If you only had 700.00....

[mycreativeheart]

what dSLR would you purchase? I have an old SLR EOS ElanII that came with a 28-80mm and 80-210mm lenses, if that makes a difference. And no, I don't know anything about camera or lenses. I just would like a hobby camera to shoot my kids and grand kids. Dance, graduations from the stands, outside, inside shots. Any input would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Tyler S]

I do believe that your current lenses should work properly on any new Canon dSLR, however they will not let in a whole lot of light when fully zoomed in. If you are shooting in low-light situations, you may have to bump the ISO up quite a bit (The higher the ISO, the more sensitive the camera's sensor is to light) - which results in more "noise". Noise is comparable to film grain in ways. It is possible to greatly reduce the amount of noise through editing software however, and generally speaking you can obtain nice prints even if the ISO is up quite a bit. For outside shots you won't have to really worry about this at all.

Back on the main topic though, there are several great camera bodies you can get for $700 or lower. Here are some of the main choices, note that some of them come with a 18-55mm kit lens. SLR Digital Cameras

I personally would recommend the Canon T2i - it should work excellently for the situations you have described. It has decent high - ISO capabilities and is rather user friendly. You should see it in the link I previously posted. Another choice would be the T1i - which is $100 cheaper for the body only. If you want you could also purchase this Canon 50mm prime lens for $119 (prime means it will not zoom) Canon Normal EF 50mm f/1.8 II Autofocus Lens 2514A002 B&H Photo

Although it will not zoom, it lets in a lot of light. The lower the "F" number ( For the 50mm, it is 1.8) - the more light the lens will let in if you set it to f/1.8 on the camera. It will also aid greatly in blurring out the background.

I hope this info helped a little. If anything sounds confusing, feel free to tell me and I'll try to explain it better!