Need Major Help, Need 2 Buy New Camera

Hello there,
I need some help trying to figure out why I should purchase a Rebel XT. I want near perfect pictures. I have 4 kids and we are going to Disneyworld and Universal Studios this December and I want to take great beautiful pictures. But the thing is I don't have much camera knowledge, I have seen a few commercials and read a few reviews. Can someone help me make my final decision? I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

I would suggest a good point and shoot from the way you are talking. DSLR's rely heavily on post processing of the pictures. A lot of people who don't expect this come to the forums saying how the pictures don't look sharp, have good colors, etc, because they don't know the camera doesn't do this for them like with a P&S. Size and lenses (big money for zoom) will be an issue as well. You'll be lugging around a suitcase with a couple grand tied up in it. I'm not trying to dissuede you, but you're pictures might not even come out usable because you don't know anything about photography or how to shoot with this kind of equipment. This coming from a novice who crash coursed himself into it. There's a hell of a lot to learn before you can produce some good usable images from a DSLR. If you had a couple months to learn and prepare and have the green for the right lenses and want to lug it all around I'd say welcome to the club. That's just my 2 cents.

I'd look into a Nikon Coolpix 7900 if I were you. 7 megapixel, fast startup, 400 shots per battery charge, great in auto mode in all lighting situations and superb looking pictures. Plus is small enough to pocket it if you want to go on a ride. I did a ton of reasearch for something that fits those specs (small, good battery, fast write, picture quality, fast startup, ease of use) for my dad to take to Ireland (he knows NOTHING about digital) and he took it and brought back some great pictures with it...all taken on auto mode. If you're dead set on a rebel XT start reading in the forums here ASAP(it'll take you a while)....you'll learn a lot here.

Some key pieces of info...
Prime lenses (don't change zoom distance) best for picture quality and letting more light in for the shot
Zoom lenses - more of a do all. Not as good image quality, cheaper because of this but can fit the bill in situations.

Canon L glass - applied to both of the above. Superb glass, low aperature (more light = higher shutter = faster clearer action shots), $600 and up
Canon IS lenses - Image stabilised. Applied to all of the above including L's, increasing the price geometrically when coupled with L glass starting about 400 with standard glass. highy recommended with over 200mm zoom capability to have usable images do to hand heald camera shake...or get a tripod

Extreme zoom and IS you're looking at thousands of dollars per lense...then you have to learn how best to shoot with them

I have the budget setup with a good portrait lense (Canon MkII 50MM prime (the nifty fiftey) for 70 bucks (best bang for your buck imagewise in a cheap non L portrait lense) It doesn't do zoom but lets in plenty of light and good only for shots, say, 20 feet and closer. A sigma 70-300MM APO macro lense. $200 Best bang for your buck for a non prime lense bottom of the barrel price range (yes, 200 bucks is bottom of the barrel pricing)lense. Doesn't do well in indoors and lower light do to a higher default aperature, but for 200 bucks offers you good images even at 300mm (if you can hold the camera steady)

Even with my setup which cost about $1000 total. If you don't know how to shoot with the equipment you're not going to produce good shots out of the gate, which is why I'm getting tons of practice on non important stuff first. Especially because it relies on me to a. not shake the camera and b. know about shutter shettings, ISO, aperature to get usable zoom shots. The 50mm prime lense is sweet and easily usable but it is also only for close up portrait shots.

Heres a reliable review of the 7900 with sample pictures at the end. I'm a stickler for image quality so that was my number one concern in finding him a camera.

http://www.dpreview.co​m/reviews/nikoncp7900/

I would go with a good point & shoot. Since you are just starting out, and have little camera knowledge, a dslr may be a little overwhelming, and disappointing. A point and shoot camera will take "better" pictures straight out of the camera without you having to do a lot of fiddling on the computer to tweak them, whereas a dslr will take better photos, but usually with a little post-processing. You're just starting out, and lugging a camera and lenses around Disneyworld with four kids in tow might be a little too much for you. Here are a couple of sites with good reviews.
http://www.steves-digicams.com/
http://dpreview.com/

Honest answer...

I'd agree with the others that a good P&S is your best bet due to the short time-span.

In the DSLR world... (Some mentioned by others)

-Learning curve is the main problem in your case I think. It does take alot of getting used to even if you know the basic principles of f/stops and shutter speeds.

-Good lenses are THE most important factor in getting good quality images. The more you spend the better it gets. The cheapest lenses will not give much better results than a good P&S.

-Dust problems when changing lenses.

-Lugging it all around.

-Lots of time post processing to get best results. Images straight out of the camera can look worse than a P&S.

If you want to make photography a hobby then definately get the XT as its a great starter and very capable camera.

Good luck and enjoy whatever you go with...

Hey another vote for a good p/s. I like those panasonic Lumix ones.

or a canon s2. nice little units those are.

Welcome to POTN!!!

I just came back from Florida a couple of weeks ago and I must agree w/ the others on the P&S but on the other hand if ou are willing to spend some time to learn to use a DSLR and the associate Postprocessing and most of all willing to lug around a ton of brick then go for the DSLR they will in capable hands take wonderful pictures. Remember also buying a DSLR is about just the body its about investing on a system. Translation you must plan to spend more money on lenses, flash, etc. Before long you be on this site every night first asking question and then later just ramble on and on.

BTW the Canon S2/S3 and Panasonic Lumix are very good P&S camera and not too small to hold has very good zoom range and also has Image Stabilization for those long shots.

Here is a shot at Magic Kingdom w/ a DSLR:

http://i23.photobucket​.com …%20uploads/CRW_​4682PS.jpg

latejana wrote:
Hello there,
I need some help trying to figure out why I should purchase a Rebel XT. I want near perfect pictures. I have 4 kids and we are going to Disneyworld and Universal Studios this December and I want to take great beautiful pictures. But the thing is I don't have much camera knowledge, I have seen a few commercials and read a few reviews. Can someone help me make my final decision? I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

If you can afford to buy Rebel XT..then you should get this without regrets, you will use this later in events if your kids involve sports or special nights. If I were you, I would buy REBEL XT kits instead of p&s camera.. Rebel xt is still good price and value!

GET REBEL XT KITS if you can afford to buy...

GOOD LUCK!

if december is your goal and you're committed, a rebel would be an a-ok purchase.

The problem here is that instead of relying on your camera to get the pictures to look print-perfect, the DSLR (rebel xt, etc) world relies on the photographer him/herself to get the image to come out right.

I'd vote for the Point-and-Shoot. It's easy to carry around especially a place like disneyland, and don't be fooled by the compact packaging, some of the best pictures I have come from my point and shoot.

the Canon powershot series have been praised to be very good. the S2 has more manual abilities so if you want to get artsy, it have more capability.

The Panasonic Lumix series with that fancy super image stabilizing feature is nifty. I tried it out for a weekend and I got some impressive results.

Sony is always a comfort to use, never had a complaint with them.

Have fun!

Another vote for the rebel as you will have time to learn a bit about it and it has full auto so will act like a p&s anyway if you want it to were as a p&s will never act like a dslr.
Rob.

December? Too soon? It's...4 months away. I taught myself the basics of a dSLR in a much shorter span than that, though extra things like compositional style came later (and have yet to come)...but that topic isn't strictly related to dSLRs.

Then again, I WAS very interested in learning about things like aperture, shutter speed and so forth, because they were things I absolutely had to consider when I got a new camera and my first lens. The only real difference between me and and a complete n00b was that I already had several years of amateur experience and general familiarity with photoshop, and a little experience with a compact digicam (which made almost no difference in and of itself).

The very biggest gap between compact/P&S/prosumer digicams and dSLRs is price; a very large jump ahead of most cameras with their own built-in lenses.

The second biggest difference is that colors tend not to be as saturated, scenes not quite as contrasty, or initial details quite as sharp, with a dSLR, but the settings - though I discourage upping saturation in-camera due to an undesirable side effect of amplifying what is known as CA/Fringing - can be increased somewhat to make the results appear more like what you'd get from a compact camera. If you know nothing about photoshop or other post-processing tools, that may be better for you. You should also leave your camera on the default color space (sRGB) because it appears more saturated and requires less post-work than AdobeRGB.

The third is that you begin to need to understand more about aperture and shutter speed if you want the best pictures, because these factors become more critical (especially aperture) with a dSLR. For now, you may not even need to learn much more than the effects of these two things and a few related rules...such as the one about keeping camera shake from causing blurred photos by making sure your shutter speed is at LEAST the same number (in fraction) as the focal length your lens is set at: Ergo, 28mm = at least 1/28th sec; 75mm = at least 1/75th sec shutter speed...or the nearest number rounded up. Always keep the camera as steady as possible, and increase shutter speed if you're still getting shake-blurred images.

You have lots of extra control with a dSLR, but you may not need or want to use it yet, which is fine.

Look up these things online via wikipedia or a search engine: ISO, Aperture, F-Stop, Depth of Field, Shutter Speed, Camera Shake, Exposure, Rule of Thirds. For camera functions, look up Aperture Priority (Av) and Shutter Priority (Tv).

You should be ready to go once you familiarize yourself with those things, their effects, and how they're interrelated. However, I've heard/read that a few people with very expensive dSLRs have done extremely well by just using the automatic mode and letting the camera do all the thinking.

For more advanced info about lighting and so forth, you can look at http://www.photo.net/l​earn/

Get a top-end compact/bridge camera, not a DSLR.
With a large family, will you really have the time to learn how to get the best from a DSLR? And, remember you won't get "near perfect" pictures from any DSLR without a lot of post-processing on your computer.

Go buy a Canon S3 now!!

After all that...if you want something light, small and SIMPLE...you should get a compact that does everything for you and costs much less. If you're going to be in low-light situations more, Fuji Finepix F10/F11 or the newer F30 are probably the best. Otherwise, for daylight/general use, Sony and Canon both make some pretty nice compact digicams, and so do certain other brands.

Hello there:
I really do appreciate all your suggestions, I didn't know it was more complicated than I thought. Wow! I really do want to buy it though. I think it would be a nice hobby as well. I have time on my side and with effort and you all's motivation I think I can make it happen. But, but, but, I am still debating since I don't want to be carrying a load while I am trying to have fun w/the kids. THe last time we went on vacation to an amusement park (Fiesta Texas in San Antonio, Texas) my daughter broke my sony cybershot camera, (it fell down). And before that I owned a Sony Mavica??? (I cant recall the name but it was something like that). It cost me an arm and a leg (when they first came out). The mp was like 1.3. very sucky pictures. Since then I have been both encouraged and discouraged. But I think I will learn from my mistakes and pursue this. Again, thank you so much for your replies. U R So helpful.

Rebel XT with a decent zoom like the Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 or maybe Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC would probably be a good way to go...if I didn't absolutely have to shoot action indoors in rather poor light, I probably would've gotten the Tamron 28-75 when I bought my Rebel XT.