Rebel or 40D....?

Question

Hello,

I currently have about a $700 budget at the current moment, and noticed that futureship has a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT 8MP SLR Digital Camera With 18-55mm USM Kit for sale on boxing day, $400... is this a good deal?

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0665000FS10097983&catid=22553&logon=&langid=EN

Or should I just save my cash, and keep saving... and maybe order something off of ebay, like a Nikon 40D kit... for around $700 plus shipping

New to photography, so unsure on what is a better camera, and if the rebel XT is something I should go with...

Answer 1

If you are new to photography the 1st thing to do is start taking pictures!
The EOS is a good starter camera. The price sounds good. Get it.
Start taking photos and make notes of what you like don’t like with the camera.
Take some of the money you would have spent on development, put it aside for your next camera. When you’re ready sell the EOS and get a more full featured unit.
In the mean time you have all those pictures and gained a working knowledge of what you want out of your camera gear.

Answer 2

I bought a rebel XT because I had some very good EF lenses that I bought for a 35 mm camera and realized I could put them on a digital camera and only loose a little width. I paid around $655 with an american warranty-since I live in US and they are a little more expensive. You will immediately wish you had more lenses so you could get closer up. You will also need to buy media and a card reader and that will cost you $100 depending on size. Be sure you get a good rechargable battery and charger-mine came with it. Then you will need a good case cause they don't like to be banged around. My sister just bought a Nikon ? = my camera with several lenses-one of them a 300 & a wide angle & one much like yours-lens hood, battery, batter charger, hard case with pick n pluck foam and dividers and spent just under $2000. Since you need to keep saving, go online and start reading so that you understand what you need to photograph what you want. You also need to look into covering your lenses with filters-to protect your lens-more to read about but don't buy the cheapest-stick to Hoya multi layered glass minimum. There's a lot of info out there and my old Canon lenses keep up with my sister's new ones easily. I think that quality is down for the buck-just like everything else. Beware of ebay and deals that are too good to be true. There was someone offering a very, very good camera for very little money. I emailed the person in question and a different (supposedly) person emailed me back that that wasn't his ad. I had won and had I paid I would have lost all my $. Be very, very careful. There are good deals but really check them out. When buying very expensive things or things where the shipping is more than the cost of the item, you can really run into trouble. You can pick a camera up a little cheaper than local stores, but anything that is sold as new that is way underpriced is a questionable deal.

Answer 3

IMO, you should take a good look at the Pentax K100D Super and the Sony A100.

The K100D Super is 6.1mp, has dust removal for the sensor and Image Stabilization (IS) in the camera body. If you don't mind manual focus, every K-mount lens made since 1975 will mount to it. You can find a lot of quality glass and it will have the advantage of IS.

The A100 is 10mp, has Super Anti-Shake in the camera body and dust removal for the sensor. It accepts every Minolta Maxxum AF lens made since 1985.

IMO these cameras offer more for the money than the competition. Of course, I've always marched to the beat of a different drummer and seldom follow the crowd.

Good photography has more to do with the human component than with the equipment.