Want to know more about....CANON EOS DIGITAL REBEL

Hello, I'm thinking about buying a CANON EOS DIGITAL REBEL (with 18-

55 mm lenses), it's on sale at a store for $1299 Canadian. If I get

the camera with a Sigma wide angle 18-55 mm + telephoto 55-20mm

lenses it will be $1499 all together.

 

I've been taking photos unprofessionally for 5 years...mostly point

and shoot. I love digital camera and I really enjoy SLR...my budge

is very low, so this Canon DSLR seems appropriate, I just don't know

if this camera will be the right one for me.

 

I'd like to take professional photos for weddings, portraits, live

concerts, skateboarding, products...ect. Will this camera work out

for me? If anyone has any experience or knowledge with this camera,

please share. Thanks so much!

 

Also, should I spend $1499 and get those lenses? It seems like a

really good deal.

Hello Erica,

 

I am not sure if you already have any Canon EF lenses, that will fit your new Drebel, but if you don't, I would get the Drebel with the Canon 18-55 kit lens to start with, at $1299.

 

Although I don't have any experience with the Sigma 18-55 lens or the longer lens but, I doubt if the Sigma lens is better quality than the Canon 18-55.

 

The Canon 18-55 is actually quite a good sharp, and (fortunately cheap) lens.

 

You can always get a longer Canon telephoto lens later on if you think you need a longer lens. For about $200-300, you can get some pretty good Canon lenses to use later on.

 

All the best.............Wee-Ming

Get the Canon EFS18-55 and EF50 F1.8. Both are great deal with results that are as good lens that cause many times more (one stop from wide open). They just don't look expensive. The digital rebel can take as good as most DSLR that are shipping (except D20, 1Ds, 1D MKII and Kodak).

Erica, the other posters have given you great suggestions. My contribution is that you may want to consider saving some money and buying from www.simonscameras.com which is still a Canadian store, but you will save the GST if you live outside of Quebec. They're quite reputable and I bought a camera setup from them last year. Or you can use one of the photo.net approved American stores... :)

 

Good luck with everything

The Canon EOS Digital Rebel is a very nice camera in many ways, but I think you might want to re-evaluate your goals.

 

You mention that you've "been taking photos unprofessionally for 5 years...mostly point and shoot." Then add that you want to "take professional photos for weddings, portraits, live concerts, skateboarding, products...etc."

 

Well, I know enough about wedding photography to know that it's an incredibly demanding type of photography, requiring significant experience and understanding of photographic principles to do right. It's not really a question of whether the Digital Rebel can do the job, but whether you're prepared to devote a great deal of time and effort to learning the job.

 

My level of familiarity with product photography is marginal, but I can tell you that taking pictures of products - at a professional level - often requires cameras capable of swings, tilts, shifts, etc.

 

And all of the types of photography you mention really call for more than the 18-55mm lens you have in mind, if you want to do them well. Not that the 18-55mm lens is terrible or anything, nor that expensive equipment is any substitute for talent and hard work, but such a lens would tend to be less than optimal for photographing in low light conditions (such as concerts), for situations where you wish to minimize depth-of-field (portraits), etc. Nor is the inexpensive 55-200mm lens you're contemplating an ideal choice for professional level work of certain types. And let's not even get started on lighting equipment, stands, etc.

 

Yes, a skilled photographer can produce professional level results with an $8 disposable camera. It's not equipment that makes the professional; it's talent, hard work, and attitude. But neither is equipment utterly insignificant. And I fear you may have insufficient appreciation for exactly what sort of equipment (both in terms of quality, and quantity) you'd need to most readily achieve the results you seem to desire.

 

By all means, go out and buy the Digital Rebel. If nothing else, it'll be a fine camera with which to learn more about photography. I simply don't want to mislead you into believing that your $1499 will buy you what it'll take to professionally photograph weddings, do paid product shoots, etc., unless you possess so much innate ability and steadfast determination that you can overcome what may prove to be non-trivial hardware limitations.

 

BTW, you may wish to save $200, buy the camera and 18-55mm without the 55-200 lens, and put the money toward tuition for a couple of photography classes at a local college. Just a thought.

FYI: I heard a rebate is coming out for this camera. You might want to hold off a few weeks until that comes out.

Me and my wife have been shooting weddings for over a year now and she uses the Drebel while I use the 10D. I have to say that we shoot in very similar ways, while communicating about using the same settings per situation throughout each wedding day and somehow, when I go to image the photos in photoshop, I ALWAYS find that the pictures shot in the same vicinity, with the same settings, the Drebels photos always look poor compared to the 10D, by far most of the time.

 

See, we had the Drebel before we bought the 10D, and did tons of research as to the differences between the two. We went with the Drebel initially because we thought it was a better deal with all the main goodies you would want from the 10D. From our experience, the Drebel's metering system does not evaluate what it sees the same as the 10D. All of my shots with the 10D are usually properly exposed, color is balanced, and overall quality is higher.

 

Now that the 20D is out, you should be able to get your hands on a 10D for the price that the Drebel used to go for. I'd go for the 10D, it's a more solid/durable camera, has more custom functions, and overall just performs better when put under pressure on auto modes in comparison to the Drebel.

dont buy sigma 55-200, it is a really bad lens :-(

PS. U can buy it from me ;)

Weston: Really? I always thought the 10D and 300D use the *same* metering, sensor, and processing for the images? for your "shots with the same settings" are you also using the same lenses and flash?

You are using... auto mode... on a 10D?!

 

It's like buying a ferrari and staying in firt gear, really, don't you think you'd be better off at least in AV mode? Compensate 1 stop over when metering on white and one stop under when on black just for starters?

 

I really can't believe someone is in a auto mode to shoot a wedding...

I'd wait a few days at least to see if the 300D II (whatever it's called) is announced at Photokina. A leak says that it's coming in the new year, though not exactly when, nor what its specs are to be. I speculate that the price/specs are going to be nice, because this is a strategically important niche (get the new buyers).

 

The 300D is slow in comparison to the D70 and 20D. For action shooting, it could be worthwhile to consider an alternative (or even its replacement assuming it's going to be faster.)

Hello Erica,

I was very pleased with DRebel. I am selling it now as a kit with EFS 18-55mm lens, UV filter, 256Mb card, remote and all software and documentation for $800 (canadian). I want to buy 20D. If you are interested let me know. You will not regret.

Thanks.

I would have thought that with the 10D and the 300D used in auto modes, the 10D would actually give worse images as the 300 default settings are for more sharpening, contrast and saturation.

<p> <a href="http://photonotes.org/articles/beginner-faq/lenses.html#kitlenses">Kit lenses</a>, <a href="http://photonotes.org/articles/beginner-faq/lenses.html#expensive">cheap lenses</a> and <a href="http://photonotes.org/articles/beginner-faq/lenses.html#28200">hyperzooms</a> are generally not recommended although there are some exceptions. The 18-55, while not a great lens by itself, gives good value for money for a beginner as it is so cheap. The 50/1.8 is excellent by itself.</p>

 

 

<p>Happy shooting,<br>

Yakim.</p>

Erica,

 

I've been researching the D-Rebel like crazy. As a Canadian as well, I would not spend 1200-1300 of my hard earned canadian dollars. There is a much cheaper way.

 

First of all - read reviews about the rebel. Most websites have it picked as a really great CHEAP camera. Most sites will also tell you that the lens can be a bigger factor than the type of camera itself. The Rebel is a stripped down version of the 10D and uses many of the same components.

 

Secondly, the 18-55 kit lens, although cheap, isn't great. People say it's good to learn on, and I'm sure it is, but the "purple-fringing" is a well known problems. Not a professional lens by any means. Here's what I recommend:

 

Don't buy the rebel kit. Buy the body only (which still comes with battery, etc, etc just not the 18-55). Put that 100 towards a different lense. If you don't need the zoom (which most will tell you prime is better), go with the "Cannon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Autofocus Lens". It's about $100 as well, but much better quality. So you get the camera, without the kit, and a better lens.

 

Lasty - The exchange rate is awesome right now. If you buy American, you'll not only save the 15% (depending on your province. I'm in ontario) in taxes - you'll also get a great deal. Three places that are recommeded are:

 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/

http://www.abesofmaine.com/

http://www.beachcamera.com/

 

NOT recommended by me though. By other shoppers. Do your research and make sure the stores meet certain quality requirements. I've heard good and bad about all the photo shops on the net, but these 3 have good scores, and offer the d-rebel for around $750 american.

 

Just check out what others are saying - there's a ton of bad shops on the net.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Cheers.

Jim...if you refer back and forth between the 10D & Drebel manual specifications, you'll see that the metering is limited to certain types on the Drebel where the the 10D isn't. It depends what mode you're in. Also, we are using the same flash and settings. Lenses are different but not by much. Could be related though, thank you for the input.

 

Jean-Philippe...I didn't say that I use auto mode for the whole wedding. It works well at certain times. I actually use Av quite a bit as well as Manual settings for a lot of shots. The point is, if I have a nice exposure while in program mode, then that's all that matters. I rarely rely on program, it's only when I'm in a situation where I don't have time to set things up. I've had amazing pictures come from manual, Av, and program so I can believe that program works in certain situations at a wedding and you should too.

 

I also find that program mode seems to work better than Av when my flash is on E-TTL. There's different modes for different situations, it's all about applying them at the right times. I don't know all that much in comparison to long time wedding photographers. But I do know when I have a good shot or not, whether I'm in program or any other mode.

Weston: true. I sometimes overlook the firmware limitations to the 300D functionality. I hardly ever use anything but One Shot AF. . . which is hard to get on a 300D.

 

I find that I tend to avoid all the "basic modes" on the camera=> too hard to remember what they all do! Easier to remember first principles and set the camera accordingly! As time goes by I drift more and more to just "M" and "Av".. . and frequent changes of ISO.

Or if you are not dead set on going with Canon, you can consider the Fuji S2 which I have for sale which is like new and comes with all the bells and whistles that were in the package for $1400 Canadian - 6MP interpolates up to 12MP - I've used it professionally for 18 months :)

Thanks everyone for responding! I'll take all the opinions into consideration. -Erica