Digital camera advice (DSLR)

[skim36]

I just picked up a brand new Canon Digital Rebel EOS for my daughter off ebay.  8mp camera with a hardshell case...soft leather case...tripod...mini tripod...18-55 lens..wide angle lens...3 filters...cleaning kit...1 gig memory card and thumb drive card reader for $560.  She's going to go nuts....lol

[ChadTower]

The camera arrived yesterday... roughly 27 hours after I ordered it.

[boykster]

The camera arrived yesterday... roughly 27 hours after I ordered it.

damn, that donut shop site must have been turned into a Newegg shipping warehouse....

[ChadTower]

That would actually be pretty sweet.

This is what they put in instead of the donut shop... one other slot is soon to be a tanning bed place, and the third is still empty.  They've had real problems getting tenants.  Probably asking way too much.

[TOK]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I ended up ordering a Canon Rebel XTI 10 megapixel. It has all the features we need, and ended up coming in well under what I expected to spend.

[patrickl]

Cool, Happy shooting 

[TOK]

Thanks... With what I spent keeping it under a grand, I'm probably going to get a zoom lens, tripod and external flash. Can't wait to mess around with it.

The wife just wants to point and shoot... By reports, it does that pretty well, too. 

[XyloSesame]

Thanks... With what I spent keeping it under a grand, I'm probably going to get a zoom lens, tripod and external flash. Can't wait to mess around with it.

The wife just wants to point and shoot... By reports, it does that pretty well, too. 

I know a couple folks with Rebels; neither you nor your wife will be disappointed... Congrats!

[patrickl]

I recently bought myself a Joby Gorillapod. I got the SLR-Zoom version because the SLR doesn't seem strong enough for the weight of a dSLR plus a decent lens. With "GorillapodLOVE" you get 15% discount till the end of 2007.

I also own a carbon fiber Manfrotto tripod and a Manfrotto monopod. They are great, but they are a bit too cumbersome to take on the road for normal use. When I go on a photography trip, for  panoramic pictures and sometiems to car races then I carry one, but still.

[XyloSesame]

I recently bought myself a Joby Gorillapod. I got the SLR-Zoom version because the SLR doesn't seem strong enough for the weight of a dSLR plus a decent lens. With "GorillapodLOVE" you get 15% discount till the end of 2007.

I also own a carbon fiber Manfrotto tripod and a Manfrotto monopod. They are great, but they are a bit too cumbersome to take on the road for normal use. When I go on a photography trip, for  panoramic pictures and sometiems to car races then I carry one, but still.

Wow - those Gorillapods look GREAT! I might have to check that out...

[Level42]

Funny that I just saw this thread. Most pictures I've posted here were taken with my Fujifilm S6500fd.
The camera was (almost) perfect for my goals.
It's in what they call the Superzoom range, positioned just under the DSLR's. I didn't want a DSLR because it was too much money, just a little too big and I wanted to be able to make video's with it. Great for on holidays. I also didn't want the hassle and the extra cost for extra lenses. The 6500 has a very long zoom range, starting with 28 mm which is great for getting really wide-angle shots. I love the color rendition of the Fuji's I think it's the best I've seen, and yes I've seen lots of pics from Canon's and Nikon's.

I wanted manual zoom and focus (although the manual foxus is rarely used, the manual zoom is a blessing).
Although it doesn't have any anti-shaking I never missed that option. So I as very satisfied with it, untill that day that I picked it up and just didn't do anything anymore. Completely dead. I incidently just came back from the store. It had been in repair (sent to Fujifilm Netherlands) and despite having sent 4 letters, the camera hasn't returend. They tried (Media Markt) to give me a returned camere first (there was a sales date of august already hand-written on the warranty card !) which of course I refused (never know what's wrong with that one). Then they gave me my money back...

Now the 6500 is an "old" model. The new Fuji's don't seem to have manual zoom anymore, which I do not want to have to do without. The Superzooms seem to get less popular because of the falling prices of DSLR'. The only real alternative seems to be the Panasonic FZ30/40 or 50......

I still found a 6500 for sale, for much cheaper than I bought it then. That would leave me some money to spend on cabs, but upgrading a bit would be nice too.......I'm not sure yet...

How does the ultrasonic zoom of the Powershot G5 compare to real manual zoom ?

[patrickl]

I still found a 6500 for sale, for much cheaper than I bought it then. That would leave me some money to spend on cabs, but upgrading a bit would be nice too.......I'm not sure yet...

How does the ultrasonic zoom of the Powershot G5 compare to real manual zoom ?

That Fuji 6500 looks pretty nice. Especially for 250 euro or so. The Canon G5 must be a really old model? they are at G9 by now.

[TOK]

I recently bought myself a Joby Gorillapod. I got the SLR-Zoom version because the SLR doesn't seem strong enough for the weight of a dSLR plus a decent lens. With "GorillapodLOVE" you get 15% discount till the end of 2007.

I also own a carbon fiber Manfrotto tripod and a Manfrotto monopod. They are great, but they are a bit too cumbersome to take on the road for normal use. When I go on a photography trip, for  panoramic pictures and sometiems to car races then I carry one, but still.

Those are nice... I like taking pictures of the games in low light with no flash. If you shut of MAME's dimming feature during the pause, you can take the pics using the screens light. Up to now, I've been propping the camera on books, chairs, whatever. A bendable tripod is ideal.

[patrickl]

For indoor use and portraits a proper tripod might be better (easier), but that gorilla pod just claws onto everything so you will easily find things to attach it too.

[ChadTower]

ridiculously long newegg.com link

I have a Panasonic Lumix 5.1mp camera that's 2 years old and I'm tempted by this....

For reference, here is CNET's price page on that camera... looks like this newegg price is decent but not a screaming steal.

The NewEgg price also includes free shipping and a 1GB memory card for about the same price as the first 7 or 8 stores listed on the CNET page.  Plus NewEgg has a very large bundled price if you want or need the additional accessories.

If anyone was interested in how this turned out, two months later I'm still arguing with them trying to get that 1g SD card.  ---Deutsche Frankfurters---.

[billf]

ridiculously long newegg.com link

I have a Panasonic Lumix 5.1mp camera that's 2 years old and I'm tempted by this....

For reference, here is CNET's price page on that camera... looks like this newegg price is decent but not a screaming steal.

The NewEgg price also includes free shipping and a 1GB memory card for about the same price as the first 7 or 8 stores listed on the CNET page.  Plus NewEgg has a very large bundled price if you want or need the additional accessories.

If anyone was interested in how this turned out, two months later I'm still arguing with them trying to get that 1g SD card.  ---Deutsche Frankfurters---.

I've never had even one problem with NewEgg and I've ordered lots from them.

[TOK]

I also got our camera from Newegg. I noticed that in the order section there was one link with the free memory card bundle and one without for the same price.

A 1gig Compact Flash card is under 12 bucks. Perhaps not worth a month of arguing.

[ChadTower]

A 1gig Compact Flash card is under 12 bucks. Perhaps not worth a month of arguing.

That is pretty much my conclusion... though after this last attempt tonight to rectify the situation, it's either I recieve the card or I no longer do business with NewEgg.   

[ChadTower]

To backfill this thread, my wife really likes that Canon.  She's been playing with it quite a bit and she is defintiely not a gadget-lover.  We haven't tried to print anything from pics taken with it but they do display quite well on large screens thus far.  The wife was particularly happy that she can take the media card out, plop it right into the Wii, and look at the photos on the TV.

And I did eventually get that SD card from them.