I’m new to the digital world and I need as much help as I can get!

[MizzouTDJB]

I’m new to the digital world and I need as much help as I can get. I wrote a post here about a week ago, but after further research I don’t know what to choose – there are so many good options. I’m hoping I can get some great feedback! Maybe my answers to the questions below will add some more insight to what I’m looking for.

Budget

* What budget have you allocated for buying this camera? Please be as specific as possible. ~$1,500

Size

* What size camera are you looking for? Or does size not matter at all to you? A digital SLR that is easy and comfortable to hold.

Features

How many megapixels will suffice for you? 10

* What optical zoom will you need? (None, Standard = 3x-4x, Ultrazoom = 10x-12x, Other - Specify) I know I’ll need multiple lenses eventually, but I’ll start out with something around 10x.
* How important is “image quality” to you? (Rate using a scale of 1-10) 8

Do you care for manual controls? I’ve used them in the past. I seem to get a more “personal” feel for my photographs when I use manual controls, but maybe someone can suggest something different.

General Usage

* What will you generally use the camera for? Landscapes, building, and sports.
* Will you be making big prints of your photos or not? Yes.

Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos? Not often – more low light than indoors.
Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos? Yes.

Miscellaneous

Are there particular brands you like or hate? I like Canon and Nikon.

Are there particular models you already have in mind? Nikon D80, Nikon D200 and Canon XTi.

(If applicable) Do you need any of the following special features? (Wide Angle, Image Stabilization, Weatherproof, Hotshoe, Rotating LCD) I would like wide angle, image stabilization and weatherproofing.

[mattdm]

First, have you played around with these cameras in a store? Or even better, had the opportunity to take them for a spin? I think that's going to be your biggest deciding factor, because they really do have a different feel.

Is $1500 your total budget, or the budget for the body alone?

For the zoom, the questionnaire is really worded with an eye towards compact digicams. "10x" is really meaningless except as an expression of how much versatility you have without changing lenses.


If weatherproofing is really important to you, add the Pentax K10D to your list. The Nikon D200 is pushing the top of your price range, and the K10D has that and image stabilization in the body for much less.

[coldrain]

You really need to do some more reading I think, to get an idea about lenses, lens quality and focal lengths. The question of the 10x zoom stuff is more geared towards compact digital cameras.

10X is not anything though... just a marketing number.
Focal ranges work as follows on a APS-C size sensor:

30-35 mm is "standard focal length", the perception of depth is about the same as how we view the world with our own eyes.

28mm and down gets more and more wide angle. Distances get exaggerated, perspective gets exaggerated too.

50mm to 85mm is portrait range, a slight tele effect that will be flattering to portraits.

100mm and above are tele ranges, they are mainly used to bring things far away closer, and will shorten distance and flatten perspective.

You can get a few "10x" lenses, like a consumer grade 18-200 lens, which will cover moderate widenangle to some tele range. You can get an expensive Canon 28-300 IS L lens that costs more than your entire budget, which goes from standard to quite a bit of tele. You can get a Sigma 50-500, which is big and heavy, and goes from portrait range to a lot of tele, and costs more than will fit in your budget.

So, forget about "10x" in a lens, and understand what focal ranges will mean.

Now about the cameras you mention. You list the XTi and D80, and the D200. The D200 seems out of the race because its price will leave no room for lenses, especially no lenses that will give image quality rating "10".

Why you left out the Canon EOS 30D I do not know.

The only one offering weather sealing is the D200, but again, that camera takes up all of your stated budget. And are you weather proof yourself? Any camera can take light rain... I myself do not like photographing in heavy rain, so to me weather sealing is a useless marketing word.

They often say that in order of importance, this is what is important for good photos/image quality:
1. Photographer
2. Lenses
3. Camera body

I agree with this, lenses are more important than the camera for the final results. So directing all of your funds to a camera body (D200) to me seems wrong.

That leaves the XTi and D80, from your list. My preference goes to the XTi because I like the results from its sensor better, but others may find no difference there or may like the D80 better.

I'd choose what lenses I would like, and then maybe later upgrade to a new body of what ever is current then, instead of going for something cheap lenswise first.
I would look at for instance a Canon EF 70-300 IS USM which is razor sharp upto 300mm, and has good colour and contrast, and gives you your wished for IS. Complement it with a Sigma 18-50 f2.8 EX DC macro or Tamron 17-50 f2.8 Di II, for the moderate wide angle upto portrait range.

This will give you quite good lenses to start with, in case of the Sigma lens also a nice moderate macro possibility, all within your budget with an XTi.

If you have your heart set on a Nikon D80, the Nikon 70-300 ED VR will give you the same range and also IS. It is not of the same high standard optically as the Canon, especially at 300mm, but it is still quite a good lens.
It will however cost between $100-150 more I think, at the current prices.
If you pair that lens with the Sigma 18-50 f2.8 EX DC macro you will have a nice set too.

You can of course also check out a Pentax K10D which has IS in body and comes weather sealed, I am not so informed about all the different lens options for pentax though, so it is a bit hard to advice you there.

[Ray Schnoor]

From your choices it seems that it is between the XTi and the D80. The D200 would put you above budget and so would the 30D for that matter.

I wouldn't worry about the cost of the Nikon AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED AF-S VR lens being $100-$150 more than the comparable Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM. B&H Photo actually has the Nikon at $20 less. The main differences in cost between the 2 will be that the XTi is about $200 less than the D80.

I don't think that you will see much difference in photo quality between the XTi and the D80, though, and it will be more a choice of the other qualities and layout of the 2 cameras. Since you are new to digital photography, it will not bother you that the D80 uses SD cards and the XTi uses CF cards. I personally prefer CF cards since I have a pretty good supply of them. Then it comes down to the layout of the camera. Choose whichever one feels better to you and is easier for you to use. No one can answer that question for you. You will have to make that choice.

Ray.