New camera for the wife....

Last year, Christmas of 2005, I bought my wife a Canon S21S, and she has really fallen in love with digital photography. Problem is, she's become a rather impressive photographer, and is now being held back by her camera.

I know exactly jack shit about digital photography and camera's, and she knows this. So, here is my problem.

I want to surprise her with a new camera for her birthday, which is right around the corner, but I can't start asking her a bunch of questions about camera's without her figuring out what I'm going to get her for her birthday. I have looked at all the big camera manufacturer web sites and searched photography forums on the interwebnet dealio and, honestly, I have no idea what to look for, and don't understand any of the photo speak...

I have managed to figure out that the xti is a really great camera, but it's also really expensive. I can deal with the cost, but is there an alternative that I should consider before just getting her an xti??

Any advice would be great.. and thanks in advance..

The things about DLR’s is your not really buying a camera your buying into a lens mount. You can't really go wrong with either Canon or Nikon but Sony and Pentax make good slr's as well. But you’re more limited in lens choices.

If your wife really gets into photography your end up spending allot more on lens then the camera it's self.

But in the long run it's better to buy good quality gear the first time around. Sure it's expensive but not nearly as expensive as buying it after it's replacing your midrange stuff

I'm a Nikon guy so I can't say much about the XTi. But a good starting point from the Nikon side would be a D80 with a 18-200mm it's not the greatest lens but still very capable of capturing excellent pictures and covers a large focal range.

http://www.dpreview.com is a great site for information about the cameras and has a very active community.

I've purchased allot of my gear from http://www.bhphotovideo.com always ships fast and well packaged.

Good Luck with your purchase

Thanks for the response, I really appreicate it, and the links are helpful.

Thanks again.

Well, if he's saying an XTi is expensive, the D80 will be more than out of his price range as well. If I were him, I'd probably go for a used D70 or D50, you can get them for like $475, and get a really nice 18-200mm VR lens for a total of around $1,000-1,100. That'd give you a killer setup with a great, very adventurous camera and an incredible lens as well. Hell, that setup could challenge many professional photographers. It's also worth noting that many professional photographers even use this sort of setup as a great quality backup. That's the route I'd go...

P.S. *Obvious Nikonian talking here...but it's the best setup for the cheapest money under a grand that I can think of.

you can get an olympus evolt e500 for 700 bucks brand new, with two lenses.

Veritas616 said:

Well, if he's saying an XTi is expensive, the D80 will be more than out of his price range as well. If I were him, I'd probably go for a used D70 or D50, you can get them for like $475, and get a really nice 18-200mm VR lens for a total of around $1,000-1,100. That'd give you a killer setup with a great, very adventurous camera and an incredible lens as well. Hell, that setup could challenge many professional photographers. It's also worth noting that many professional photographers even use this sort of setup as a great quality backup. That's the route I'd go...

P.S. *Obvious Nikonian talking here...but it's the best setup for the cheapest money under a grand that I can think of.

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filthysanchez said:

you can get an olympus evolt e500 for 700 bucks brand new, with two lenses.

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Thanks guys.. this is exactly the type of information I'm looking for.. Again, I appreciate the help

Unless you give a budget your working with it's pretty hard to recomend a specific camera.

Almost any DSLR will produce better pictures than a P&S. Don't get sucked into the mega pixel marketing ploy. A Canon XT or Nikon D50 at 6mp will produce better pictures with more detail than any P&S +10MP camera.

research, research, research

If you give a budget of how much your willing to spend people could recomend a more specific kit to look into.

The most used (popular) camera on Flickr is the Canon XT; The second most popular is the D50; In my opinion, the D50 takes that best photos, and the XT is getting a bit old. So, I agree w/ the post above that he D50 is an excellent entry DSLR - that takes great pics. If you want to spend more money, check out the XTi. There are tons of photo/camera forums that you can check out that will help you.

xPat_Racing said:

If you give a budget of how much your willing to spend people could recomend a more specific kit to look into.

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Sorry for the omission there, I suppose I should have included that in my op.... oops

I would like to stay under ~$800 or so, but if it would make a really big difference in quality I could live with $1000, but that's the most I really want to put into this right now, as it is really just a hobby at this point for her... soooo, I hope that helps. And thanks for all the advice.. it's been helpful.

XTi

Nikon D50
18-135mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S DX

The D50 is a few years old now and has been replaced by the D40 but the D40 was stripped of some features that will greatly hinder future upgrades. The D40 can only auto focus AF-S lens that pretty much stops you from using some great Nikkor glass that is allot more affordable then AF-S glass

It meets your $800 price point

You don't need to buy new memory cards it uses the same SD cards your Canon used.

It can take great pictures http://xpatracing.com/gallery/main.php not all the pictures in my gallery where taken with the D50 but allot of them are. You can see which ones in the EXIF data under the picture.

xPat_Racing said:

Nikon D50
<snip>

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Thanks alot for the response, that's very helpful. And I like your gallery, really nice work.

Yeah, digital, I'd definitely go for the d50 w/a killer lens. You build your camera around the lenses anyways. When making a decision which camera to go with, you have to understand it's a big decision; you are essentially locking yourself into that brand for years to come.

In addition, unlike what many people think, you should base your camera selection off of the lenses as opposed to the body. The lenses are what are going to make the biggest difference in quality.

In your price range, the lenses are going to end up costing more than the camera itself, hence look into the lenses even more so than the body. IMO, the Nikon lenses are amazing; better than the Canons.

(Your choice should pretty much between Nikon & Canon, the top 2 camera companies. Yes, some may disagree, but they are usually way ahead of the pack when it comes to cameras and lenses).