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  1. #1
    Member subhuman's Avatar
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    a few final questions

    Well I guess I am going to do it this weekend...finally buy a dSLR...
    I'm going to have to drive about 200 miles to do it...because the only camera shop here
    closed about a year ago,Iwant to go where I can talk to someone who actually knows about
    camera's & handle all of them.....I posted a question on here a while back about going digital,
    got some good responses someone wrote "its good to have an external drive and a
    plan for how you're going to store & protect your digital files. You don't want to cook a
    drive & lose everything all of a sudden." O.K. is this referring to a memory card or what,
    I know very little,basically nothing about digital cameras,since I have had a film SLR
    (Canon T2) for the past 2 1/2 years & film p&s before that, so I dont want to lose all my
    pics because I don't know what the flip I am doing,which is usually normal for me....
    to be honest I am a little cautious about buying and using one (especially spending so much
    flippin' money on the things) Allright I'll shut up whining...I have just about narrowed down my
    selection to Canon Xti or an Olympus e-volt 500.....The canon because I have had one for
    a while,dust reduction, 2.5 lcd more than 6 mp, but.... I have read a lot of reviews that complain
    about poor image quality? the Olympus has ,dust reduction , 8mp, 2.5 lcd, I have read tons of good reviews, great price, but I have heard that the iso above 400 isnt as good as
    Canon? Ok I am thru writing my book, it' just not possible for me to write a short question...
    I have tried...can't do it Thanks

  2. #2
    project forum co-moderator Frog's Avatar
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    Re: a few final questions

    The external drive refers to getting an external hard drive for your computer. I have a 250mb one but many go with 500. This way if you transfer your pics to it and your computer crashes you don't lose all your pics or if the external crashes you still have them on your computer. Many also copy them to disk. You don't want to have a lot of invaluable pics and lose them.
    The memory card itself is something you'll have to get just for the camera. I have several 1 gig memory cards but you can also get them up to 8 gig or even more I think now.
    The bigger the memory card, the more photos you can take before you have to download them. Even a 1 gig can take over a hundred or more depending on the quality you choose to take your photos in. You can take them in raw format, which will let you take the least number but you'll have more editing parameters. If you take them in jpeg, you can choose jpeg fine, jpeg normal, or jpeg basic with each giving you more pics but at less quality/sharpness except the jpeg fine. I usually do raw for ones I know I'll want to bring out my best in and jpeg fine for others.
    The choice will be on your camera menues and I'm sorry but don't know exactly which settings the canon and olympus have.
    There are a lot of people who love their xti and I've never heard any one complain about image quality though you can find bad reviews on anything and nothing is perfect.
    If you'd like a side by side comparison, which I find handy, go here: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/comp..._e500&show=all A lot of it is technical but there is a glossary there to understand terms you don't know. I had to look up a lot of stuff when I started searching.
    If you already have a canon, do you have lenses? If so, find out if they are compatible with the xti. Might save you some big bucks down the road. A lot of experts here could tell you, especially in the canon forum.
    If/when you go to that site, read their reviews on the cameras and the reviews you can find here also. If the technical stuff gets overwhelming, skip to their conclusion from the drop down at the top of page of the review.
    Both of the cameras you are thinking about were ones I strongly considered before I made the leap.
    Good luck! The thing about no local shop is something I have to deal with, too, but going in to actually handle and being able to ask questions is a very good idea.
    Keep Shooting!

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  3. #3
    Member subhuman's Avatar
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    Re: a few final questions

    Thanks Frog
    yes I have checked out dpreview.com..its a great website,actually I found out about it
    in a post that you responded to, I stay on there nearly as much as I do this website
    ....a lot of it is technical & over my head but I am learning a little at a time,
    I know when I get my dSLR that I am going to have to spend lots of time reading the
    manual just to learn the camera.....I really want to get back to important things like taking pictures.....but anyway I am determined to learn it.........
    thanks again for all your help & time, I really appreciate it

  4. #4
    project forum co-moderator Frog's Avatar
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    Re: a few final questions

    You're quite welcome...just hope it helps. Yeah and buying the camera is only the beginning.
    Keep Shooting!

    CHECK OUT THE PHOTO PROJECT FORUM
    http://forums.photographyreview.com/...splay.php?f=34

    Please refrain from editing my photos without asking.

  5. #5
    Captain of the Ship Photo-John's Avatar
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    Image Quality

    subhuman-
    Don't worry about image quality. There are too many people on the Internet who spend their time looking at images at 100% on their computer monitors. Sure, there are cameras with better image quality than the XTi. But the XTi is great. I've used all kinds of digital SLRs and I mostly use an XTi right now. Check my gallery to see the poor image quality

    The difference between the XTi and the Olympus digital SLRs is mostly format. The XTi does have more resolution and better image quality than the E500. But that probably isn't too important. The critical difference is in the size of the sensor and what that means to picture-taking. Canon's Digital Rebel XTi uses a pretty standard sized digital SLR sensor. And by "size," I mean the physical dimensions, not the number of pixels. Olympus and other Four Thirds cameras have a smaller sensor. The reason for this is the lenses. Olympus and other Four Thirds System lenses have twice the magnifying power of comparable cameras from Pentax, Nikon, Canon, Sony, and Samsung. So a 150mm Olympus lens has the same reach as a 300mm lens on your 35mm SLR. I think that's very cool. I am a fan of the Four Thirds System because of the lenses. They're awesome.

    If you want an Olympus, you should consider waiting for the E510, which will be out in about a month, I think. It's a 10-megapixel camera with Olympus' Sensor Shift image stabilization and Live View. That makes it a much better match for the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi. On the other hand, if you already have Canon lenses and accessories, I think that's a very compelling reason to stick with Canon. But the Olympus system is pretty exciting.

    Sorry it took me a couple of days to get to your post. Hope my reply helps
    Photo-John

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  6. #6
    Usel
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    Re: a few final questions

    I have an Olympus E-500. Just got it in December. I love it. I also considered the Xti, but there were two things that shunned my picking it. One, it was too small in my hand. It just didn't fit right. Some other people claim this too, but if your hands are not too big, perhaps you'd be ok. The other is that I was looking for a kit and the kit lense that comes with the Xti didn't seem as robust as the lenses that came with the Oly. And for the same price I got two lenses. I took about three months before I made a decision, but I'm really happy with what I got. Now, the E510 is coming out and it will have image stablization and 10mp, but I think most of these companies over hype the IS because you can still take blurry pictures. So at the time I thought, why pay an extra $200 for IS. I used the extra money and bought a flash, the FL-36. I've just came back from Israel and Egypt and took over 2000 photos with the camera. it snowed, rained, winded, sand, dust, and everything inbetween. The camera held up really well and I had no problems. The only downside to Oly is that their other lenses are really expensive, but most good lenses are. Some people complain that the viewfinder on the E-500 is too small. It is smaller than other cameras, but I personally have never had a problem with it.

    Bottom line. What do you want to do with it? And it's not always about the equipment. it's about having a good eye, composition, and drive.

  7. #7
    Captain of the Ship Photo-John's Avatar
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    Image Stabilization

    I don't think image stabilization can be overhyped. It's one of the most useful technologies to be applied to photography in the past couple of decades. In many, many cases, it can make the difference between a useable and a throwaway photo. As it starts being added to more and more cameras, I'm starting to not like using cameras that don't have it.

    Want to know more?

    Read our Image Stabilization Guide >>
    Photo-John

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  8. #8
    Usel
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    Re: a few final questions

    I wasn't trying to imply that IS is not useful, just not the end all of getting a good shot. I read the article before. Point number five is pretty much where I was coming from in terms of this though.

  9. #9
    Captain of the Ship Photo-John's Avatar
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    Re: a few final questions

    Quote Originally Posted by rsimmons
    I wasn't trying to imply that IS is not useful, just not the end all of getting a good shot. I read the article before. Point number five is pretty much where I was coming from in terms of this though.
    Fair enough! Glad to know someone read it. Subhuman probably hasn't read it, though!

    Photo-John

    Your reviews are the foundation of this site - Write A Review!

  10. #10
    Member subhuman's Avatar
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    Re: a few final questions

    thanks for everyone's replies
    Yes I had read the article on IS, I went back and read over it again,good article
    I had considered the Pentax K100D with image stabilization, but the 6mp was one factor,
    but what I wondered about was the camera didnt have ISO of 100, only went from
    200-1600 iso, in fact it looks like all dslr's with 6mp do the same thing,the Nikon's
    D40,D50& D70 only go from 200-1600 iso and I dont know why? I cant seem to find an
    answer,I dont know if it makes a big deal (does it?)in the way the pics come out ,but I would like to be able to shoot in 100iso if I wanted to.....I thought about the Pentax
    10D, but that was more than I wanted to spend on a camera....I am going to see
    what I find out this weekend when I finally get to go to an actual camera shop & and handle the cameras (without them being tethered to a retractable rope, like at the local
    circuit city) again thanks for everyones help & putting up with my whinning and my long
    post....everyone is very nice on here...I really I do appreciate it..... Thanks

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