I am looking to get into digital SLR photography, I am considering a Canon D6 on the advice of a neighbor who shoots a much higher end camera. I am also looking to go back to a Mac. I will mainly be shooting my toddler, portraits, birds, nautre shots, just about everything, maybe even some sports shots down the road in 3-5 years, more than likely sounds like I will need a new body by then. I have also been told to get a high quality lense such as the LS/ IS series if I go with Cannon, any advice?
I am looking at a MBA i7 2.0, 8Gb RAM, 512 SSD
From waht I can ascertain this would more than handle CS6 for photoshop, and some development work for webpages and waht not, is that correct?
Starting out should I be looking at Apeture to get going? My goal is to get a new iMAC later in the year for my main workstation.
I would welcome the feedback form those who are more experienced with my Mac needs as well as my need to find a quality SLR.
First of all the 6D is too high-end for a novice to start with. For that price I'd rather get a much better computer and a 60D or a 7D with a good lens.
The 60D or the 7D with a 24-105mm f/4L or 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM are a treat to shoot with. They give just as good an image quality as the 6D for a fraction of the price. Of course you will lack the full-frame sensor but that hardly matters if you're just starting.
As for the MacBook Air, I'd highly recommend
against it, unless you're also planning on getting an external monitor. Rather, get a MacBook Pro 15", either the classic or Retina. Both are leagues more powerful than the MacBook Airs and have screens capable of displaying much more accurate colors. The classic MBP also has upgradeable RAM and storage, which is a crucial feature especially when you don't know your limits in photography and might need to upgrade in the future.
This I can speak from personal experience; even with 5TB external storage and 500GB internal storage, my growing Aperture libraries couldn't fit on a single 500GB drive, so I had to split it into 3 different libraries, one archive, one family and one working library, with the working library on local storage and others on the external. Eventually both the archive and working libraries were just way too big to fit on a 500GB drive, and I swapped the hard drive to a 750GB drive in a jiffy. Same with RAM; I'm starting to feel the limits of 8GB, so I'll always have the option to go to 16GB, whereas with the Retina MBP and MBA you're stuck with soldered-on permanent RAM.
Running Photoshop, ironically, is not very important in photography. In fact, I know many photographers who have never touched Photoshop! They either go straight to JPEG or use Lightroom, DPP or Aperture for RAW management instead. Photoshop is only for the heavy edits, like when you have blemishes that just can't be fixed through the basic retouch tools.
So my recommendation: a crop-sensored camera, anything from the T2i to the 7D, with a good lens like the 24-70 f/2.8L (old), 24-105 f/4L, 17-55mm f/2.8, or 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6. All of these are very good lenses and will serve you nicely without breaking the bank. As for the computer, either a 15" MacBook Pro or the iMac 27", but not a MacBook Air.
If money is no object then just buy a 1D X with 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM, 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM, 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM, maxed out Mac Pro with triple Dell U3011 monitors.
