Questions about the Rebel T2

I am considering purchasing a Canon T2 for an upcomming trip to the

Gand Canyon, and various other uses as well.

 

In all honesty I know nothing about film cameras, I am fairly decent

with my digital point and shoot (see my gallery). But what I have come

to despise about it is my complete inability to control focus on what

I want to focus on; hence my want for an SLR.

 

Also I want to blow up images so that they will appear decently at

above 8x10 sizes.

 

What is a "date body"? How is it different from a standard one?

 

I will be using this camera as more of a stepping stone for a future

purchas of a digital slr.

 

I would appreciate any comments/suggestions.

A "date" body has a clock inside that can imprint the date & time that the picture was taken. Some people think that might be useful, and a few people actually need to document the time the photo was taken. However, the imprinting is usualy an anoying glow-in-the-dark-red that messes up the photo.

 

Another option, rather than a film body SLR, is an EVF camera (Electronic View Finder) with a long zoom and image stabilization. For instance, the new Panasonic FZ30 has manual zoom to 420mm and manual a focus ring, so selective focus and framing is easier to achieve than with other digicams. It has most of the features of a digital SLR, but a far lower cost. Sony & Canon also make similar cameras. They really aren't a replacement for an SLR, but if want to stay with digital they are an option. Image quality with these is as good as fast film, as long as there is sufficient light. Digital noise gets bad if you turn up the ISO in low light, but the fast aperture lens and image stabilization make up for a lot of that.

You might want to take a look at my beginner FAQ. There's material there that might be of

interest.

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<A HREF="http://photonotes.org/articles/beginner-faq/">http://photonotes.org/

articles/beginner-faq/</A>

Clayton: to be able to get decent enlargements, be sure to invest in a good lens. I suggest to not go below the 28-105/3.5-4.5 zoom. As a general rule, you get what you pay for.

 

You need to expect to have a lot less depth-of-field on film than you're used to on your digital camera. 5 times less for the same aperture, if I'm reading correctly that you have an S500. If that's what you want, you'll be happy, but if what you want is to always have everything in focus you'll find that it's not always as easy as it seems.

 

JBQ

The Canon Rebel T2 is an excellent place to start into SLR photography. To learn about SLR photography with Canon EOS cameras, you should take a look at the "EOS Digital Rebel Tutorials" here (under "EOS Digital Rebel>Click Here>EOS Digital Rebel Tutorials):

 

http://www.photoworkshop.com/canon/

 

Even though it's written for EOS Digital Rebel users, there is still a lot of good general information there for all beginning SLR users and EOS Rebel users in particular (film or digital).

Seems odd you want to go from digital to film to get back to digital.

There are plenty of good digital non SLR cameras that will let you do manual focus as well as all the modes you would find on film cameras.

They can certainly do 8x10s with them. Canon A610 should be out soon or the Canon S2 which is out now.

In all honesty 5mp is not enough for me, the only time I am able to leave the photo in its original size is when the camera is in macro mode (see the picture of a sunflower in my profile)... otherwise the image just is not at the quality that I want in my photographs 8x11 or larger.

 

I do want to test the waters with a film slr simply because film is not getting any better I can spend months to years in it improving my photographic ability... mabye by that time quality digital slr's (12mp+) will be cheap enough for me to afford.

 

If I go with a film SLR once/if I make the move to digital my hope is that I will be able to take whatever lenses I have with me into the digital realm.

"If that's what you want, you'll be happy, but if what you want is to always have everything in focus you'll find that it's not always as easy as it seems."

 

Jean

 

Thats not quite what I meant, for instance in this photograph my camera focused on the cactus and not on the lizard. This sort of thing happens to me all the time.<div></div>

A guy at my office last year bought a Rebel Ti & took it to Europe- got the same thing with many of his images because he let the freakin' camera pick the AF point to use.

 

Lesson number 1- TAKE CONTROL YOURSELF. Turn off the auto AF point selection. Auto AF point selection, or what Canon calls AIAF on it's digital point & shoots, is one of the most worthless pieces of technology they put into a camera and so may people blindly let it do it's thing at the expense of images that could be so much better if people just knew where the camera was focusing. Set the darn AF point to the middle, leave it there and learn how to focus then recompose if you want the focussed subject off-center, OR learn how to manually set the points on the fly without taking you eye from the finder.

Clayton,

 

Do the same thing with your S500 if you still have it. Turn your mode dial to "M", go into the menu system and turn AIAF off. You'll see a white box appear in the center of your LCD, and if you use the optical viewfinder it'll mean the camera will always focus in the crosshairs located in the center of the viewfinder. Press the shutter release half-way down and hold it to focus, then recompose if you want the focussed area off center and take your picture. My girlfriend has the S410 and she does this now all the time with no out of focus images unless the light is simply too dim to allow for auto focussing- something that happens all too often, especially indoors with that camera.

Alternative to a Rebel T2 might be a used 10D or 300D. These bodies might cost you $500-600* compared to the T2 for $215 body only. The price difference will QUICKLY be gapped in film and processing savings - 30 rolls?

 

Unlike many 5 or 6 MPixel P&S cameras, the image quality on a 6MPixel SLR is PLENTY for 8x10 and above. I know of people printing tabloid size from these cameras (better have a decent lens though). You don't need a 12 MPixel camera for 8x10. It's been said that a 12MPixel dSLR rivals Medium Format image quality.

 

If you go with a film SLR, remember that the lenses you get for it now will be useful on your future dSLR.

 

Another thing to note about film SLRs, you'll have a wider exposure latitude, which can be handy for landscapes, so you don't blow out the sky. Still helps to have a split neutral density filter. On the digital side, you'd have to shoot RAW (with post processing) to get the same range.

 

 

*Saw a classified ad here on Photo.net for $495 shipped.

In all honesty 5mp is not enough for me, the only time I am able to leave the photo in its original size is when the camera is in macro mode (see the picture of a sunflower in my profile)... otherwise the image just is not at the quality that I want in my photographs 8x11 or larger.

 

hmmm, I can get decent 8x10s from my 2mp camera. Your focus is way off on the lizard shot as other said take control of your camera.

The canon a620 will be 7mp BTW, but if you cant focus 100mp would not

help.

I want to be able to have explict control of an image and currently Manual focus gives me what I want.