need help picking a camera

[mr.tyler]

I'm in need of an upgrade from a 3.2 mp point and shoot. I'm willing to spend up to $800.00. I need a camera that can produce high detail poster sized pics. Is SLR the way to go? heres what im looking at so far:
nikon d70 6.1 mp
cannon eos 300d digital rebel 6.3 mp
nikon d100 6.1 mp
fujifilm finepix s2 pro 6.1 mp

Please help me decide which is best out of these and if there are a few others worth looking at.

 

[iphoto]

If you are looking for an upgrade for bigger pictures and some serious photography, SLR is way to go, dont think any one will challange that.

In SLRs the two models D70 and Canon D300 may be good choice and D100 might be little more than required. Instead, you can invest those extra $$ in good glasses. I am little biased towards Canon and Nikon for SLR and pro gears so cant comment on Fuji.

About D70 and D300 its a tough choice mostly purely user's personal preference rather than technical comparisons. Both are very capabable cameras and any choice would not be wrong. Main advantage, for Canons is wide choice of lenses at reasonable price point.

When you are buying a SLR you are buying a system and not just camera...

 

[danalec99]

Your first place to visit - here

Go to a store, touch, feel, hold all the mentioned cameras, pick whatever you feel comfy with. These are all personal preferences. If you ask me, I will point you to Canon. Someone will have Fuji as their preference.

 

[railman44]

If you're considering a Nikon SLR D70 or D100 you're going to need to up your $800 figure a bit. And, if you're really considering "detailed poster sized pictures" I'm not really sure 6.1 MP is going to be enough...

 

[spike000]

How big do you consider poster prints to be?

The Canon 1ds MKII at 16.7MP struggles at pro printing (500dpi) above about 20x30" and comes in WAY above your budget.

Another option is to repeat the same shot with a 4MP camera like a Panasonic Lumic FX2 on a tripod and layer the shots in Photoshop allowing you to reach (based on 10 shots) 40MP which should be OK for prints to A0

 

[Kodan_Txips]

This is a mixed format film/digi forum, so I think I can risk saying this:

You can pay about 800 dollars for a bells and whistles dSLR, fine. Or stay with your current digital camera, and use it like professional film photographers used to use a polaroid, to check pose, layouts, lighting, etc.

Then spend a fraction of the 800 dollars on a second-hand film camera, and use the remainder to pay for the prints you will take.

How does that sound? Some of those film SLRs out there have nearly as many bells and whistles on them, are just as light, and can be enlarged to stunning sizes of print. And before I bought 2 clunky old SLRs on ebay, I was stunned by the lightness of several of the NEW film SLRs at about 200 dollars, which had good 28-100 ish lenses, were very light, and had so many electronic settings there were maybe 100s of different ways to take a bad photograph!

Maybe even try medium format? A second hand Hasselblad at less than 800 dollars? Is this possible? Think of the street cred!

And I think that the availability and control of large print providers may well be greater for film than it is for digital. Where I live I can get a large digiprint, but it will have to be sent away, and I have limited contact with the person creating the print. But for film, I can wander into quite a few places and have an exchange along the lines of:

"I want this bit burnt in a bit, what do you think?"
"Ok idea, but it doesn't have much detail, I would do something else. How about...."

and so on.

I think we should struggle against the manufacturers' drive to get us to buy new technology. I anticipate my Z1 will be broke within 3 years. Hell, at 3 mp it is already out of date, 2 months after buying it. My Minolta x300 is maybe 20 years old, and I reckon it will outlast me.

It cost me 45 dollars.

 

[rmphoto]

there is no question that if you need high detail poster prints, shooting film is the way to go, plain and simple.
if you have no interest in huge enlargments, digital just makes sense.