

Now, to be fair, memory is one of those things that drops in price every minute of every day. So, simply by taking a month to figure out why my camera was locking up means the price went down. But, I'm sticking with Transcend cards, that's for sure. When we got a cheapo digital video camera this last fall, I went with a Class 10 Transcend card, and it seems to be working fine. Other brands probably work just as well. Sorry, but I don't remember what brand NatCam sold me - it went in the garbage can.

You can't beat the service from National Camera, and that's why I keep going back there. Before you buy the kit lense, though - check online to see if they've got a used one sitting in one of their stores. You might get a better lense cheaper that way.

And, I agree with soulfisher about the Skylight or UV filter - every lense you own should have one of those. NatCam might have a used one to fit, and that could save you a few bucks. I paid $10 for a used Skylight filer when I bought my Nikon, and it looked brand new.

robl110
03-12-2011, 02:31 PM
p51mstg: That's funny you mention the memory card problem. Jay at the Roseville store told me a very similar story about a problem they had with several memory cards not working with a particular camera. They finally convinced the memory card manufacture that it was there problem. All the cards got recalled. It was there line of card, ProMaster. From how similar the stories are it would not surprise me if that camera was yours.

I made it to National Camera this morning right when they opened. Got one of their head guys Jay as salesmen. I established right away that in fact I was choosing the right camera for my price range. Soon as I mentioned the lens he confirmed what you guys have told me, get neither the kit one or the telephoto one.

He sold me on a Tamron AF18-200. He also was able to show me photos of his last trip that he used this lens. He did this to prove how nice it is to have one lens. He had some amazing close ups from inside an antique store. Then he showed me photos from the nose bleed section at the MI vs OH football game. It looked like he was standing right next to the players.

Anyways, after 40 min I was sold on Sony A33, Tamron AF18-200 and a ProMaster 8G Class 6 memory card. Bad news was they did not have the Tamron for the Sony in stock. I explained I wanted it today and would drive. He found one left in there system in Burnsville. I guess the Tamron is popular with the Sony right now because Sony has the image stabilizer built in so the lens does not need it. I should also mention the Tamron is $289 plus I get a $60 mail in rebate. So that's $21 cheaper than getting the kit and the discounted telephoto by Sony.

Off to Burnsville I go. When I get to Burnsville I remember to ask about the UV filter. Of course the recommended one by the sales guy was out of stock in my size. But wait there is one left in Roseville hahaha. So I go to ring out and they don't have the 8G Class 6 either. So I spent the extra $30 and got the Class 10.
I now have a Sony A33, Tamron AF18-200 and 8G Class 10. The UV lens is on hold at the Roseville store. I will pick that up after work on Monday since its just down the street.

In the end all the traveling around was worth the end result. The sales guy in Roseville was VERY informative. The sales guy in Burnsville owns the exact set up I just purchased so it was fun to pick his brain too. Can't wait to start taking the free classes =)

Thanks for all the info everyone! I am sure I will have many more questions down the road.

soulfisher
03-13-2011, 08:56 AM
Enjoy your camera!

One other tip: if you don't have at least one external hard drive for your computer, get one. You will want to back up your photos in a couple of places. Nothing worse than losing pictures.

p51mstg
03-13-2011, 04:46 PM
Congrats, Rob! You won't regret it!


if you don't have at least one external hard drive for your computer, get one.

Couldn't agree more!

robl110
03-13-2011, 08:58 PM
I have a hard drive I took out of my old laptop and put into a case for backing stuff up.

Installed the software from Sony. It automatically installed Sony PMB. Now all my photos and video import to this program instead of my typical spot in Windows. I will probably uninstall that part of the Sony software. What are you guys using for editing?

soulfisher
03-14-2011, 05:34 AM
What are you guys using for editing?

Mac user, so I use Aperture. I used Photoshop Elements on a PC. Both are fine programs. It depends on how much editing you want to do to your photos. There are lots of fine programs out there that will fix brightness, adjust color and crop images. On the other hand, if you do a lot of complex editing, then you likely want a higher end program like Photoshop CS5.

p51mstg
03-14-2011, 11:05 AM
For Windows, Microsoft Office Picture Manager works okay. IrfanView is a free download that's pretty good. But, yeah, it depends on how much stuff you're going to do. Just for cropping or changing contrast or resolution, those are fine.

I hate to admit this, but on my iMac, I just use iPhoto for stuff like that - pretty basic. Of course, when every shot is perfect, there's no need to use anything else.... :hehe:

You can override the settings without uninstalling, just by right-clicking on a picture and then selecting a different program (make sure to check the box to always use this program). But, I haven't seen too many cameras (except my Nikon on the iMac) that won't just show up as an external disk drive, meaning you don't usually need their software to extract the pictures from your camera.