Hello everyone, it's been ages since I've visited the forum here but I have a few questions for anyone willing to help me out. I recently just got my first job at Bath and Body Works, I'm really excited and I happy I will be finally getting a pay check hahaha. Anyways I am looking to save up and purchase a new camera by the time I go on my Disney Dream Cruise in October of 2014 and my WDW trip in November 2014 so I have a while to save up. A few months ago a Samsung camera at Best Buy caught my eye and it was on sale super cheap! Originally $649.99 it was on sale for around $200 at the time. It's on sale again but just for $599.99 anyways I noticed it was a 20.3 Megapixel Digital Compact System Camera with a 20-50mm Lens. I know the megapixels are awesome but what exactly is a Compact System Camera? and should I purchase one or save for a DSLR? I have a canon point and shoot right now with a pretty good zoom on it but it doesn't seem to take the quality pictures I want anymore. So going from a point and shoot to a CSC or SLR which would be better for a newbie like me? ;
This could be a good thread. The terminology Samsung is using describes their mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras. Honestly unless you are planning on needing to shoot sports with your camera the current generation of mirrorless cameras will work well. The ones from Sony and Samsung have the same size sensors as entry level dSLRs without having a mirror in front of the sensor. Nikon uses a much smaller sensor and Olympus/Panasonic are smaller but bigger than Nikon. Canon is temporarily out of the mirrorless market. You can still find their original Model but it has already been discontinued. Sony just announced a new body that looks like an SLR with a lens for under 400 but it can take all of their E-mount lenses. Samsung has released a decent number of lenses for their system but they have a long way to catch up. The Sony e-mount now has high quality native lenses and Olympus/Panasonic m4/3 system has had the high quality lenses for a while. A great feature of the mirrorless systems is that you can buy a cheap adapter and use almost any legacy manual focus lens on the body, which you can't do on many dSLRs without losing some focus range. I would take a look at the mirrorless offerings.
Thanks, I really like the look of the Samsung cameras. The body is thin and not bulky like dSLRs are but still offers good megapixels and even has Wi-Fi in it! Like I said I have tons of time and tons to save before even considering buying one but it's good to get an idea of what each styles/ models offer. My Dad and an Olympus Pin he bought a few years ago he likes but he hates not having a good lens to zoom in on stuff.
