Which camera..

Hi all,

I suppose this is a typical first post for many people, but here goes and hope I dont annoy anyone in the process!

I have done many searches and get quite confused... I have never owned a DSLR or any sort. My girlfriend is currently at university studying photography in fashion and uses a 500d which I researched about and bought her as a present.

I have always used a small compact camera and my mobile phone for taking photos while out and about. After using my girlfriends, I am desperate to get hold of one and learn something new.

My question is, What camera best suits me? I want something I wont have to trade in, in a year to advance to something better. If this makes sense? I'm not after a brand new camera either, a second hand camera would be fine.. I think.

My budget is around £350 perhaps a little higher. I could probably stretch for the same camera as the GF (500d) but is this too good for me? I have seen the 30d on ebay fairly cheap? I remember reading somewhere that the lower the figure the more professional the camera is...


CONFUSED.

Regards,

Stu

Hey, Stu. Welcome to the forum! You'll get all kinds of answers to your question, to be sure. One thing to keep in mind: A used camera won't have a warranty, a new camera will. Your 350 may buy you something that only works for a few days before it breaks.

As far as a new one goes, you're looking at either a Canon T3 or a Nikon 3100 for your budget. Either are great cameras that will fulfill your needs for a long time to come. If you can stretch the budget, a Canon T3i or a Nikon 5100 would be the next step up.

If im honest, ill stick to Canon, for the simple reason that the GF can teach me (even though I will be reading up lots and lots) but if I get stuck she could point me in the right direction.

A little question which I am unable to find an answer for. On the cameras i have viewed online some have writted on them 'Rebel' is this just a later model as the one I bought my GF didnt have that on it...

whether your camera is labeled rebel or not depends on your location. In the US, we refer to the 500D as a Rebel T1i. The Rebel T2i is the 550D. The 1100D is the Rebel T3.

Personally, I think the "rebel" letter combo w/ numbers is confusing...harder to tell which cameras are newer models of what camera(400D = XTi => 450D = Xsi (s < t) => 500D = T1i (where did the x go?)).

I think in japan, the rebel line is called Kiss...although I'm not sure if they still do.

Here's the link.
http://en.wikipedia.or​g/wiki/Canon_EOS#Namin​g_scheme

Another good thing about sharing the same system as your GF, is that you can also share lenses and flash.

Stuuk1, if you buy a rebel in this country (as you used £'s I presume you are UK based) the camera will be an import and will not come with a Canon warranty, just a sellers warranty that will entail sending it back to Hong Kong or wherever if anything does go wrong.
Chances are of course nothing will go wrong.

Ahh I see, thats great, couldnt find that answer anywhere! So I just want the numbers, no Rebel labelling. Perfect.

Thats correct, im from England, Kent, Tunbridge Wells!

Thanks for your replies, Ill have a good look at all between 500d and 1100d...

You will save money buying a rebel from an importer, and I considered that option about 2 months ago when I bought my 550d, about £60 or so. But, you may have to pay import tax which negates the money saving and then you have the problem with the warranty.
And on top of that of course you have that rather cheap and tacky 'rebel' or 'kiss' logo on the front, of course you can just stick a bit of black masking tape over that, which is what I planned.
In the end, due to the import tax concern and to a lesser degree the warranty, I opted to get mine from Park Cameras. It arrived the day after I purchased it, complete with a £30 cash back cheque back from Canon (which they are no longer doing). Sadly I was for a while hugely disappointed with the camera, but that turned out to be user error and I suspect my camera was hugely disappointed at being sold to me!!!