Camera Choice for a Beginner

I've had the XT for a few months now and I love it. The kit lens is good for beginners, I've taken some good shots with it, but I will be getting the 50 f/1.8 soon and a better zoom lens in the future.



just picked up the XT tonight from my local best buy with 18-55 lense for 549.

Any particular reason you went with best buy over b&h? ($80 price difference)
 
My suggestion would be go to www.keh.com get a used 20D (ex condition) thats about 500, then a 50mm F/1.8 off Amazon, B&H, Adorama which runs ~70. under 600 for a very nice body (camera)

Canons don't have built in IS (image stabilization) but you can buy lenses with IS (usually cost more)
 
for a first camera i would definaly look a little more into the XT or the XTi. with Canon you cant really go wrong as for quality and their customer support has been nothing but blessings for me!!! with the Nikon D40 the autofocus thing is a HUGE issue. especially if you plan on taking pictures of people. but just personal opinion.
 
for a first camera i would definaly look a little more into the XT or the XTi. with Canon you cant really go wrong as for quality and their customer support has been nothing but blessings for me!!! with the Nikon D40 the autofocus thing is a HUGE issue. especially if you plan on taking pictures of people. but just personal opinion.



Its not a HUGE issue. If you want AF.. you buy lenses with it.. Its that simple.
 
The A200 is the A100 but in a more compact form. It has a slightly bigger screen also. Same meapixels. Auto-Focus speed is faster by 1.7x. It's lighter and more compact.

With the A200, you have to purchase the adpater seperately though. GOod luck finding an A100 if you want one.
Do Not Buy the A100!!! Go with the A200 Much much much better camera!!!I have shot with the A100/ A200/and A700. First only owning the A100 I thought it was a great camera. but there was allot of things that annoyed me about it also. after shooting with the A700 I would never recommend the A100 again!! The A200 has more of the A700 features that fixes the problems the 100 had. The main one is the AF motor! Slow slow slow on the A100 and it does allot of searching yet hardly ever finding it's subjects in a quick manner. the A200 has the exact same motor as the 700. The difference is like comparing a Ford escort and a Mercedes No exaggerating either! Second would be the pop up flash completely useless on the A100. Not much control over it and almost always blows the picture way over exposed! A200 has now fixed that. another would be the Super steady shot image stabilizer. Almost no difference on or off on the A100. The a700 is 4 stops faster and the 200 i think is 3 stops faster. Which is a enormous difference when shooting in low light. there are a ton of reviews on the a200 already that will go into greater detail of the advantages over the A100. don't get me wrong it's a great camera but if you compare it to the a200 or 700 it is awful! IMO a first camera that had some great innovations but as with all first models of anything has allot of bugs that needed to be worked out. which have been with the A200 and 700
 
Just hunt around the photo forums...i sold my P&S, found a great deal on a 20D kit with the kit lens to start my journey.

Since i sold my P&S, i had alittle left over for a tripod and a nice bag for my new toy.

Dont be afraid to PM people about their gear for sale. You can get some AWESOME deals when people just want to unload to purchase another item.

My choices came down to XT-D70-20D, and the 20D was the best for the money. Very happy i went with it, great camera. However, the XT and D70 both awesome cameras and would be great for people just starting out.
 
Craigslist is a good idea. I used it when I was looking for a vehicle but I didn't think of checking for stuff like cameras on there.

Also, @ That One Guy (or anyone else who knows): How does the Canon XT compare to the K100D's Shake Reduction? I would imagine that no matter what equivalent feature the Canon has, it's still way better then a $200 point and shoot.

yes it would be better than a p&s. you get soo many more options with a dslr than with a p&s.

the xt has mirror lock up which helps reduce "shake" in a picture. higher shutter speeds or a tripod will also reduce shake.

again, i am not saying canon is better than nikon. i have never used a nikon. no doubt they are a very good camera.

the 50mm f1.8 lens that i and others have talked about is quite a lens for $75.00 (something for you to think about in the future). the kit lens isn't all that bad either. like i said i shot with it for a year before i upgraded.

you have already seen alot of suggestions about what to buy so let me suggest this......
go to your local camera store or best buy or any other store that carries dslrs and pick up an xt or xti. pick up a nikon. see what feels best to you.

i will say this.....the xt has a plastic feel to it, but as long as you don't try to drive in nails with it........it should last you a long time.

like i said earlier (anyone feel free to disagree with me here) buy a cheap body and put your money in the glass.

good luck :)
 
My suggestion would be go to www.keh.com get a used 20D (ex condition) thats about 500, then a 50mm F/1.8 off Amazon, B&H, Adorama which runs ~70. under 600 for a very nice body (camera)

Canons don't have built in IS (image stabilization) but you can buy lenses with IS (usually cost more)

very true!!

the xti is improvements on the xt. not just in megapixel but i believe the lcd is bigger. no big deal with a small lcd. most of my photography is in my "studio" so i usually tether anyway. btw- the xt comes with the program to do that with.
 
I have been reading some more reviews and it seems as though the XT is pretty much considered to have a "weak plastic feeling" by most reviewers.

If the choice of lenses was vastly larger then Nikon or any other brand, I might still go with the XT, but I definitely like my stuff to be ergonomic and have a solid feel to it.

Although, the autofocus thing is bugging me too. But does the XT or XTi even have autofocus?
 
If you look at expresscameras.com you can find really good prices. Click on http://www.expresscameras.com/prodetails.asp?prodid=621065&up=620719&start=1.
The Digital Rebel XTi, not the XT, as a kit with 1Gb memory card, and 28-80mm lens for 419.00 with free shipping. You can even get a 40D body only from them for 499.00 later on if you want to upgrade, or a 30D body for 319.00.

I would think twice about buying from them...they known to have a back track record.
 
Thanks for pointing that site out, Digiman75. I'll look into them but I'll have to make sure they ship to Canada and also I would probably look into their track record (like HighLife pointed out) since that deal seems almost "too good".

I have another question though for anyone who knows:
When it comes to a camera that has no autofocus (like the Nikon D40), lets say you buy a bunch of AF-S or whatever lenses that can autofocus. Now what happens when you upgrade to a body later that does have built in autofocus? Will the system use the autofocus in the camera or lens or both? And which is better, lens based autofocus or body-based?

I guess this is straying away from the "which camera" topic but its info I need to make the decision so I might as well ask it here.
 
You're right, I didn't realize since I've never ordered from them. I just got a 40d kit from J&K Cameras and found out about expresscameras afterwards, and thought I got screwed on what I paid, but maybe not. I got a 40D camera, 18-55mm canon lens, 75-300mm canon lens, 50mm f/1.8 lens, 0.5x wide angle converter, 4gb flash card, soft case, hard case, extra 5 hour battery, full size tripod, mini tripod, 3 piece deluxe filter kit, 3 lens pouches, 3 lens cap keepers, a wireless flash with flash bracket, and a 3 year canon warranty for about $1900 with shipping. I just checked and they have a rebel xti for $554.99 + shipping with an 18-55mm canon lens + accessories. They seemed to be great, I got my camera from them off ebay, and ordered it monday and got it on friday. Check them out at jandkcameras.com.
 
^ Thanks for the link. I'll stay away from express camers.

I was thinking of ordering off Amazon.com, they have both the Nikon D40 and the Canon Rebel XT for what seems like good deals (there is even a Nikon kit that includes an 18-55 and a 55-200 lens for $550.) And ordering off Amazon is still cheaper then buying locally for me.

I'm kind of in a toss up between Nikon and Canon right now, I'm just getting into photography so I don't know which particular type of photography I'll be getting into, so I don't know which brand to get into.
 

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