If you have read part 1 and part 2 but didn’t find what your looking for, then your in the right place! Welcome to the exciting and costly world of Digital SLRs! This is by far my favorite camera category.
Two main players in this category have set themselves apart from the rest; Canon and Nikon! When purchasing a DSLR you have to keep in mind one thing…Your not buying a camera, your buying a camera system. I say this because DSLRs don’t have fixed lenses. That means you can swap out a certain lens for another, example; a close range 50mm for inside pictures swapped out with a 80-300mm zoom lens for wildlife pictures. Each manufacturer uses its own mounting system. A Nikon lens would not work on a Canon camera. When you buy a camera and then buy a bunch of lenses, you want to make use of those lenses if you upgrade to a newer camera.
What does SLR mean? Short version: uses a mechanical mirror system and pentaprism to direct light from the lens to an optical viewfinder on the back of the camera. Read more HERE
When it comes to DSLRs the lens is more important than the Camera body. You can get great photos with a good lens and a lesser body. The versus; a bad lens and a great body will not produce great image quality. Most DSLRs come with a 17-50mm lens. Most of the time the lens that comes with the camera is not worth much. Exception is the new canon 17-50mm IS lens, its not horrible.
We are gonna start with the entry level cameras for both Nikon and Canon.
Canon Rebel XTI (the XSI replaces the XTI and is also a great camera) - The Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi offers an unbeatable combination of performance, ease-of-use and value. It has a newly designed 10.1 MP Canon CMOS sensor plus a host of new features including a 2.5-inch LCD monitor, the exclusive EOS Integrated Cleaning System featuring a Self Cleaning Sensor and Canon’s Picture Style technology, all in a lightweight, ergonomic body. The Digital Rebel XTi is proof positive that Canon continues to lead the way with their phenomenal digital SLRs.
- 2.5 inch LCD
- 10.1 mega pixels
- A whole slew of picture settings
- RAW support
Nikon D80 – For passionate photographers a D-SLR with a 10.2-MP DX-Format CCD, Nikon’s high-resolution Image Processing Engine and 3 fps continuous firing. Typically Nikon has better low light performance. I personally use Canon so I cant say either way.
- 10.2 megapixel
- Instant 0.18 sec. start-up with fast 80ms shutter response
- 2.5 inch LCD
- 11 Auto focus points
Both of these cameras are designed to be your 1st DSLR. All Canon and Nikon DSLRs take GREAT pictures. In the future ill talk about camera lenses and what you should be looking for.
To compare more cameras a great site to visit is DPreview.
A Great place to rent expensive lenses is lensrental.com
Please post any questions in the comments section and ill do my best to answer them.
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