Calis
09-07-2007, 05:09 PM
Ok, so I just recently ran into a little money I wasn't expecting and I've decided to put that money towards a camera. I'm sure I want to make the jump up to a DSLR but at the entry level of that. A couple years back I was looking into it and was really wanting the Canon Digital Rebel, and I'm looking now and the XT looks to be a pretty good buy still.
I'm not taking professional shots or anything, but I'm not looking for just taking pictures of birthdays parties. I want something I can walk around and just fiddle with, and something that leaves me plenty of learning room. I'm also for the most part on a budget, which leads to my question.
Right now I'm torn between two cameras. The Digital Rebel XT still looks like one of the best out there, and the price is right for roughly 600 bucks. This is what I just assumed I would buy until I started looking around...
I've been looking at Sony's Alpha A100 and becoming very intrigued with it. It has some nice features, and has an image stabilizier built into the camera which the Canon's have in the lenses leading to the absurd prices for lenses. It looks like I'd save a lot of cash in lenses going the Sony route and it sounds like a pretty sweet camera with the exception of taking photos at ISO settings of 800 or 1600 having really bad noise from what I read. I would be wanting to take quite a few pictures at night and am wondering if this kills it, because from what I hear the Rebel XT is fantastic at 800 and 1600 ISO.
So basically I'm asking, if you were looking to spend maybe 800 bucks on a Digital SLR what would you shoot for? Is it even that big of an upgrade for me if I'm not going to be buying much in the way of lenses for a while? The Sony does come with a much better default lens than the Canon also, but is the need to immediately get a new lens overblown? Everywhere I read they say you have to buy one basically right away. As a leisurely photographer would I really notice that much?
Anyone have any experience with either of these two? And what would be absolute must-have accessories? I was planning on picking up an extra battery, probably a case of some sorts, and maybe some sort of flash? Probably a couple memory cards as well rather than a big one. I'd like to take mostly RAW photos as I really want to work with photoshop more to get comfortable with it.
I'm not taking professional shots or anything, but I'm not looking for just taking pictures of birthdays parties. I want something I can walk around and just fiddle with, and something that leaves me plenty of learning room. I'm also for the most part on a budget, which leads to my question.
Right now I'm torn between two cameras. The Digital Rebel XT still looks like one of the best out there, and the price is right for roughly 600 bucks. This is what I just assumed I would buy until I started looking around...
I've been looking at Sony's Alpha A100 and becoming very intrigued with it. It has some nice features, and has an image stabilizier built into the camera which the Canon's have in the lenses leading to the absurd prices for lenses. It looks like I'd save a lot of cash in lenses going the Sony route and it sounds like a pretty sweet camera with the exception of taking photos at ISO settings of 800 or 1600 having really bad noise from what I read. I would be wanting to take quite a few pictures at night and am wondering if this kills it, because from what I hear the Rebel XT is fantastic at 800 and 1600 ISO.
So basically I'm asking, if you were looking to spend maybe 800 bucks on a Digital SLR what would you shoot for? Is it even that big of an upgrade for me if I'm not going to be buying much in the way of lenses for a while? The Sony does come with a much better default lens than the Canon also, but is the need to immediately get a new lens overblown? Everywhere I read they say you have to buy one basically right away. As a leisurely photographer would I really notice that much?
Anyone have any experience with either of these two? And what would be absolute must-have accessories? I was planning on picking up an extra battery, probably a case of some sorts, and maybe some sort of flash? Probably a couple memory cards as well rather than a big one. I'd like to take mostly RAW photos as I really want to work with photoshop more to get comfortable with it.