What camera should I get?

@BestOffer: Damn it!!! So now you got an amazing lens AND an amazing camera body...I wonder how good the photos get, you already put a pretty high standard with your old body.

 

Thanks for helping me make a choice guys. Got myself a D5100!

 

Congratulations ... have fun with it.

 

he is doing the video in Sai Kung !!!!! I live there when I go to HK

 

Sweeeeet. Just tested my D5100 with old school lenses for F-series film SLRs, and they work!!! (albeit manual exposure only lol)

Now, for the low price of hand-me- downs, I've got:

1) 50mm f1.8
2) 35-105mm f3.5-4.5
3) 80-200mm f4.5

 

Don't you thing the 50 1.8 is a bit long? When I had that lens I thought it was too long, that's why I went for a 35 1.8.

 

Hey, can't complain if it's free LOL. It's a Nikon series-E lens from the f-series camera era. It belonged to my dad who's not using them anymore. Might as well put them to use lol.

I would like a 35mm f1.8 though. But once I know what I'm doing, I'll buy it later lol.

 

Hahaha okay buddy lol. That's recipe for bankruptcy lol.

But I'm actually getting much more comfortable with these old school lenses, despite the fact that they don't have auto-focus nor metering, which doesn't matter to me too much at this stage. Plus, these old lenses cover the type of photography I hope to do, so why pay more?

I guess I should reword my answer from earlier. I suppose I should be using the 35mm with DSLRs instead of the 50mm in order to get the human eye field of view, but if my understanding is correct the 50mm on a cropped sensor still works well, like the one my D5100 has.

But is it not true that the 50mm offers a more "correct" image? Doesn't the 35mm prime have a very minor fisheye-like distortion due to the wider angle? Or are these effects only prominent in film SLRs?

 

my photos are still not as good as yours :O
http://www.dramasian.com/forum/f107/adventures-5d3-24-105-70-200-ii-81011/

 

it's been a while, but bit the bullet to replace my old nikon dslr with a mirrorless a7ii
ff goodness and fun

 

What's interesting about these tech threads is that in two years (the time of the last post) so much has changed that the field is literally wide open, and that's actually a very good thing