I am looking to buy a Canon Rebel XTI. I chose this camera based on a photographer friend’s advice, and Consumer reports review. Now that I know basically what I want, how should I go about buying it? Is there any advantage to silver or black, particularly? What vendor should I choose? Are there any accessories I need to get immediately?
I’m still relatively new to digital photography, having finally made the switch from film when I bought a Pentax istD2 easlier this year. Overall, I’d say the only accessory I wish I had (and will probably get at sometime in the near future) is a good flash. Nothing fancy, just something to mount on the top, since the little internal flash just doesn’t cut it (and can’t be aimed or adjusted beyond on/off).
What kind of lens(es) are you getting? I went with an 18-200 zoom; it may not be as good as a fixed-length lens at any given size, but the range pretty much covers every situation I encounter (95% of my pictures are of my son) without needing to swap lenses. Also, from what I’ve read, CCDs are less forgiving of dust and are harder to clean than lenses and mirrors, so the less frequently the camera innards are exposed the better.
At a minimum, you will want a second battery and the largest memory card you can find.
My camera came with an 8 MB card, which I promptly replaced with a 128 MB card. Earlier this year I sprung for the 1 GB card, which can hold about 600 photos at max 4 Mpixel resolution.
The second battery is so you can change batteries when you’re out taking photos all day, or so you can use one while charging the other. High resolution cameras suck down battery charge like there’s no tomorrow.
The camera body you purchase is important. It should have the features you want, and it essentially locks you into a family of lenses. I highly recommend B&H Photo in NYC, they are the gold standard of mail order/internet sales. The price might not be the absolute lowest available, but they will never do you wrong.
However, lenses are what make for image quality, not the camera body. The kit lens, the one that comes with the XTi, is adequate but not very good. There are much better lenses, both by Canon and 3rd parties, that are much better. But the right lens or lenses depends on how you plan on using your camera and your budget.
A dedicated photo site like DCResource would give you a more detailed review of lenses.
From everything I’ve read, an XTi is a terrific camera - although some people have complained that it tends to underexpose photographs. Lots of debate on that, but no definitive answer that I’ve seen. I have an XT (one generation behind the curve, and still a marvellous camera).
I’d buy it online, from any reputable vendor (always check them out on www.resellerratings.com), to get the best possible price.
The black and silver models are identical except for colour. I’d go with the black myself, but that’s just a personal preference.
Accessories: As Sublight noted, an external flash would make a huge difference. The built-in flash of the XTi is rather wimpy, and casts harsh shadows, because you can’t bounce or diffuse it. A Canon 430EX or a Sigma ST500 Super would be a good complement to your XTi.
The real spend isn’t going to be on the camera body, but on lenses. I would strongly recommend the kit lens (18-55mm, F/3.5-5.6) along with the 50mm F/1.8 (which is around $70). Depending on what sort of photography you’re interested in, you can start collecting lenses later. I’m lusting after a 400/5.6 and a 100/2.8 macro at the moment, but it’ll be a while before I can afford them.
You will also need a decent-sized memory card (at least 1GB, and two for preference) and an extra battery would also be useful. Sterlingtek has a good reputation for aftermarket batteries. At some point you might want to invest in a tripod or a monopod, and a camera bag is handy for keeping all that stuff close to hand.
One thing to keep in mind is that although DLSRs are capable of some astonishing shots which point-and-shoots couldn’t possibly match, they do have a steeper learning curve, both in terms of camera function as well as post-processing. I’ve only recently really become somewhat satisfied with my ability to use the camera to produce results that I’m happy with, and it nearly always involves some software work as well. Just saying that the initial hill might be a touch steeper, with several disappointments along the way, but the view from the top is most definitely worth it. It’s also useful if you start learning about camera function and exposure and f-stops and all the rest of it - that’s where you can really unleash the power of a DSLR. Understanding Exposure, by Brian Peterson, is an excellent book.
You can see some of my shots here: http://anuruddha.smugmug.com - all taken with the XT.
Well, our photographer friend may be giving us a couple of lenses. One is a fish eye lens that he can’t use with his camera and an inexpensive telephoto as he has a much better one now.
This will mainly be used by KellyM, not as much by me. We take pictures of our daughter, various small things like individual flowers and slime molds, landscapes, skyscrapers, and just everyday things that might be useful for wikipedia. She is the real photographer here.
The last time I bought a digital camera, a friend advised me to buy a ultraviolet filter, because they are cheaper to replace than the main lens and will protect it from dust etc. I assume this still holds as good advice.
I never use my camera without a UV filter (or other filter) on my lens. It can be the thing that saves your lens when you drop your camera or knock your lens into something. I also have a polarizing filter, good for sunny days.
Another Rebel XT user here. Primary use is kids’ sports activities, plus we’ve walked a few nearby wooded trails just for camera practice.
Multiple lenses have made all the difference for me. On well-lit days I can use a slower but longer lens, and for night games or indoor activities the 100mm 2.8 lens still gives great pictures without needing a flash. Agree that filters are a really inexpensive bit of protection.
I did manage to fill a 2-gig card in one session, so would recommend buying a larger card than you think you’ll need. And since I rarely use the screen on the back of the camera, battery life has never been a problem.
I know you’ve decided on a dslr, but if you don’t want to lug one around because of it’s size you might want to consider the Leica D-lux 3. I bought the Leica last week instead of a d-slr because of it’s size and it has most of the manual functions of a dslr if you don’t want to carry around all the different lenses. It is a 10megapixal and 4xdzoom and a Leica lens. You can also take video.
We have a fuji finepix 3800 and a fuji finepix 1400 which do fine for a lot of things, but are slow to take a shot, and KellyM really wants a digital slr. Some of her photos are here. The fuji finepix 1400 took better pictures, but the 3800 has more pixels, and those make for nice printouts.
Funny you should ask this, as there is a Canon XTi sitting in my Amazon cart right now about ready to be purchased…
There is no difference between silver and black, except that some people apparently find silver to be a “female” colour, whatever.
There is a great comprehensive review of the camera here: Canon EOS 400D / Digital Rebel XTi/ Kiss X Digital Review: Digital Photography Review
Amazon has a really good price and the best return policy I’ve ever found.
Unlike others I would wait and get accessories as you need them. At a minimum you need a memory card and one lens (unless you get the kit, in which case you’ve got a good, basic lens). Special lenses should wait depending upon what you actually want to shoot. I mean, the aforementioned 50mm 1.8 is good for portraits, so that might be a good one (and it’s cheap). If you want to get an everyday lens that is really good, I recommend the 28-135 with Image Stabilization, mainly because you get effectively 2 more stops of light flexibility (meaning, more shots without using a tripod or pushing to ISO800).
Seriously, though, IMO the base camera and lens, plus memory card, would be more than enough to get good with, and then you could see what you need as you need it. Some say that due to the different LCD display the battery life is not nearly what the XT was, and they recommend a spare battery. I would advise a lot of caution when buying third-party batteries for this camera - while some people report great success at a much lower price, others report spotty and sometimes awful performance. If you go for a cheaper, higher-capacity third-party battery, make sure the place you get it from has a great return/exchange policy.
Some professional people I know recommend against the filters for lens protection, but others do recommend them. Reputedly, the effectiveness of modern lenses makes UV filters somewhat redundant.
It’s supposed to be a great overall camera, a high-end digital SLR that you can go really far with and take fantastic photos. Fierra has the prior version, the 8MP XT, and she’s taken fantastic photos that could be made into large-format prints and sold professionally.
UV filters pretty much are redundant when it comes to filtering atmospheric haze so their only really useful function is lens protection. However, if you just get a cheap generic filter, you may run into problems with light refraction than can show up in your photo as floating lights or lens flare. More expensive, coated filters won’t have that problem.
Also, keep in mind that the XTI, which has been very well reviewed, is only half of the equation. Lenses are even more important than the body for getting excellent results and it makes no sense to buy an expensive body but then cheap out on the lens.
With that in mind, you should carefully take into consideration what you want to use the camera for. If you just want some family and vacation snapshots, then the kit lens should be adequate for your needs. If you want to do more formal portraiture, for example, then you should get a lens with a large aperture (like the aforementioned 50mm f1.8) to render backgrounds pleasingly out-of-focus. If you want to consistently produce large prints, you might want to splurge for more expensive LD glass to help achieve maximum sharpness. If you want to do close-ups and macro photography, consider getting a macro lens or at least one with a short minimum focus distance. The main thing is to read reviews. Lots of them.
Oh, besides a UV filter, you should definitely consider getting a circular polarizer. This filer blocks atmospheric scatter in the atmosphere, rendering richer, more saturated skies as well as blocking specular reflections from water, glass, leaves and other reflective surfaces. As an added bonus, it also acts as a neutral density filter enabling slower shutter speeds in brightly lit settings.
It’s really the only filter I can think of whose effects cannot be duplicated with photoshop.
Well, I went with buying it from newegg.com I have had no trouble with buying from them. I bought the basic lens set, and a macro lens. I also got a cleaner kit, a bag, uv filter, a 1gb, and 2gb flash memory cards. Some of that was in a discount bundle. I find we need at least two cards so KellyM can shoot more photos while I upload one set and decide what other shots I need. The next camera related purchase will be a flash. Newegg did not have in stock one that she thought would be useful.
I also bought Adobe cs standard. I should be all set to make holiday cards.
Heh. I’ve had an SLR since 1980 (an old Canon AE-1 Program I got for my 11th birthday). I can’t imagine that a DSLR is much harder to use than my 25 year old 35mm SLR. 
Definitely not. But getting good photographs from a DLSR (whether for printing or for viewing on screen) is definitely more tricky and involves more work than from your average point-and-shoot. It’s well-known that DSLRs are tend to be more conservative about saturation, contrast and sharpening, producing results that lack that final pop that a P&S can produce. This is done to give the photographer greater latitude in working with the picture later.
If you did your own developing and printing with film, I imagine it’ll be a lot less work, but I find that I spend almost as much time working on my photographs on my computer as actually shooting, to try and extract the most from them - and I’m still not very good at it. Just giving my $0.02 warning about what people might expect.
A few things to keep in mind for film SLR users switching to Digital SLRS:
Firstly, due to the smaller size of the image sensor, there is a focal length crop factor of about 1.5x. Thus, a moderate normal focal length of 50mm on a film SLR becomes the equivalent of a moderate telephoto focal length of 75mm. This is great for getting a little more zoom from that 55-200mm but your 24mm wide-angle lens is no longer very wide at its 36mm digital equivalent. Special digital-only wide-angle lenses have only recently become widely available and can go as wide as 10mm!
Secondly, the image sensor doesn’t have the high dynamic tonal range of most 35mm films. Actually, the sensor’s range most closely resembles that of slide film so it can be easy to blow-out the highlights in high-contrast lighting. It’s good practise to learn how to read the histogram and bracket photos with tricky lighting.
If you shoot JPG, you’ll be able to configure white balance, saturation, contrast and sharpening in-camera, but it’s preferable to shoot in RAW and make these adjustments in post-processing using PS or some other RAW processing software. The workflow is a little more involved but the results are worth it.
I see you’ve already made your purchase, but you still might find this page extremely useful in learning about some of the camera’s features.
We’ve also been very pleased with our purchases from Beach Camera, and have found they consistently have the lowest prices of any other retailer, be they internet or brick and mortar. So if you want accessories at a later time, you might check there, too.
I bought my Nikon D50 from B&H Photo and it’s a great site. They have a ton of camera accessories. It’s not always the cheapest place, but I trust it.
To jump on the bangwagon, lenses are really where it’s at. I’m trying in vain to save up for a 50 mm 1.4 and a 12-24 super wide angle right now (combined cost - 800 bucks) and the Nikon SB800 flash (like 350). A good flash can really improve photos - especially one you can use off-camera and can swivel and tilt. Bouncing light off low neutral colored ceilings can make indoor shots look a lot better, not harsh.
This isn’t universal. Canon has two full frame models that have no crop factor. Other dSLRs (Sony/Pentax/Olympus IIRC) have a 2x crop factor. With Canon, if you buy the EF-S (digital specifc) lenses they won’t work on a full frame camera body that you might someday buy, so that’s something to keep in mind when buying lenses.
Both sides of this are true. Shooting RAQ is more work. And it is worth it.