Put myself in a quandary...

[bldgengineer]

So I tried out the camera I thought I wanted over the weekend, the 400D/xti. I liked the camera. It felt good in my hands, focusing was good, and it put a smile on my face :) I was getting ready to leave but decided to try out the 30D that was sitting next to it, big mistake :eek: Now I don't know what to do. I liked the 400D and its price, but I loved the 30D, its burst rate, and controls. So I decided to come out from lurking for almost a year and ask you guys. I would like to get a new camera as I think I've out grown my P&S (dx6490), but autocross season(main reason I think I've outgrown my p&s) is getting ready to start again and I'm going to Jamaica in September. If I have to I am willing to wait, I just don't want to be spending $1000+ on a body in a few years when I could be spending it on a lens or two. What do you guys think?


Budget

* What budget have you allocated for buying this camera? Please be as specific as possible.
$1000.00 right now, but can save more. I'm not including a lens budget so please don't take that into account.

Size

* What size camera are you looking for? Or does size not matter at all to you?
doesn't matter

Features

How many megapixels will suffice for you?
doesn't matter

* What optical zoom will you need? (None, Standard = 3x-4x, Ultrazoom = 10x-12x, Other - Specify)
None

* How important is “image quality” to you? (Rate using a scale of 1-10)
9

Do you care for manual controls?
yes

General Usage

* What will you generally use the camera for?
Vacation, landscaping, wildlife, autocross racing, buildings

* Will you be making big prints of your photos or not?
biggest will be 8x10

Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos?
some, maybe inside of buildings during vacation

Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos?
yes, autocross and drag racing

Miscellaneous

Are there particular brands you like or hate?
I liked the canons, I had a little bit of trouble with the nikons(D80 and D200) but haven't tried any others like sony or pentax as none were at the store

Are there particular models you already have in mind?
Rebel XTI and 30D(or its replacement?)

(If applicable) Do you need any of the following special features? (Wide Angle, Image Stabilization, Weatherproof, Hotshoe, Rotating LCD)

[Ray Schnoor]

If you loved the 30d and only liked the XTi, then you will probably kick yourself later if you settle for the XTi.

That being said, does your $1000 figure include a lens, or would that be additional. Body only, the XTi runs $653 at BeachCamera and the 30d runs $1120. That is quite a big jump in price.

I have a Nikon D70 which I got in April of 2004(almost 3yrs old). I take quite a few photos, and have never had any problems with it. Although I am looking longingly at a few newer models, both Canon and Nikon, it is not because I am unhappy with the D70. It performs as well now as when I got it. I am sure that you would probably expect the same performance from either the XTi or 30D.

In other words, if you end up spending $1000+ on a camera every few years, it will be because you want the newer, up to date camera and not because your camera is not performing well.

Ray.

[coldrain]

Both are very good cameras... I see no reason why you would have to upgrade any of them once a follow-up comes along.

The XTi/400D's plusses:

Bit higher resolution
Little bit more sensitive AF sensors
Smaller
Lighter
Anti dust system that keeps dust a bit longer at bay

The EOS 30D's plusses:

Magnesium alloy body
Wheel on the back (XTi/400D only has one wheel)
Bigger
A little bit better at ISO 1600
Spot metering with 3% area, compared to 9% on the XTi as smallest

They both are very good, very close in image quality, they have their plusses.
It really is up to you to decide which is more attractive to you.
If size and weight are of concern, go for the XTi, I would say.
If not, then go for the 30D.

[bldgengineer]

If you loved the 30d and only liked the XTi, then you will probably kick yourself later if you settle for the XTi.

That being said, does your $1000 figure include a lens, or would that be additional. Body only, the XTi runs $653 at BeachCamera and the 30d runs $1120. That is quite a big jump in price.

I have a Nikon D70 which I got in April of 2004(almost 3yrs old). I take quite a few photos, and have never had any problems with it. Although I am looking longingly at a few newer models, both Canon and Nikon, it is not because I am unhappy with the D70. It performs as well now as when I got it. I am sure that you would probably expect the same performance from either the XTi or 30D.

In other words, if you end up spending $1000+ on a camera every few years, it will be because you want the newer, up to date camera and not because your camera is not performing well.

Ray.

My $1000 figure doesn't include lenses and I had to edit my first post to re-word what I meant about spending more on a body. What I meant was upgrading the body "in a few years" instead of "every few". Will a person new to SLR be able to out grow a XTI fairly quickly? I really like taking pictures of local autocross events and actually volunteer to help out on the track which gets me pretty close to the action but the pictures taken with my dx6490 are almost an embarrassment. I can take only about 200 frames(storage/battery/ability limitations) over the course of a day with my camera and about 2-5 normally come out well enough for me to be "happy" with, or should I say "good enough"?

[Ray Schnoor]

Since you are shooting autocross racing, you may like the faster continuous shooting mode of the 30d over the XTi. The battery of both will allow you to take many more photos than with your old P&S camera. You state storage as a limitation of photos/day on your old camera. This will only be worse with either the XTi or 30d, unless you buy more memory. Your DX6490 is only a 4MP camera and the XTi and 30d are 10MP and 8MP respectively. This will result in much larger files requiring more memory.

I don't see someone "outgrowing" either of these cameras. You may want something new/better/different when you see features on the newer cameras in a few years, but I'm sure that you could say that about any camera.

Ray.

[bldgengineer]

Alright, looks like I am just going to have to wait for a little bit longer then. The burst speed of the 30D is what really made me stop and think. My camera now has 3 FPS so I know what the speed of the xti would be like.

Oh well, let the waiting game begin :( . Maybe I can get some OT at work to speed things up a bit:cool:

Thanks guys