Decided to go Canon

In a previous message, I asked if I should go Canon after being an old friend of Nikon.

I've decided to go for it. Image size and low ISO noise (and of course your input) have me persuaded it's where I want to go.

For event photography (eventually sports) where do I start? I am on a budget.

I was thinking REBEL XT - is it worth it to get the 20D? Which lenses do I start of with? wide angle?

Thank you!

It will help if you can give a rough estimate of your budget. Oh, and welcome to the cool side

As you've got SLR experience, I'd suggest going straight to the 20D.It does cost more, but, especially if you go to sports, the bigger buffer, better frame rate, and ISO 3200 availability will be helpful.

By "event", what do you have in mind? Indoor? Outdoor? Small gatherings? Theater/stage activities? All those will have an impact on the focal length and minimum aperture requirements.

Well ... er.... at the high end about $2K for what I would need to start off with - body, flash unit, lenses.

Thanks!

By event - I'm thinking indoor - weddings, graduations, the like. There might be occassion to do low light such as performances.

If sports is what you will be shooting and if you would mount long telephoto lenses, you will definitely need 20D. XT's may not be suitable for heavy lenses.

I'm thinking eventually I'll do sports. I live in a small town. There's opportunity to sell photos of kids in action on the field. I prefer action/event type photos anyway.

I want to stay on the budget conservative side but want a camera that can do what I need. So, basically I don't want to under or over buy.

Thanks for your help.

Yes to the 20D. Events as you have listed would call for, I think, at least f/2.8 or faster. A zoom is very handy at weddings if one just uses one camera. While the Canon 24-70L would be out of your budget something like the Sigma wouldn't be. While I don't avacate third party lenses as a rule, in your case it may be just what you need. It may even leave you with enough money to get the Canon 135mm f/2.8 for when you need more reach.

Actually, the 350D (Rebel XT) is more than suitable for a heavy lense, my 70-200 L IS (aka the tank) resides on mine 90% of the time without any problem and it also takes wonderful low light photos.

If I got the 20D - would a 18 - 50 be suitable for weddings/indoor events - and a 55-200 for outdoor sports?

What flash would be the best for what I want?

For low noise and speed, go for a 20D

tdeeh, I would do a search on this because it has been covered many times here and there is some great info on both https://photography-on-the.net …earch.php?searc​hid=552660

Another thing to consider, seeing how the differences between the two aren't that great is spending less on the camera and more on glass depending on what you are going to be taking photos of.

Instead of 20D, go for 350D as start so you can get few EF lenses and speedlite now. there is next version of 20D coming in few months with larger LCD, DigicIII and more megapixels.

It's definitely worth it to go for the 20D. Best bet: go to Fred Miranda forums Buy/Sell board and pick one up lightly used for under $1000. That will leave you with lots of money left to buy lenses.

Well, if the 20D is not in his budget then the new 20D-whatever certainly would not be. At any rate, if he got the 350D now he again certainly would not afford the 20D-anything later. I', not sure he could fit in the 20D but it may be now or never for him. And, we don't know just when the replacement for 20D is coming or how much it would cost.