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Seeking a Decent Digital SLR Camera for Beginners?
lancomandr asks: "I'm interested in getting into digital photography. I have looked at many tutorials and buying guides but there are so many digital SLRs I have no idea which ones to even start considering. I want to be able to make decently large prints, I'd like to get a decent amount of use out of it before upgrading, I want good battery life and durability is key. All of you photographers out there, any suggestions? What did you buy when you started?"
This is the only "entry" level digital SLR. Plenty of features, low price point, excellent camera.
You don't have all the professional features of a canon d10 or nikon d70 or higher, but you want an entry level right?
I'd say go with canon because they've only changed their lens format once. Much better chance of being able to get good used equipment/sell your use equipment when you want to upgrade.
I'm saving for a d10 myself.
You can get a Rebel for $900.
You can hack it to be 10D for free.
You can buy a $200 Muvo and swap out the 4G microdrive.
Actually, RAW is one of the biggest benefits to shooting digital. I think you will see where most people who want to have a digital SLR want to be a little more serious than just point and shoot, and will use tools like Photoshop CS. If you are shooting with a digital SLR, some post-processing is really needed (hence why it isn't considered a point-and-shoot). Post-processing with Photoshop and a RAW image file gives so much more flexibility in what you do with the image (exposure, white balance, and on and on) that you would be surprised...
I've done that, and I have a truely bueatiful 20x30 hanging over my fireplace - shot with film. Detail is in it that you can't capture with digital. The reflections in the water of the railing, for example.
For example: I have an 8x10 on the wall next to me. (Film based print). I scanned that image at about 5MP a while back and it is a great shot. However, I noticed some small blobs on the one edge. Since it is an underwater shot, I assumed backscatter. Later, I had the film 8x10 printed. Not backscatter at all! A school of tiny fish is plainly visible in the print.
I also had a shot optioned for printing by a national magazine. At 5mp, it could not be scanned. It would only show a bunch of colored blobs. The subject? The Space shuttle Columbia - night launch, lit only by the flames. (At 8x10, the orbiter is about 3 inches tall, along the 10 axis. The full shuttle about 6 inches tall.)
I once ran into a "professional" photographer doing an ad shoot. She asked if she could borrow a 24mm lens from me. I said well, you would have to use my spare body and flash as well, due to lens mounting differences. She declined, because she didn't know how to use a manual flash - but she was a professional!
So, your wife's customers may be happy, but that doesn't mean that the shots are great.
Here's a great review/comparison of the two cameras.
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:)
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond70/page20
The 300D is more commonly known as the rebel.
Pick the D70 if you want
1) A wide array of old lenses to choose from. (And I've heard that it's often more important to pick your lens than pick the body)
2) To take a lot of consecutive photographs. With our D70, we can take pictures at 1fps until the card fills - we aren't bound by the buffer like the Canons are. This is true for both compressed and RAW photos. (You need to make sure your memory card is fast, though.)
3) A lot of other things that I'm not going to list off the top of my head.
Either of those cameras is good, though. At my skill level (and possibly at your skill level, given the way you asked your question) it's hard to go wrong with either of these cameras.
The "More" you get includes an 18-70mm (roughly equivalent to 35-100mm due to the size difference from 35mm that the CCD is) ED lens. Thus, you pay more for a "kit" than for the base camera body. Here is the D70 body alone, and as you can see it's only $999. (About $99 more than the Digital Rebel.)
The thing I liked about Nikon originally was that you can use almost any lens with almost any body from circa 1970 and later. However, I have since discovered (the hard way) that Nikon has intentionally engineered OUT the ability to use any manual-focus lens with the less expensive bodies. (F100 and F5 support them, D1 and D2 series do as well, but D70 and D100 do NOT.) You can still *use* the lens, but the in-camera metering system will not function unless the lens has electronics, i.e. is auto-focus.
One item worth mentioning is that, as far as both myself and a Nikon tech could find, the only reason you might want the D100 over the D70 is that there are a few more accessories available for the D100, such as an extended battery pack that also functions as a vertical grip. However, the D70 seems like a great value (compared to everything else available), and if you don't need the other accessories (or want a cheaper lens), you can get it separately.