Hey everyone...I need some advice

[Stargazer79]

What are your thoughts on the Canon Eos Rebel XTi and Olympus Evolt? I'm getting serious about starting my business and taking my photography to the next level and need to up grade my camera. I currently have a small Olympus sp-500uz and although its great for small stuff, i get frustrated with the amount of time it takes in order to take another picture. Do you think the evolt would be the same?

My budget is about $800 - $1000 and am looking for something that may come as a bundle deal.

Any help is appreciated!

I look forward to meeting all of you in the coming months. :)

[mattdm]

From the timing numbers I've seen at review sites, the sp-500uz has pretty good performance. Can you describe exactly where you feel performance is a problem? One issue is that the camera uses xD cards, which are slow. You may see some benefit from buying a faster "Type H" xD card.

The Evolt would probably be a better performer. But, because when you buy a dSLR you're really buying into a whole camera system, I'd think twice before I bought anything other than Canon or Nikon. (And my second thought would be "Pentax".)

[Stargazer79]

Hey matt thanks for responding. As far as the sp-500 my biggest issue with it is the performance when i go from outdoors to indoors. most of the time the pics become blurry also even with it on sports mode i can never take consecutive pics without it pausing forever to take the picture. its actually very frustrating.

as far as cameras go i probably wouldn't look into the pentax just because i'm not really familiar with that name.

i started learning on a canon and have always loved it. the olympus i currently have was a gift for my bday a year ago(which was chosen for me) and my 35mm SLR is a Konica Minolta (i love it!)...lol but not sure how there DSLR measure up.

i have heard though that canon would probably be the best quality overall but just want to get others opinions about it as well.

thanks!

[mattdm]

Okay, so there's two issues. One is low-light performance, and there the dSLR will totally win. And that's a particular weakness of the sp550, apparently.

The second thing is write speed in continuous mode. I'm pretty sure moving to a type H xD card would help somewhat there, although maybe not enough to make you really happy with it.


On the dSLR replacement:

If you have nice lenses for your Konica Minolta, check out Sony's dSLR -- Sony bought them, and this is basically really their product with Sony's name. It does decently in the reviews and if you already have things that work with it, it'd give you a head start.

Pentax's K100d and K10d look great, and they are a long-established reputable camera maker -- don't necessarily discount them just because it's a less familiar name.

And as for Canon vs. Nikon -- there's already plenty of flamewars there. All are good.

[Honest Gaza]

Okay, so there's two issues. One is low-light performance, and there the dSLR will totally win.

....assuming you have appropriate lenses....so not necessarily a given.

[Norm in Fujino]

Olympus will be coming out with an upgraded version of their E-400 (http://www.olympus-europa.com/consumer/dslr_E-400.htm) (currently marketed in Europe only) within the next month or so. They'll also be adding a couple of more new dslrs to the lineup this year, including replacements for both the flagship E-1 and the E-500 (rumors are, both will probably have liveview and in-body IS).

[Riley]

like Norm
i would really be tempted to wait until after the PMA first week of March
there will be a lot of changes to model lineups particularly with Olympus
the E400 offered will be better than the existing model
but other bodies and lenses are on the table too

at least you wont be acting in haste
and trust me, its very easy to make costly mistakes that way

if you are ready to make a step up as you say
that to me says dSLR

[Stargazer79]

Thanks for the responses. This is a hard decision and I want to be sure I'm investing my money wisely :)