D70 or New Canon Digital Rebel XT

For someone buying a first digital SLR, which one do you recommend?

The D70 or the new Canon digital Rebel XT? Own no lenses, so no

vested interest in either company. Would anyone consider a non-

manufacturer lens such as a Sigma instead of a Canon or Nikon lens?

 

Interested in your views. Thanks.

 

Yinka

Yinka, you've probably just started another N vs C debate. My advice is to go to your local camera shop and try each one for yourself. I use Nikon film cameras and haven't handled a D70, but it is rated quite highly. The same goes for the EOS Rebel.

My answer would be whatever feels best and most comfortable to you. Both are very good cameras and excellent beginner DSLRs. No way is this an N vs. C debate. Sometimes a swaying factor is "what do your friends or mentors have?" If they have more N's than C's then go with the N. I shoot Nikon point-and-shoots and Canon DSLRs. Sigma make many excellent lenses that fit the Canon, perhaps so the Nikon.

And more, one is 6million pix, they other 8 million (i think)....so they are not even the

same. Like others says, use the one you prefer, like the look, like th feeling...if you whant

a real + and - of both of them technicaly speaking go to www.dpreviews.com

I think it funny now, how the debates on which is "best" can be spawned by such an innocent question. I've used products from both these manufactures and I think they are both excellent. Although the Minolta and Olympus don't get the "air play" that the two biggies get, I think they also produce excellent products. It all boils down to what you want in a digital SLR.

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I have the D70s and recommend it for it's easy to use menu, solid feel and hot buttons. The D70 can be put to work as soon as you get it. It is a very intuitive tool. I also like the variety of Nikon lenses I can use. I just bought a mint old 50mm f1.4 that I can use on the D70s. Granted I have no meter, but I don't need one. I'm not saying that you would want to do the same, but for me it is a nice bonus.

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Whatever you decide, I think you'll be happy. They are both cool tools.

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Best,

Henry

Thanks. Has anyone used the D50? Will I lose anything real by buying that and using the savings to buy an extra lens? Is the small size of the Rebel XT a problem for anyone?

 

Yinka

Crikey! This must be the 20th time that question's been asked in the past six months! Try

them both and get the one you like best. Both are fine cameras.

Whichever you choose, it won't affect your pictures one whit, and as long as you don't have any lenses already, I'd simply go for the one that feels more comfortable to hold. Apart from that, they are of course different, but only on minor things that generally don't affect your shooting or image quality.

No reason not to consider the KM 5D or 7Ds either, or the Pentax or Olympus models either. At this point, getting the one that feels best and works best for you is probably the best advice. Until you've gained a certain amount of expertise or experience, technical details or especially esoterica probably won't help you choose.

 

The 7D is somewhat unique in that it has generally more external controls and is less dependant on menus or multiple functions from fewer controls.

 

Lens choice? The Nikon "kit" lens is probably the best of the bunch, otherwise, after you get past "consumer" lenses, there are some fine middle range lenses from the camera makers and the better 3rd parties. I don't think there is any advantage past cost/convenience and some optical quality trade-off when going to the one size zooms all lenses. There are some very, very popular 3rd party lenses, but saving money on lenses almost always comes at a performance penalty - cheap lenses from the camera makers aren't particulalrly good either.

 

I doubt the 6 meg - 8 meg difference is all that significant for many beginners.

Get a Pentax.

Dean, why did you say that? I note that you sold a 10D. Just to add to the debate (and I value your comments), would a used 10D be a better option?

No, get a Minolta 7D. In this price range it's the best thing going right now. The price has dropped and the built in IS still works. What a deal!

 

Pentax has the best viewfinder. Nice camera for those that already have Pentax mount lenses.

 

Canon has the best image and least noise - but not by much.

 

Nikon still has a better flash system - better than Canon anyway - but not by much.

 

In the end, you have to make up your own mind. They are all good cameras. If you want me to make it up for you, get the Minolta 7D. :)

All these cameras have similiar features, but different strengths. Sorry, I'm not as politically correct as the rest of you and would rather call it what it is.

 

If you you like to do a lot of manual focusing, definatley get the Pentax because it's viewfinder sucks the least compared to the other dSLRs.

 

Having otherwise shot with the D70, I consider it a tad inferiour to the XT.

 

I've been hard on the Olympus E-series lately, but I won't dispute they have better wide angle options than Canon and their Toys -R- Us zoom lens kits.

This has been discussed in detail numerous times before. Read here:

 

<a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00ChLc">D70 or Rebel XT</a>.

 

I recommend the Rebel XT. It has a better sensor, mirror lock up, portrait grip, better button layout, etc. Also, the image comparisons speak for themselves. The Rebel XT offers virtually identical image performance as the more expensive 20D:

 

<a href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos350d/page23.asp">XT vs 20D</a>, and the 20D does better than the D70:

 

<a href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos20d/page25.asp">20D vs D70</a>.

 

 

 

Canon is also the stronger company in the digital realm.

Given that this is a first DSLR and you don't have a set of existing lenses, the lens you're

going to use with it is also a key issue.

 

Some of the comparisons you'll find on the net, and referred to above, do not use the kit

lenses, they use higher-quality lenses, eg the 50mm 1.4 from each manufacturer. This is

so that the camera performance is limited in the review by a possibly low-quality lens. It

makes sense for a review website to do this, since they want to isolate & report on just the

camera, and not the camera/lens kit. But what lens will you be buying with the camera of

your choice?

 

I believe it's fair to say that the Canon 18-55 kit lens that was sold with the 300D and now

the 350D (dRebel XT) was/is not regarded as a stellar performer. On the other hand, if you

put the better and more expensive EF-S 17-85 on a 350D, you'll probably see better

results.

 

Just to show that this isn't an anti-Canon dig, I think it's also the case that whereas the

Nikon 18-70 - the kit lens supplied with the D70 and D70s - was/is quite highly

regarded, their 18-55 lens - the kit lens supplied with the D50 - is less so. So a D50 with

an 18-70 is likely to give better results than a D50 with an 18-55.

 

So don't get too hung up on just the camera. A moderately-specified camera with good

optics may well outperform a 'better' camera with poorer optics.

The sentence above should read:

 

"This is so that the camera performance is NOT limited in the review by a possibly low-

quality lens"

 

of course.

If you are buying your first DSLR I would suggest go for a Nikon D50 or a KM5D (you get antishake in the body).

 

Rgds

The kit lenses aren't nearly as bad as some people make them out to be. They are great starter lenses, and a great place to start for the average first-time user. A friend of mine got the Rebel XT with a kit lens, and I've been amazed at how good her prints look. If I didn't know that she had shot those images with the kit lens, I would have never guessed. For its price, the kit lens offers great value for the first time buyer. Go ahead and get the Rebel XT with the kit lens if you're on a tight budget. The XT's sensor is superb, and overall performance is excellent. I have a Canon 20D and Rebel XT, and the performance of both cameras is almost identical. I can't tell which of my images were taken with the Rebel XT and which were taken with the 20D unless I look at the EXIF data. The XT basically gives you all the features that a beginning photographer could possibly need. And it gives you room to grow too.

<i>If you are buying your first DSLR I would suggest go for a Nikon D50 or a KM5D (you get antishake in the body).</i>

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I don't know about the KM5D, but I would direct people away from the D50. There are better DSLR bodies out there. The D50 has no depth of field preview, no metering selection button (it's buried in the Menu), no autofocus mode button (it's burried in the Menu), no cable release option, no mirror lock up or mirror pre-release option, no top-place LCD illumination lamp, and it takes SD cards (most other DSLR cameras use CF cards). Spend just a few more bucks and you can get a better camera.

Yinka,

 

All the DSLRs being discussed work really well to my knowledge. I sold the 10D because, though it's a robust camera with great image quality, I personally did not like using it.

 

I didn't have a big investment in lenses yet, just the 50mm f/1.8 and 28mm f/2.8 and a couple budget Sigma DC zooms.

 

I prefer a smaller camera and I looked at the Pentax *ist DS after reading Vuk's review on photo.net and Mike Johnston's on luminous-landscape.com, plus comments from some good photographers on the forums here.

 

The *ist DS is light and small, as is the Canon XT, which I also considered and that seems somewhat more state of the art with 8meg and advanced image processing. But the Pentax lenses are smaller and that appealed to me.

 

Having enjoyed the viewfinder on a Bessa R so much, I also wanted the best viewfinder I could find and that seems to be the Pentax. It's a very basic camera in DSLR terms, but what it does, it does very well. I've just purchased the Pentax SMC DA 40mm (60mm equiv) f/2.8 'pancake' lens and the camera is actually pocketable in my jacket or coat pocket and weighs a mere 1.5 lbs with lens and batteries. It's a really nice lens, as are the other Pentax lenses I've got. Even the kit lens seems to be better than it should be for the low price. The 40mm is staying on the camera 80 % of the time, and in this configuration I'm not missing the rangefinder any longer. This is what I was hoping for.

 

A used 10D is a definite option and if you don't mind the size or weight, it has a silky smooth shutter sound and action that I do admit I miss (the Pentax *ist DS is definitely louder).

 

I can't fault the 10D image quality either, though I will say the images from the *ist DS, to me, seem to have more character.

Whether that's due to lens, sensor, or both (or what I ate for lunch) I really don't know. It's just a preference, and really subtle and subjective. With post processing you can make the 10D images look however you want anyway.

 

So that's more or less why I sold my 10D for the Pentax.

 

I wanted to add Pentax here as something to consider besides the Nikon - Canon options.

 

I think you could get any camera mentioned here and be perfectly happy. They all produce good images, and it comes down to which details of handling and features you prefer.

Between the Rebel XT and the D70, there are, effectively, no differences that matter. Buy

whichever one you feel like buying. The quality of your photos will be exactly the same.

 

<a href="http://www.tgr.com/weblog/archives/000447.html">Anyone who tells you

otherwise is lying.</a>