Buyer's Guide (turns into magnus' obsession with photography running commentary)

I figured this might be a good read for people like me that are sitting on the sidelines, waiting, and might eventually just jump in.

 

Here's a great place to get started. Let me know if you've got any specific questions: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare.asp

 

ha. I started the thread intending to post this.

http://www.anandtech.com/digitalcameras/showdoc.aspx?i=3465

for those


also, incidentally, I see a news item from them about a 24.5 megapixel Nikon. neat.

http://www.anandtech.com/digitalcameras/showdoc.aspx?i=3468


anyway, tell me more why I need IS. Or why I'd need the XSi instead of the XS?

 

Larry will tell you that you don't need IS, but he's a superstar who's rock solid. Me, not so much, so I'll take all the help I can get. IS helps really in 2 situations. 1 is when you're shooting long telephoto. the longer your lens, the more small vibrations become big ones, and pictures turn out blurry. The second situation is in low light when the shutter is staying open longer (again, causing blur). The traditional rule of thumb is you make sure your shutter speed at least matches your focal length (ie, if you're shooting at 50mm, your shutter is at least 1/50 sec - if you're shooting at 300mm, your shutter has to be at least 1/300 sec). IS lets you fudge on that rule a little.

As far as the XS vs the XSi, I'd go XSi. It's not dramatically better, but it's more than the $60 price difference better. It's got higher resolution, but more importantly, higher pixel density (less noise). It's also got more advanced autofocus (which to me is huge) and a slightly faster shooting speed (handy if you got to panthers training camp). other benefit is the slightly larger display on the back.

As for me, I'll likely be upgrading to the 40D after the first of the year.

 

i love you, mark.

 

I gotta admit, I am kinda looking at the Olympus E510-520 too. I don't know of more than one person who I'd really steal lenses from, unless I could steal a 30 year old Nikon and use it (I really have no idea, but I guess that could keep me from needing a 300 lens) so getting two lenses for the camera would probably keep me in good shape. A lack of thousands of options wouldn't bother me. After I buy this, my intent is to not necessarily need a thousand dollars more stuff later.

With that setup, I've got a smaller body, smaller lenses for the same focal length, and so far it seems to be less cost. I know there's the 4:3 formatting situation, and that doesn't bother me.



Do want IS. Definitely.

I do also think that I'm not going to make an impulse buy. But, I've got some cash to use, got potential trips to NO and NY before the new year (not for sports, it's actually coincidental that those are our two remaining games on the road but I aim to travel to both before April) and going to Seattle, Boston, Charleston, and into Florida this past year I regretted not having a good camera.

 

I've honestly gotta claim ignorance on the Olympus. There IS the issue of the harder to find accessories, but sounds like you've taken that into account.

and oh yeah, VG - I love you too babe.

 

ideally if I was going 4/3 it'd be panasonic G1 but that body is about $300 more. The reviews on that body have been really good.

I really have no problem with the bigger body nikon/canon - for whatever reason I've arbitrarily leaned toward Canon despite my admiration since youth for my dad's F2 he's just letting sit - but it being compact would be a plus. I'm going to be doing a lot more pulling out and shooting for a minute than I would expect to spend with it around my neck all day.

I think it's actually pretty funny how much smaller it is:

 

OK so maybe a change of tack here.

I'm going to start looking on ebay tonight for a good 10+mp kit with an 18-55 and a 70-300 type lens. Live.com has a 20-25% cash back on ebay buyitnow and I'm finding kit deals in the $475 type range and I can live with that, but they were one lens type deals

 

so far I've figured out that getting a kit with a Nikon D40 isn't worth the dropoff in product to get a 6mp v/s 10+ for around a hundred less.

Costco has a decent deal on the XSi with two lenses but the big lens isn't an IS lens. It's a III. B&H has a deal for about 150 less that's the XS with those same two lenses. I really would want the long lens to be IS, and I think that's something I'm not liking a lot about Canon. The IS, VR, whchever isn't built in like the Nikon or Olympus. So any lenses I get, the feeling is I've gotta spend more to get equitable return.