Hey, I'm New!!!!

[ThaOre0]

Hello everyone, I'm Anthony. I've been lurking here for a while, and decided that there were just too many great pictures in the gallery forum to look at without commenting, so I signed up.

I live in Central California and am about to attend Cal Poly in September! I'm hoping to get a bunch of great shots with my A70 if I don't get a 300d or, ahem, it's current competition, soon. :oops:

[SoCal69]

Welcome Anthony! I think you will enjoy your time here and we all look forward to seeing your photos and spending your money! :P

[CyberDyneSystems]

Don't do it! Don't let the Dark Side compell you!

C'mon.. be like us "Rebel Scum" and resist the Empire!

Welcome to the forum :wink:

[robertwgross]

Anthony, you might mention what kind of photography you intend to do.

---Bob Gross---

[ThaOre0]

CyberDyne, it's so hard to choose!!! The Rebel and D70 are both great cameras, but I have yet to see them in person, so I can't really make a solid choice. The Rebel has the lower ISO, price, and the Canon name. The Nikon has all those features, and other cool crap, but it's expensive! What a choice... :?

Robert, I think I'm going to take lots and lots of landscape pictures. I don't have a knack for taking what I consider "good" pictures of humans/animals/maufactured things. Plus, I like the outdoors a lot, and plan to spend a ton of my free time at Cal Poly up in the mountains there.

[timmyquest]

Dont look at the camera, look at the lenses.

I can assure you you'll end up spending more on lenses in the long run and although your camera will change, your lenses really shouldnt.

Keep that in mind.

The truth is we dont really care what you get, but we will tell you what we think you should get. A Nikon forum will tell you the same about the d70. They are both great cameras, but the truth is i'm just more attracted to canon and their lenses.

[robertwgross]

Anthony, there is some pretty country near there. The coast can be pretty at any time of year, but especially in April.

As you browse around the web, look at any good photos that you stumble upon. If you see any really good ones, then either print them out in color or else save a copy to your computer. Then go back and review them. Try to figure out what each photographer was trying to do, and then (in your opinion) did he do it right? You will also see some really bad ones, but you probably won't want to waste time saving copies of those. But, you can make your own cheap photo collection of good or bad, and try to emulate the good ones.

---Bob Gross---

[ThaOre0]

Hey that's a great idea Bob. I'll start doing that. Second best thing to taking pictures is looking at great ones!

[Belmondo]

Anthony:
Welcome to the forum, and good luck at Cal Poly. It's a good school, and San Luis Obispo is a neat place.

Obviously you're going to get a lot of people steering you to Canon when you ask advice in this forum. A Nikon forum will steer you in a very different direction.

My own prejudices aside, I would suggest that you resist making a direct comparison of the Rebel and the D70. The D70 is newer, more feature-rich, and not surprisingly, more expensive. The Rebel is a better deal, probably will give a slightly better image with less noise, and allows you to use the entire line of Canon autofocus lenses. This is crucial because you really have to look beyond this camera to subsequent models that will be offered by Canon and Nikon in years to come. You'll be far less inclined to switch from one brand to another once you've made a significant investment in optics, and right now, today, Canon has a better lineup of lenses, at least in my humble opinion.

Whatever you do, we wish you luck with it. If you pick Canon, however, you won't need quite as much. :wink:

Welcome.

[robertwgross]

We should all worship at the Oracle of Belmondo once in a while.

---Bob Gross---

[ThaOre0]

Sweet, more lenses to choose from with the Canon! I didn't know that. Do you think in the future Canon will change some aspect of their lenses to make them inconpatible with the Rebel? I want to make sure, double check, and make sure again that the camera I buy will last me a long time. I'm going to be a broke college student soon. :lol:

Also, I now hear that you can flash(?) the Rebel to unlock all of the features it has to offer, sort of like the poor man's 10D.

One question though: Do you think if I flash the Rebel, would the 10D features overwhelm someone like me, a slightly advanced novice user?

[Andy_T]

ThaOreO,

you wouldn't have to flash the Rebel immediately.

The smart thing would be to start using it and realize which of its limitations are really holding you back ... and then decide to use the 'hack' (that's what it is referred to in case you want to read up on it here in the forum) if you need those features.

Learn the basics first and get familiar with the camera ... then you've got time to play around.

Believe me ... I do have some Nikon lenses at home from my old 601, but when I buy a DSLR, I'll definitely go for the Canon system. Nikon just doesn't have the same thing to offer now.

In the meantime, I'm happy with my G2.

Best regards,
Andy

[Big_B]

I posted a similar thread a while ago when I was trying to decide between the Nikon d70 and the Canon 300d. Someone sent me the below link, which I found invaluable in making my decision.

http://www.dpreview.com/

If you have a look at the D70 review it also does a comparison to the 300d. According to the review the picture quality is higher on the d70 (although to be honest I coudn't tell the difference). For me, there were two key differences between the two cameras:
- Canon has the lower ISO
- Nikon has a faster repeat rate.

I was swung towards the Nikon because I find the repeat rate a real help, both with sports photography and portrait work - In the first photo people always seem to blink, frown or (more likely knowing my friends) stare at the pretty girl walking past :wink:

Also I found that the 300d felt very flimsy.

In all honesty I don't think there's an awful lot between the two cameras but you should definately listen to belmundo and TQ - remember that once you choose a brand it'll be expensive to switch later. So make sure you think of the long-term options.

BB