Camera Ideas!?

So im on the market right now for a DSLR Camera, i will mainly use it for my corals, but i will be using it for family gatherings, and anything else i want to take pictures of, ive been looking for about a year now, and still am completely clueless on what i want! Anyone have any suggestions? and or possible samples of pictures if you have the camera?

 

do you have a price cap? my dads got a really nice nikon if you're interested i could show you some of his pictures from his nikon.

generally any higher end DSLR with the brand of nikon cannon leika should be fine

 

Yea the funds arent an issue, i can get some sweet deals at work if i can see some pictures that would be great!! also what kind of lens he is running on it!! TIA

 

he has a nikon d3x but he said its more important to get a good lense than the camera so like the nikon d700 would be fine with a decent macro lense and if you're getting a flash he recommends a ring lense so the glare doesnt bounce back off the glass

he doesnt have a macro lense so he cant personally show you any specific macro pictures other than what hes taken with a normal lense but heres some pictures i dont think his fb is private

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or he said cheapest option he said was maybe get an underwater camera like one of the one by cannon or optix or any other ones and try and take the pictures from inside the tank

 

on second thought also try asking one of the vendors they have awesome macro shots like in this thread

http://www.3reef.com/forums/wt-inc/cream-crop-125753.html#post1245991

 

The page is not available for some reason, ill try it again later, i really am thinking i want a DSLR camera, i have some regular camera's a big zoom camera etc.. but i want really nice pictures and im not worried about the cost at this point, i can get a nikon d5000 for 350$ with the standard lense, but the macro lenses is where i get lost, i have no idea what kind i should get for the best picture.

 

maybe try checking into a camera forum they know a lot more about the issue than say we would about fish tanks lol also try google and youtube....youd be surprised how many places are good to check out

 

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/choosing_right_lens.php

Aquarium Photograpy

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/macro-photography/206208-aquarium-macro-photography.html

^that last one doesnt have much info but it does have the body you were talking about and it says what macro lense he is using

here are another one that seemed informative

http://blog.aquanerd.com/2010/04/reef-aquarium-photography-part-3.html

hope this is helpful to you!

 

sorry for so many posts in a row but my dad said the d5000 is good but he recommends getting the newest generation which would be the d5100 if possible but either one is fine the standard lenses arent really cut out for really good pictures to look into a better lense for it regardless of which model you get and he said the d5000 and d51000 are dx bodies which means you need a dx lense not an fx lense if the price seems to good to be true it probably is and be careful to not get a grey market camera(meant for sale in another country) because they wont have a warranty for the US but are slightly cheaper if you arent worried about the warranty

heres a comparison of the 5000 and 5100

Nikon D5100 vs D5000