Ok Liz you changed my mind and now I have a question for ya!

[peplogic]

Liz,

Yesterday you told me to consider the Canon Digital Rebel instead of the Dimage Z2 and after a quick trip to my local store and trying it out I have to agree that the smart choice is to spend the couple hunderd extra and move to the canon.

This opens up a couple questions that I hope you (Or anyone) can help me with.

The first question is the lense that comes in the kit (I believe 18-55) was kinda cool...I was playing with it outside and the saleperson told me that the lense will ultimately equate to a 5X optical zoom. My whole point with the dimage was to get further optical zoom then 3x. The other main point was something to the effect of you either get a 50 MM lense which would have no zoom, but higher quality, or you go with a zoom lense that will allow you a litlle more options and zoom variations on your picture taking. Working on that assumption Could you recomend a Zoom lense that could ...for lack of a better term zoom farther then the lense included in the reble kit and maintain a high qulaity? This willhelp me in my decision to by the body and seperate lense, or kit.

The second question is that the sales person who loves the Digital rebel and has one himself, ultimately said that the sacrafices Canon made to get the camera down in price revolves around the feature set and if I were interested in a full featured DSLR he would recommend the Nikon D70. The Nikon is a $$ more, but if i am going to save up should I just go all the way.... are the features that arn't included in the Canon ones that I would ever use

Sorry if this post is all over the place....I am on my 4th cup of Coffe!!!!!!!

Thanks For the help!

Peace,

Peplogic

[Liz]

I won't tell you how great Canon is since I'm Canon all the way. Others can give you the specific differences. However, I will post 2 links with the specs on each that you can print out here.

Canon Rebel
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...=297501&is=REG

Nikon D70
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...=315813&is=REG

Regarding the kit lens: If you have a CF card, take it into the store and shoot some images with the Rebel kit lens; then take the card home and check the images out on your pc. Many people like the kit lens. I wasn't 100% happy with it; however, I have a slight camera shake problem and couldn't get many sharp images. The 50mm gives me sharp every time.

Another lens I would suggest (about $400) is the 28-135 IS. It is an excellent lens, but a bit expensive. I know the Canon 28-105 also has a good reputation. Check out the reviews section here on different Canon lenses.

I think you're making a good decision not to invest over $500 in a P&S when you can get a DSLR for just a little more, and in the future, you can add more lenses.

Liz

[Gregour]

I was once advised you need to buy the EXPENSIVE lenses, then, to get the sharp images. Also was told a skilled photographer in our club uses Canon digitals with just any of his lenses and is so happy he sold ALL the darkroom & film equipment. So I had to learn the hard way myself ...
Choosing Canon vs another is more a loyalty than rational issue. I love my Canons but if I had it to do over, I would go Nikon or better.
I don't get the impression the digital Rebel kit lens is great, but we could not find it non-kit, would have saved a "mere" hundred bucks, and since then I've read that lens will ONLY work on the digital rebel. Anybody want a free Canon Digital Rebel kit lens?   = : o B
For sure a 50mm non-zoom lens will for example always deliver better sharpness in any system, film or digital. I am using the Tamron 29-300mm zoom, plus the extra magnification on the digital, this is a REALLY flexible instrument for me, and I have liked my Tamrons and I love my Tamron 90mm Macro for ANY kind of subject of photo so that I want to marry it and sleep with it - go get one ... but this model zoom lens seems to fall apart way too early, I am already on my second one, the same total $ might have got me an almost equally flexible much better zoom lens by Canon.
Two of us were literally up a creek recently and got almost identical shots of a juvenile heron up a tree ... hers were SHARP and had GREAT colour, mine were NOT sharp and had vague wrong colour - delete! If you don't already own Canon lenses there may be zero advantage going that route, since a built-in lens with sharpness could be superior ~~~ hers is the Olympus C-750, has a 10X zoom ! and is making her supremely happy, makes all sorts of photos (including close up, table top, and a lot of excellent portraits & people pictures) - and last season - as a new member to boot - she practically swept up the awards all year and at year-end. It has some limitations that are not slowing her down and it would have saved me a few hundered bucks if I'd gone with that camera instead, although at the time I would never have made such a decision.
My Olympus E-20 still works great and is the only digital I have that can pretend to make low light & night shots, although it was like twice the cost ! and it's very slow and eats batteries like sweet tarts. Weighs as much as my head too, well it starts to seem so. I got a well deserved award for a print from the E-20 where I had to crop a snapshot in half and do some great work in Photoshop, but the E-20 certainly can sometimes do the job ... however now I need to make a point to use it more just to keep the stupid batteries alive and sorted out.
However the Rebel with CMOS is FAST (although I delete a lot, I get a lot of shots that almost hit the 'critical moment' etc) and the battery lasts LONG even in Winter, & many other pleasing things. (But I can not rely on the Preview glimpse, turn on the histogram option and THAT means I can track how my exposures are working out.) I make 1 to 3 hundred shots a day with the Rebel and it is my constant now, and by now it has got me some awards too. (It's not that I crave awards, it's just a sorta credible way to measure this.)
In real life examples I've seen, it appears a Nikon will treat one real good. Fuji makes great units, others do too ... an old school mate with camera and engineering savvy recently finally went digital, and could afford anything he wanted, and chose the Leica Digilux 2 ... as far as saving up and going for the best, there's no question we want to go for the max we can possibly affford. It's all antiques as we speak anyway, what cha gonna do right ? and he wanted a serious digital that he would really enjoy using.
Again in ANY camera system / interchangeable lenses, you'll need to spend a few years collecting a few suitable lenses and learn what that means. It's a smart path though, and IMO, I would try to skip the kit lens if you CAN find a box with only the camera & no lens.