New Camera

If you hadn't of already bought one, i would have suggested you read the reviews and view the sample photos at dpreview.com. There is much more to cameras than MP's. Nikons are a bit more rugged but Nikon is lagging a bit in the technology race and are obviously overpriced. I don't have personal experience with the Olympus, but some buddies of mine say they are great. I own a Canon and it's great too. Canon almost always has the bleeding edge in technology and won't gouge you for it either.

My one bit of advice: most any of the current crop of DSLRs will give smooth, well-colored images that humiliate consumer-level cameras. But the real image quality and flexibility is in the lenses. I'm still working of a first-generation Canon Rebel (300D). It still takes great pictured. But the lenses make or break the image. I'd recommend getting a decent camera but good quality lenses. Almost anything is better than the standard kit lenses. If you take a crap lens and put it on a heavenly camera, you still get crap pictures. Beautiful lenses on a so-so camera make wonderful pictures.

That's why i'm not really tempted to upgrade my camera, but some nicer glass would really interest me.

Yeah, that was pretty much the deciding factor for me. There wasn't any significant difference in features between the different cameras. All three of the ones I mentioned are supposed to be good entry-to-intermediate level DSLRs, so getting the cheaper of the three seemed like a pretty good idea. The two lenses should hold me out for a little while at least, and the free memory card was pretty nice, too. Basically, I was at the point where I needed to upgrade from my silly little point-and-shoot, and the Olympus was the best bang for the buck.

Ack. Shoulda gone with the XTi! Canon's lenses are unbelievable, as well as third party lenses (Sigma, Tokina, Tamron) for its EOS mount.

Saddens me that I'm not big on taking pictures since my dad owns a camera selling small business and I probably could get a killer discount... or atleast get cost hehehe.


Soon he'll sell exclusively nikon cameras because he can't compete with large companies(like best buy) on some brands because some manufacturers (like Canon) are big on giving huge price reductions for bulk orders while some aren't (like Nikon)...

I don't know why I shared this piece of information... I felt like it.

Eh, it's alright, it's still a better camera than anything I've ever had.

Quote:

Original post by Salsa Ack. Shoulda gone with the XTi! Canon's lenses are unbelievable, as well as third party lenses (Sigma, Tokina, Tamron) for its EOS mount.

The Canon's are great. I have a 6MP reble from a couple of years back and it gets better pictures than any 35film SLR I've had and any other camera anyone I know has. It has served me faithfuly for the past couple of years+ and as long as nothing has been screwed up since my model it comes highly highly recommended. Both for its abilities and from the range of options you get for add-on with lenses and such.

Its not only really only the body of the camera you want to think about, you need to give serious thought about the lenses you want to invest in. If your serious about photography, your choice of lense represents a far bigger investment then the body ever will. Photographers reguarly upgrade the body of their camera as technology advances, but a high quality lense will last you a lifetime.

Im personally a huge fan of Canon's. A year or so back I swithered about getting a Nikon D70, but after trying out the Canon EOS20D, I never looked at Nikon again.

Canons latest camera's (double check incase im wrong), come with self cleaning sensors, which is a pretty decent feature, and will be more use to you in the long run than an extra .2 of a mp ever will.

I have a Canon Rebel XT (and a K2, actually - Canon's film SLR), and love it. It's not perfect, but my only complaints deal with the interface system (for some reason, it's difficult for me to work the aperture settings) and lack of focus rings. But there are some great lenses - the USM autofocus ones are particularly nice: quick and quiet.

But I've had good luck with Olympus cameras in the past (but never had an Olympus SLR).

I just got a Panasonic point and shoot this summer, and it's nice. I now wish I had a DSLR, though. I was looking at a Canon Digital Rebel XT or XTi, they look fabulous, but I can't afford it. (I'm too young to get a job that pays more than fast food)

Post some pics ASAP, please.

How's the default lens for macro? I enjoy macro photography and my camera that autofocuses isn't really that great at it.

I understand that quality lenses will be a large part of a SLR's price, and am mainly interested in macro and telephoto beyond the default lens.

It's been raining all day, so I haven't been able to get out and take anything good yet. I don't have any lights, so I can't set up indoor shots too well yet. I was goofing around with my dad earlier, and made this:




He doesn't particularly like it...

this came out of some boredom last night. Should have cleaned the keypad first.


And some more goofing around.

Hey, your "bored again" picture looks almost professional. You just need to clean the keypad, improve the focus or depth of field, and soften the lighting a little.

That's cool. My dad has a Canon 30D, he bought it around the same time I got my S80. I'm glad he did too, because being able to directly compare it to mine (both 8MP) really convinced me on the advantages of SLR camera's, I look forward to the day I can afford one.

Quote:

Original post by Sonnenblume Canons latest camera's (double check incase im wrong), come with self cleaning sensors, which is a pretty decent feature, and will be more use to you in the long run than an extra .2 of a mp ever will.

Actually, most modern DSLRs have this feature, including my Olympus. And I actually sacrificed 2MP for a second lens, a CF card, and $100.

New pic:

I like Canon a lot.

Those are some nice pictures, capn_midnight.

It looks like a good camera, but I've also heard a lot about the Canon Digital XT series. That's the canera series I'll probably be looking at when I buy a DSLR.

I got a Panasonic point and shoot this summer, and it's mostly good, but I wish it had manual picture settings. Sometimes noise is problematic, and it'd be nice to be able to manually adjust focus.

I have some examples of some of the better pictures I've taken here. Feel free (welcome) to critique. I've never taken classes or done any photo composition work, photography is just fun for me, but I'd still like to improve.

For kicks, here's a shot with my (Canon) Rebel XT -

The XTi is $900 with an 18-55mm lens, but on the XTi (1.6 crop factor) the lens works out to roughly 29mm-88mm. I got mine with a CF card, kit lens and the nifty fifty (50mm f/1.8) for roughly $1100. Now I have a battery grip, 430EX and the 24-105L... :P I love it and wouldn't change anything if I had the choice again...

Shot with my mom's XTi and my flash...
My XTi with 24-105mm f/4L