SLR for a "beginner"

[Kirsty]

Hehe...thanks anyway, the posts have been useful!

I am pretty sure I will be purchasing the Canon Rebel in the near future. I was wondering if the XT is worth the extra money?

Thanks again!

[Eagle]

Kirsty, glad the information has been helpful, albeit with some chuckles.

IMHO I believe the extra cost for the 350D / XT is worth it. Although both Cameras received the coveted "Highly Recommended" rating on dpreview, the XT is going to provide better resolution with an 8 MP Sensor which will provide more flexibility for cropping or whatever.

I've found that it's often useful to have a Camera with a few "bells & whistles" and a full range of features as when my familiarity with the Camera and my photographic abilities improve, I have the features available to work with. One of the criticisms of the original Rebel was that a number of very useful features had been deliberately "crippled" in software, and these have been restored in the XT model.

Also, the Rebel is getting a bit "old" in terms of dSLR lifecycle (introduced in 2003 I believe) and I suspect this will be discontinued very soon (if it hasn't been already). One has to wonder how much support will be available in comparison to the newer XT which was introduced late in 2004. The XT also has a very compact size and light weight, which gives it an edge over the 20D in terms of travel convenience and practicality.

One other point you might be interested in that I've found in my dSLR research, is that it's not necessarily a good idea to buy the "kit Lens" with the Camera. From what I've seen on a variety of Camera / Photo Forums, the 18-55 mm kit Lens produces somewhat mediocre results. It doesn't get any "rave reviews" for picture quality. I've had "Sales Professionals" at various stores tell me to "just buy the kit lens, you can always sell it later", which is stupid advice IMO. There will probably be dozens of them available on the used market, at very cheap prices -- why bother with the hassle!!! In some cases, these stores are not able to sell just the Camera Body (due to their terms with Canon or whatever), so they're just trying to make a sale regardless of whether this is what the customer wants or needs. I have no tolerance or respect for those types of sales tactics!

I will probably choose the 17-85 IS USM Lens as my "walking around" Lens, rather than the kit Lens. Although it hasn't been getting 100% favourable reviews from Users either, it still seems to be getting a lot better results than the stock Lens. It was interesting to note when I was at London Drugs yesterday, they have a sale on a Canon package of 20D Camera with 17-85 Lens ($2549.00, seems like a fair price for that package?). I guess some of the stores are getting the message regarding customer wishes!

Good luck with your Camera purchase! I'll be going ahead with this also, probably in the late fall (by that time, there will probably be a few new models out with more "bells & whistles", so the evaluation process might drag on a bit further). I probably won't be able to afford to travel until next spring, so there's lots of time to work on the Camera purchase. In the meantime I've got my S-50 to practise with.

Cheers!!!

[Melanie]

:)is there any digital cameras out there that let you have the option of taking pictures in black and white? normally if i want to change a picture to black and white i have to do this on my computer using photoshop or iPhotos on mac.

[Kim]

You will find that alot of the point and shoot ones will but I don't know of any of the digi SLR's that do. I know for sure that the Nikon D70 doesn't, as I have it.

Honestly though, your pictures will look alot better if you just continue to do it on the computer as you can adjust the contrast etc. I had a point and shoot and took some B+W's with it and the results were pretty flat looking.

Kim

[Kirsty]

Thanks again with all of the comments for this! I'm happy to say I splurged and went for the canon rebel XT and I love it! Who knew SLR's could be so great!

Anyway, thanks again and I'm posting some of my photographs on the web, if you're interested, at: members.shaw.ca/sunny16/index.html

Hopefully I'll get some good travel pictures up!!

Kirsty

[Eagle]

Kirsty, I was curious on your impressions of the Rebel XT, now that you've had some time to become familiar with it. I'm still "sitting on the fence" with regards to my new Camera purchase, as I wanted to wait to see what sorts of additional "bells & whistles" will be featured in the 20D replacement (will likely be introduced at the PMA show in February).

However, I visited the local Camera store yesterday to have another look at the various modes, and came very CLOSE to buying a Rebel XT. I seem to keep coming back to that particular model, largely due to the size and weight, as it's just perfect for travel purposes and seems to be an excellent SLR. Some of the "experts" on various photo forums have complained that after a day of walking around with the 20D, they are quite tired of the weight and bulk of that model.

Hope you have a great Christmas! Cheers!!!