Only one requirement... Which camera?

[icdchess]

If I want to spent up to $1000 on a camera and only care about image quality for still life, which would you recommend?

Should I increase my budget to $1500 does it change?
Thanks,
Steve

 

[Sideburns]

the best camera doesn't really change much depending on what you can shoot. for your budget...the Rebel XTi would be a good bet.

For under 1500 you could have a 40D and that would be one hell of a camera...

but what type of background do you have? Are you experienced? DO you plan on taking classes? Or do you want a point, click, print type of thing?

 

[Sw1tchFX]

Small format digital is not a wise choice for still life IMO.

It lacks the detail, shift and tilt of any axis.

If you're going to do still life, use Large Format.

with all new stuff it's a bit expensive, but the detail from a slide that's 4 inches by 5 inches is drop dead gorgeous.

for $1500 you can have yourself a brand new slick 4x5 system with a 210mm standard lens that will produce more detail than any small format digital camera, including the 1Ds Mk III.

But that's not really as important as the shift and tilts. With a view camera, you can shoot a picture of a book absolutely head on and still see the side of it because you can shift the planes and than tilt them to correct for the perspective. It's impossible to do that on small format unless you jerry-rigged a bellows on it. Not only that, but you can correct for horizontals, verticals, you can rotate your plane of focus to be perpendicular, not parallel to the film plane. Imagine shooting a chessboard from an extreme acute angle at f/5.6 and getting the entire board in focus using a 200mm lens.