Having to start all over again

[solly230]

Hi guys looking for some advice again. Ive been unlucky enough to have been broken into and have all my equipment was taken. I had a Canon 40d with 18-55mm is, 55-250mm is, 50mm 1.8 and a sigma 10-20mm all taken. I am now left with the sad position of having to start all over again the insurance company gave me £800 pay out so I dont have much to work with.
Any advice on where I should start should I stick with Canon again or look elsewhere im very tempted by the olympus E620 seems very good value. And what lenses do you recomend obviously I have a very limited budget my main interests are portrait photography and landscapes.
Hope you can help a very gutted photographer
Thanks

[Kaye]

Solly230, welcome to Proud.
Sorry to hear your sad news. We all seem to pay heaps for insurance, and not get much back in return when we need it!!

I am no camera expert, but if you were happy with your old Canon, why not stay with the same. At least you know it, otherwise you must become familiar with another. Unless cost is a concern, then this may be a reason to change.

I do not know the Olympus E620, but from what I have read and the treatment I have rec'd thru Olympus themselves, I believe they are good quality, and also have good quality lenses.

[shirlm2]

Sorry to hear your bad news. As Kaye says if you were happy with the Canon it may pay to stay with the same. I wouldn’t change mine. You might want to consider second hand lenses to stretch the money that way. As you quote in £s I assume you live in the UK. Digital Photographer magazine gave a few recommendations of best places for second hand kit, ebay being 1st and MR CAD (www.mrcad.co.uk ) being 2nd . I don’t know anything about the shop & there are pros and cons to second hand kit but you might want to investigate. Good luck.

[jerryph]

Oly are nice, but they are playing some hard time catchup against Canon or Nikon. The one advantage is that Olympus/Minolta have a ton of nice old lenses to select from that can be affordable under certain circumstances.

However, my advice is the same as the others... that if you liked your Canon, stick to it.

[solly230]

Thanks for your advice I did like the canon but the cost is the only thing putting me off im not going to be able to get as good as kit that I had for the money I have. This was why I was looking at alternatives the olympus does seem really good value for money as do some of the new sonys. I would like somthing a little less cumbersome than the 40d.

[Kaye]

Solly230, for the reasons you mentioned, I would have no hesitation in going with an Olympus.
I have no idea about Sony, but perhaps some other members may have some input as to the quality etc of Sony.

[solly230]

I had a look at the olympus and was really impressed but I have decided to stick with what I know and go back to Canon im trying to decide between the 500d T1i and the new 550d T2i. I have seen some images taken on the new 550d and they look amazing will the 500 compare to this or is it worth spending the extra on the newer model.

[MasterPpv]

You can make amazing images with just about any camera, more advanced ones only make it more convenient. If you care about the image quality, just choose the lower priced one and work hard at learning how to get it to make those types of images you want. Learn the "do"s and "don't"s of your new camera based on the type of shots you like to take (everyone has different preferences) and learn how to get the most out of your new camera by knowing how to get it to do what you want it to do. That's the hard part. Once you get that down, it won't matter what camera you use - you'll be taking pictures even more amazing than the ones you see on the boxes at the store! ;)