I’ve never had any camera more advanced than a point and shoot, but I want to get started. Should I buy this camera? The add states:
They’re asking $700, which seems reasonable looking at the prices on amazon.
What do you think?
It’s local, so I can go see it. If I do, what should I look for?
Thanks!
Sounds fine. The camera is excellent and the lens will give you a good range.
What you might to add is for example…
e If you’re asking what you should look for in a second hand-purchase, then I would see if you can get a number of the shutter actuation. This the number of pictures taken (like the miles of a car) and it can give a rough idea on how much the camera has been used. Google for shutter actuations and you can find rough number on how much usage shutter actuation will relate to and how much you can expect from a certain camera model. Also look for scratch marks, dust, etc.
Thanks, Cactus. 
Shameless plug: An acquaintance of mine maintains a website devoted to DSLRs you might find interesting.
What is it with Canon crop-sensor dslr bodies and 24-xx and 28-xx mid-range zooms designed for full-frame sensors? I see this all the time. I would hate, hate, hate having no wide angle with my standard zoom. I’d take the el cheapo 18-55 IS kit lens over something starting at 28mm.
I used to have an XT (while was stolen), and I now have a T1i (or 500D). Those mid-range zooms are nice for portraits and the like, but I take a lot of pictures of buildings, etc., and the lens that I use most is a 10-22mm zoom (16-35mm equivalent on a 35mm camera) – and I use it most at the 10mm end of its range. I don’t think I could live without a good wide-angle lens.
Hm. Looking around more. Maybe something like this Rebel XSi would be better.
I don’t even know what this means, which perhaps indicates that I shouldn’t even be considering this camera?
“Full size” for a DSLR is the same size for the image as on a traditional 35mm SLR, i.e., 24x36 mm. Canon makes cameras with sensors that large, and also with sensors about 15x22 mm, which are called “crop sensors”. Examples of the latter are the XSi (450D), the T1i (500D) and the 40D. You can use lenses designed for “full size” cameras on the crop-sensor cameras, and they work fine, but you get a smaller image, so it’s as if you were using a lens with a longer focal-length.
Renee, thanks for starting this thread. We’re on the hunt for a new camera ourselves. And, hobscrk777, thanks for the link. It’s bookmarked here and I sent it to my husband to look over. It appears to be a great source of info.
I would find out how many shutter releases it has. Canon estimates a 100k shutter life on that camera. It may have never been dropped or damaged, but it could still be a significant way through its lifespan depending on how much it has been used.
The 40D is a nice camera, I’m borrowing one from a friend right now with the same lens. You will want to get a wider lens, but the 18-55 IS kit lens is pretty cheap to pick up and not bad. Or, I second the idea of getting the 50mm 1.8 which will give you excellent low light options and can’t be beat for price.
Some semi-random thoughts from an XSi owner…
I’d sooner buy a new Rebel than a used pro body for the same price. Pro bodies tend to be used heavily, and often by people who see the camera as a lumpy black tool, rather than an exquisitely engineered tour de force of fragile technology.
The XSi on the eBay listing linked above is a tricky one - it only comes with one real lens and two adapter doo-dads that screw onto the front filter threads, and the extra battery is a no-name replacement, as is the flash. These things may be fine, but more likely, they’re junk.
I bought an XSi in May or so and made a major lens upgrade - instead of a basic kit lens, I got an “L” series 24-105 zoom. It’s given me some stunning images. When you get everything just right, the results are almost 3-D. (At least I think so, but I can’t actually see in 3-D anyway.) You’ll have to wrestle with your savings account over this - IIRC, it’s a roughly $1300 lens, but if you can afford it and don’t mind a somewhat heavy “walking around” lens, you will not regret it.
The crop factor just means that the image sensor is smaller than a standard frame of 35mm film. In the case of most non-professional Canons, it’s a 1.6 factor. Just multiply an EF lens’ focal length by that to find the equivalent. I think the EF-S lenses are labeled with the crop factor already factored in. This all comes to mean that my 24-105 mm zoom acts like a 38-168 mm. Great for getting some extra tele “reach” but it messes up your day if you want extreme wide-angle.
You do need to be aware that you can not put an EF-S lens on a pro body. The rear element of the lens sticks out beyond the mounting flange and will be hit by the mirror. I believe Canon has designed the mounts to make this impossible. You can, however, put an EF lens onto a pro body or a Rebel body. This was another factor in my decision to upgrade the lens - if I step up to a pro body down the road, I didn’t want to have to re-buy all of my lenses.
Going back to an SLR format camera has really changed how I take pictures. Over many, many years, I went from a pocket camera that used 110 cartridge film, then a basic 35mm SLR, a more advanced SLR, an autofocus SLR, then a digital pocket camera. While I was getting more and more fed up with the digicam’s performance or lack thereof, dSLRs were coming down in price, so I made the change. No more waiting five seconds for the thing to turn on and then waiting a few more seconds for it to focus and take a picture. No more sucking a fresh set of batteries dead in 30 minutes.
The dSLR is practically instant. The limitation is really more your own reflexes - you can turn the thing on and take a picture in about .2 seconds. And its power management is amazing - I’ve taken close to 5,000 pictures and have had to charge the battery three times so far. Just turn it on and start shooting. And yes, you will want to shoot anything that sits still long enough for you to aim. Or not - the sports mode lets you use the camera almost like a video camera. Just hold the shutter button and follow the action.
One last thought. The XSi does have a characteristic sort of “squeak” to its shutter noise. That’s been the one wierd thing about it, compared to a pro body. Most pro bodies make a more subdued clack. You probably wouldn’t want to shoot a wedding with an XSi because of this sound.
Personally, I’d never buy a used DSLR. You never really know how many shutter cycles it has and shutter replacement is usually a pricey repair.
You can get a Canon Xsi (450D) for about $625 and change brand new, with a lens in a kit. Nikon has an equivalent kit for the D60 for about the same money. Either of these will be pretty good cameras. Dunno about the lens.
Yeah, I’d be wary of buying a used camera. Here’s a deal at Costco with the Xsi and two real lenses (that Xsi kit that the OP mentions uses adapters which I wouldn’t bother with). I have no idea about the quality of the lenses, but I’ve got an older image stabilized telephoto lens for my Canon that works remarkably well.
There’s a cheaper kit for the Xs and a non-IS telephoto for $200 less, but I’d pony up the extra $200 for the better resolution and the IS telephoto.
Hit Costco or your local warehouse store and compare. It’s worth something of a premium to have new as you can take it back if the lenses are bad for any reason. If that is a “full frame” sensor, then it might be a very good deal.
Threads devoted to the two lenses in the Costco package:
The 40D is a significantly more powerful camera body than the Xsi or Xs Rebel. Whether the OP can use that is open to question, but the cameras listed aren’t really very comparable.
People assume that more resolution is always good, but in this case it makes very little difference. In some situations it actually degrades image quality. Unless you plan on printing posters it’s not much of an issue.
Going to a Full Frame camera body will quadruple the price. Spend the money on good lenses, not camera bodies. Camera bodies are cheap, lenses are what give you image quality.
The 55-250 is a fine lens for the price, but I’m a little surprised at how favorable the participants in that thread are. It’s not very sharp, especially at full zoom and it’s fairly slow. But it’s $250 and covers a very useful range, so that covers a lot of blemishes.
To reiterate - spend money on glass, not camera bodies, especially when learning.
The problem is we live on Okinawa (where you can’t get anything), and actually seeing or holding any of these cameras except the one in the OP is not going to happen unless I wait 5 months to go back to the states, which I might. I just saw the 40D and it looked like a good deal, so I thought maybe I should take it. But it appears I need to do some more reading on the subject. Thanks so much everyone for the input!
Naw, by all means get a dslr, provided you’re willing to put at least a little effort into understanding basic photographic principles. If you are, you’ll be able to get much better photographs in a wider array of situations than you could with any point & shoot.
As described above, Canon dslrs come with different sensor sizes. The Rebels and the 40D/50D and new 7D all have what’s known as APS-C sensors (named after an old obsolete film size), which are smaller than the 35mm film size. Because of this, the picture they take is cropped - it’s the centre two thirds or so of what a 35mm film image would be. Since you’re “missing” the edges of the image, it’s as if you’re using a longer focal length. As mentioned, the “crop factor” on the Canons you’re looking at is 1.6, so a 50mm lens on a crop body will give you the same field of view as an 80mm lens on a full frame body like a 5DMkII (or an old film body).
Back in the day, kit lenses (i.e., the lens usually sold with slr bodies) were usually 50mm f/1.8 or similar, but as zooms became more prevalent, this gave way to what’s usually known as a “standard zoom”. The standard zoom will cover a range from moderately wide angle to moderately telephoto. On film bodies, this meant something like the 28-135mm lens in your OP. The 24-105mm f/4 gotpasswords mentions is an upscale version. By the standards of most people who take landscape or architecture photos, 28mm is only just getting into the interestingly wide range, and 24mm is reasonably but not particularly wide. On a film body. On a 1.6 crop, those would provide the field of vision of 45mm and 38mm respectively. That’s not remotely wide angle. This makes a standard zoom designed for film/full frame digital much less useful (imho) on a crop body. You have no real wide angle at all, which really limits the sorts of perspectives you can utilize in a great many instances. That may not matter much if you have an ultra-wide angle lens you can mount, like a 10-20mm Sigma, or the Canon EF-S 10-22mm (think I have that right), but to have only a 28-135? Would drive me bonkers.
Fortunately, Canon makes several standard zooms that are designed for digital crop bodies. The cheapest is the 18-55 IS kit lens that comes with most new Rebels (there may still be some non-IS versions being sold, not sure). There’s a 17-85, a newly announced 15-85, an 18-200 superzoom, and some others. I don’t know all of them because I shoot Nikon and don’t pay a lot of attention to the Canon side of the fence. These lenses all get you to a decently wide field of vision while still providing that mid range and moderate telephoto, and in my opinion are vastly preferable to the admittedly superb 24-105 f4 for use on a crop body.
For the record, EF-S mount lenses do not have the crop factored in to their labels. All Canon lenses report their actual focal length.
A full frame sensor, which is more expensive, will be excellent for portraits and flowers where you want the background gently out of focus with the aperture wide open. If you are going to do those kinds of photography, that is essential. The APS-C sensors are going to be much harder to do that with, as they cover only the sweet spot of the full size lenses, which will emphasize sharpness. These are the cheap “consumer” cameras. I use one of APS-C cameras. But it is right for me because I prefer everything as sharp as I can get it.