Camera Options

[Spyderturbo007]

So I've wanted a nice camera to take pictures of my tank with for awhile, but really didn't want to drop a lot of money on one. I thought that it might be a good time to take advantage of some Black Friday sales and pick something up, but I have no idea what I'm looking at when browsing the ads.

Any thoughts on this Best Buy bundle? It comes with the EOS Rebel T3 and comes with a 18-55mm lens and a 75-300mm lens. I wasn't sure if that was a good deal for $449 or if I should look elsewhere. Would those lenses be what I want for taking pictures of my tank?

They also have a Nikon D3200 with a 18-55mm & 55-200mm lens for $499.

There are also some D3100 bundles here.

Would I need anything additional to reduce the blue tint that my iPhone picks up that makes my photos glow blue?

Is the ~$500 price point a reasonable amount to spend to get nice pictures or do I need to be more in the $1,000+ area?

 

[IslandCrow]

I'm afraid I haven't kept up on camera prices to know if it's a good deal, but either the Canon or the Nikon are very good cameras. For aquarium photographs, I think you're going to be quite happy with either, assuming you take the time to learn and practice. A $1000 camera really isn't going to offer you that much more in this arena. It's going to get you things more ready access to camera settings right on the body, better low light performance, faster frame rates (i.e. more shots per second), better build, and perhaps a few other nicities that probably won't make a lot of difference. The biggest upgrade you can make with the money is a better lens. Depending on how much you want to get into the hobby, yo may want to forego the 75-300mm lens. It's a decent telephoto, but there's huge quality gap between it and the 70-200L. Of course, the latter lens starts at $700 (twice that for the image stabilized version), so if that's not an investment you plan on making anytime soon and you want a telephoto, then the 75-300 is a pretty good deal for only $50. . .actually, you should be able to sell that lens pretty easily for at least $50, so maybe you should get it regardless.

So, in short, if you don't need some specific attribute of a more expensive camera, like better light sensitivity (i.e. higher ISO), a faster frame rate or larger sensor, both the Canon or the Nikon are great cameras.