 Shannon N. |
How to buy a Digital SLR I currently own a Canon RebelT2. I am thinking about getting a digital SLR, but I have no clue where to begin. I am a beginning photographer who would like to make it a career. I have shot 3 weddings for friends, and have greatly enjoyed it. I need a camera that will give me good quality images, but also one that I can easily learn on. I'm not sure how many MP I need to get quality images for wedding and portrait photography. Also, can I use my current lenses with a digital camera? I am on a tight budget, so a $2000 camera is definitely out of the question. Any advice on what to look ofr would be greatly appreciated!
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Brendan Knell |
I would suggest the Canon Digital Rebel XT. Because you should be able to use your old lenses with it. There are disadvantages with doing this though, just search the Q&A for something like "Film lenses with Digital". You said that a 2000$ camera is out of the question, and the XT is about in the 900$ range. Would that be within your budget? If not, you might want to look into just the Digital Rebel. You may have to find it used, because I'm not sure if they make them new any more. But you should be able to find it probably in the 500$ range. About quality, the Rebel XT had 8MP, and the Rebel has 6MP. Either of those should be plenty as long as you don't want to print huge.
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Shannon N. |
Thank you for the response! So would 6-8 MP be equal to a medium or large format camera? And if not, then what would?
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Brendan Knell |
6-8MP is no where near medium or large format. It may be close to 35mm. To get close to MF or LF, you would have to buy a MF or LF camera then buy a digital back. Which would probably cost you about 1000$ for just the camera, then about 30,000-40,000$ for the digital back. How big do you want to print, that you need MF-LF quality? With 6-8MP, you should be able to print at least 14x16s, maybe a little bigger.
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Stephen J. Innes |
Hello Shannon-Brendan gives a good choice re the Rebel XT. Typical of my luck: I bought the 20D and then only weeks later, the Rebel XT is released! If I'd had the choice I might have gone for this baby and saved the difference in money to load into a lens as it has the same sensor as the 20D with maybe a few things jettisoned to bring the cost down. I still love the 20D though. I was given to believe a good colour transparency gives about 10 million pixels and the 20D's and Rebel XT's 8 is a fairly good comparison. And you get to see your images right away instead of mucking about with chemicals or waiting for the photos to come back from the lab. You will get a free, virtual 1.6x increase in your existing lens' focal length given the camera's smaller image sensor (a bit more telephoto for your weddings and portraits) but you'll be a bit stuck for decent very wide angle if you ever needed it. Many sites and BP threads have a good handle on this issue. Whatever - it'll be terrific fun whatever you decide on.
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Shannon N. |
Wow- That's a lot more money than I'd probably ever put inot a camera even if I could afford it! I did not realize that you could print that big from 6-8 mp. I am just starting to look into digital, and I have no formal training so thank you so much for your help. I'm glad to hear from both of you! Thanks!
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Stephen J. Innes |
Howdy Shannon - sorry not to have responded earlier; email notification is on but it must be my email spam filter that deleted the "INCOMING!!" message. I did a little experiment re the 20D and uploaded a full 8MP photo to an online photo lab and got a pretty neat 11x14" print back - most folks don't go this high and I don't think an 8MP camera would give problems if I tried say 16x20". I picked up a grand little Epson PictureMate 100 for next to nothing (the new one with its colour screen and battery etc. flushed out the old ones for less but the print quality is the same) and its 6x4s are unbelievable - they go on the wall or I give them to people so for weddings, maybe 8x10" will be ideal or too much.. maybe 8x6" or 5x7" would be right. Either or, your new digi camera with a good lens will rock! It's gonna be fun! S
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