Canon S5 IS or Rebel XT

[crazyfarmer]

I know these are 2 different cameras but I am upgrading from my old S1 IS which was a great camera. My mother in law is buying that one from me. I was wondering if I should stock with the S5 line since all the reviews seem to be great or if I should try the Rebel XT since I am always very picky about my shots. I want the best possible pictures straight from the camera without having to edit alot also. But im not afraid to play with features still.

Its only 150 dollars difference in price so I was wondering if the rebel XT would be worth it and if its user friendly. I know the factory 18-55mm lens isnt great either and Im sure I would get a better one later on. But does anyone have any suggestions on these 2 why one would be better than the other. The biggest plus of the S5 would be that I already know how to use that since its the same layout as the S1 but 8mp instead of 3.2 and 12x zoom. It also had a vid feature.

bascially, should I make the DSLR plunge or stick with a top notch point and shoot:)

[JTL]

bascially, should I make the DSLR plunge or stick with a top notch point and shoot:)You've started to prepare yourself well...because going to a DSLR is a "plunge". It's an investment. It's not just the cost of the cameras. The S5 has a 432mm zoom. To get that kind of reach with an XT, you would need to spend a thousand more dollars on a long tele lens. Plus there is no lens for an SLR that has the wide to tele range of the lens on the S5. And, of course, there's the movie mode...which is really quite good. But, you will never get the quality out of the S5 that would will get out of the XT mated with a high-quality lens (but remember...the XT kit lens is severly lacking...and you need to figure that into your cost comparison). So, if you are on the fence, and money is an issue, or you're just looking for a great do-it-all camera, I would say get the S5...it's a fine camera. But, if you want to take your photography to new levels and a prepared to make the requisite investments and commitment, the XT would be the way to go (get the body only...not the kit...and the new 18-55mm IS lens or 55-250mm IS lens separately for starters...depending on what you think you'll be shooting most).

Only you can answer these questions...but you knew that already! :)

[crazyfarmer]

is the new 18-55mm IS that much better than the kit one. I see its roughly 180-250bucks most places. If I got that, i just wanted to make sure it gives nice crisp photos compared to the kit 18-55mm

also, those with the XT, is it pretty simple to use? I want to make sure my wife can click and shoot if needed:)

im still on the fence with both

[JTL]

is the new 18-55mm IS that much better than the kit one. I see its roughly 180-250bucks most places. If I got that, i just wanted to make sure it gives nice crisp photos compared to the kit 18-55mm

also, those with the XT, is it pretty simple to use? I want to make sure my wife can click and shoot if needed:)

im still on the fence with bothThe new 18-55 IS is much, much better than the old kit lens. It's in a different league entirely.

Here's an excerpt from Photozone:

Verdict

There were a few moments when I considered not to publish the results due to "political correctness" because to date it was a quite absurd thought that such a cheap, or better "affordable", lens can perform this good and I'm sure that some will not believe the findings even though they're supported by the published field images. Anyway, the resolution capabilities of the Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS is nothing short of amazing. This is also surprising regarding the rather small changes in the optical design compared to the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II. Still - the center resolution is excellent throughout the range even at wide-open aperture. Unlike most dedicated APS-C standard zoom lenses it is capable to keep a very good level even at the extreme corners of the image field. Its resolution characteristic is similar to the (much higher priced) EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 USM IS at comparable aperture settings, quite a bit better than the EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 USM IS and naturally vastly improved over its non-IS predecessor! Field curvature is not an issue. So is it a perfect lens then ? No, naturally not. It has its weaknesses - notably strong barrel distortions at 18mm and very high vignetting at 18mm @ f/3.5. Chromatic aberrations are well controlled at the extreme ends of the zoom range but quite pronounced around 28mm. In the field the lens struggles in contra light situations whereas the bokeh (out-of-focus blur) is pretty good within the limits of its depth-of-field capabilities. All-in-all the optical aspects are impressive and that's not only regarding the low price tag. The image stabilizer is quite efficient with a real world "gain" equivalent to about 3 f-stops. On the mechanical side things aren't so rosy. Canon changed the cosmetics of the lens and it certainly "looks" better now but the actual implementation has only been marginally improved compared to the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II. The plastic quality (down to the lens mount) spoils subjective quality perception quite a bit. The inner lens tube does still wobble significantly and accurate manual focusing remains next to impossible. However, the AF speed and accuracy is very decent and that's probably good enough for most users anyway. The Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS is certainly a value king, priced below 200€/US$, which is a good match for the resolution potential of the current generation of Canon's APS-C DSLRs.

Regarding the XT...it can be shot in Auto and act just like a point & shoot. Entirely newbie friendly. You can also choose Program Mode which is like Auto but you gain control of ISO...the first step in learning to take control of your camera. If you take a few minutes and customize the in-camera settings (increasing sharpness, saturation and contrast), you can get nice, punchy jpegs right out of the camera. It's when you decide to step up to Manual Mode where the XT becomes slightly inconvenient due to the fact that it only has one control wheel...but you get use to that pretty quickly. So the answer is: it's as simple or as complex as you want it to be. ;)

Needless to say, from image quality perspective, the sensor in the XT (like the 20D) matches or beats the the current crop of Canon APS-C cameras, even though the newer cameras are significantly more feature laden. But, I've tried them all, and still nothing makes me say that I need to upgrade my XT. For the price...less than $400...nothing can touch it. Of course, others may have different opinions. :)

[crazyfarmer]

thanks for the help JTL! If I go for the rebel, ill definitly look at getting the body only and the newer 55mm lens. One quick question, what do the different ISO settings help do? I know mine now has ISO from 50 - 400 but I was wondering what ISO works better for which types of pictures. Consider this a ISO lesson for dummies:)

thanks again for the help

[JTL]

thanks for the help JTL! If I go for the rebel, ill definitly look at getting the body only and the newer 55mm lens. One quick question, what do the different ISO settings help do? I know mine now has ISO from 50 - 400 but I was wondering what ISO works better for which types of pictures. Consider this a ISO lesson for dummies:)

thanks again for the helpYou are most welcome Crazinator! :)

Changing the ISO setting changes the senor's sensitivity to light (analogous to ASA number for film). The higher the ISO setting, the more sensitive the sensor is to light, e.g. at ISO 100 the sensor is one stop less sensitive than at ISO 200. ISO 400 is one stop more sensitive than ISO 200 and so on and so forth. So, why is this important? For one reason, the higher the ISO setting, the faster the shutter speed you can use. There is a reciprocal relationship between shutter speed, aperture and ISO So, for example, at a given aperture, each increase in an ISO stop also gives you an increase of one stop of shutter speed (conversely, for any given shutter speed, each increase in an ISO stop also gives you and increase of one stop of aperture size)...within the camera/lens limits, of course. One practical application of this would be if you need/want to shoot in lower light while avoiding motion blur. But, increasing your ISO setting comes at a cost...and that cost is digital noise. Noise occurs because as you increase ISO you are actually increasing the "gain" of the sensor. Just like with audio equipment, there is a signal-to-noise ratio. The amount of digital noise (electrical interference which manifests itself as speckles in your image) increases as the the gain increases. Some cameras handle high ISO settings and the resulting noise better than others. The XT handles high ISO extremely well, with almost no noise up to ISO 400, very mild noise at ISO 800 and unobtrusive noise at ISO 1600. So, in reality for up to 8x10 prints, noise is a non-issue with the XT....so you can use higher ISO settings with confidence that you're not ruining your images. But, as a general rule, you want to shoot at the lowest ISO setting possible for the given lighting situation/conditions to achieve the cleanest, most detailed images.

It is also worth noting that for any given ISO setting, there is a reciprocal relationship between shutter speed and aperture for a correctly exposed shot. For each one stop increase in shutter speed, there is a one stop increase in aperture size (smaller f/number) to maintain the same exposure. There are other issues to consider when making exposure decisions such as depth of field...but we're getting way ahead of ourselves. And, thankfully, if your head is exploding trying to keep all of this straight just before it's time to take the family shots, just dial it back to auto, point and shoot. You can learn at your own pace.

Here's a good set of basic tutorials that explains some of this better than I can:

http://www.photoxels.com/digital-photography-tutorials.html

Here's some additional tutorials that cover some of the same subjects, but a little differently. In addition, there are quite a few more technical subjects covered (some of which you don't need to be bothered with for a while):

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials.htm

Once you have your new camera, and have throughly explored the user guide, applied some of the online tutorial lessons and practiced a bit, this book is a good read to give you some basic grounding in photographic principles:

http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Exposure-Photographs-Digital-Updated/dp/0817463003/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205295363&sr=8-1

But be warned, if you wind up with a DSLR and read this book, the photography bug will bite you good! :D:):D

Hope this helps! Let's hear what you decide and how you do! :)

[crazyfarmer]

thanks again.... Ive been biten by this a long time ago. Just never taken the plunge and gotten a decent entry level camera other than point and shoots which ive been happy with. Anything I want a decent picture of, ill take 20 shots to get one perfect picture.

I just wanted to make sure the wife would be able to use this camera also on basic point and shoot auto mode. Ill end up getting her a small point and shoot camera later though. Mainly I want to get decent photos of my kids at sporting events, auto shows, and wildlife.

Oh and Im looking at a 28-135mm IS Canon Lense now. Is that lens ok for the rebel. I know its not to cheap, but the 135mm should be enough zoom to get me by for a little while untill I can save up for a 200mm or bigger zoom. I just wanted to make sure that lens works great for close up portraits also.