Which Camera? Canon xti, xsi, or 40D?

[dott99]

I am in the process on trying to decide what camera body and lens I should buy for taking pictures of our pianos. We are a 4th generation piano restoration company and have over 90 pianos for sale - http://www.lindebladpiano.com/gallery.asp. I have been using a regular sony point and shoot but I want to make our photographs stand out that much more than our competitors. I will be mainly be using the camera I buy indoors to shoot our pianos that we have for sale in our showroom. It is very important that the photos show the detail that our pianos have to offer. Many of them have carvings, exquisite veneers, etc. To really make our photos really look great, I am trying to decide what camera I should buy - 40D or XSI or XTI. Since I'll be using a tripod most the time, I'm also trying to decide whether to buy the Tamron 17-55mm lens or spend more money for the Canon 17-55mm lens. Thanks to anyone that puts their two sense in, I'd really appreciate it!

[Csae]

Unless you have experience with photography, you need to understand that just buying a camera and a lens will not necessarely get you amazing results.

They will be better then a p&s, but in the hands of a skilled photographer they will be blown out of the water and you will need to invest time to get good photos.

I would suggest you to just pickup a photographer to do the photos for you : P

If you do have experience, and are looking for the best results the 40D/Canon 17-55 is the strongest of the ones you mentioned, but the XSi and XTi are basically cheaper versions with slightly less features but good results none the less.

If you team it up with a laptop/desktop and tripod, you can make use of the LiveView to get really precise results.

[speaklightly]

dott99

My vote go for the Canon XSi camera with the Canon 18-55mm IS lens.

Sarah Joyce

[Turn]

I agree with Sarah Joyce, XSi is the right mix of poison IMO

[lukeap69]

Since you will be using tripod, get a better one. Don't go for cheap but unstable tripods. For your purpose, I suggest get the XTi and Tamron 17-50 2.8 and a good book on photography.

Cheers

[raven15]

The tripod is by far the most potent tool in your arsenal, along with nice lighting I imagine. It doesn't really matter what camera and lens you have after that. I imagine you'd be shooting at ISO 100 and f/8 or f/11 either way. I'm not sure the pictures on your website even need a fancy camera, a tripod and fancy lighting would be most effective in my (somewhat poor) judgment.

[TheWengler]

I'd go for some lighting first. A fancier camera would be nice as well. Generally the lens choice would be more important than the camera body you choose. But in a studio set up you're going to have the lens stopped down. An f/2.8 lens probably isn't necessary. Will the camera be used for other things in addition to photographing pianos? A tripod could also be important, but you may not need it if you have really good lighting.

[dott99]

thanks for the feedback so far, some of you have mentioned lighting, what kind of lighting set up would you recommend?