photography buffs, help me buy a DSLR camera
 

My wife and I have had the Canon S3IS for about 1 year.

http://www.digitalfunstuff.com.au/im...rshot-s3is.jpg

S3IS

It takes pretty good pictures and my wife has been getting a lot better with it. I'm thinking of upgrading to a digital SLR camera (xmas gift for wife) and figured some of you might have some suggestions.

Right now I'm torn between the Canon Rebel XTi

http://www.doobybrain.com/wp-content...-rebel-xti.jpg

and the Nikon D40X

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/8...kond40xjf6.jpg

and I have the following questions:

1) Lenses - How concerned should I be about the stock lenses? Should I go ahead and buy a better lens right out of the gate or learn with the stock lense first?

2) zoom - My current point and shoot has 10X optical zoom. What is the equivalent zoom on an SLR lens? I've tried googling this but haven't found a good answer.

3) in general, what should I be looking out for? I'm going to have this camera for a long time, so what should I be concerned with? Any tips on good books or DVDs for using an SLR? This camera will be for my wife but I would like to learn how to get the most out of it too.

Thanks OOT!

Re: photography buffs, help me buy a DSLR camera
 

www.kenrockwell.com has good reviews of DSLRs, he shoots mostly Nikon but has recently been shooting with Canons as well.

I have a Nikon D70S and am very happy with it. I haven't heard anything bad about Nikon stock lenses and wouldn't imagine Canon's to be any different. Before you start thinking about new lenses you should have an idea of what you are going to be shooting. Critters require longer lenses, landscapes and people shorter. The longest lens I've used was the Nikon low-end 70-300mm zoom and was very happy with it. Out of hundreds of images I think I saw chromatic aboration a couple of times, it wasn't very fast, but for what I was shooting it was fine. I can't imagine 10x zoom is more than 200mm but I don't know.

Googling around will give a bunch of different photography sites where you can see other peoples work and get tips. I would also recommend a beginners class at either a community college or through a local camera shop.

The D70S is a 6 megapixel camera and I haven't had any problems printing images up to 10"x14" for a 16"x20" frame, so don't be lured by high pixel counts. You can see the stuff I've done at http://gallery.mac.com/kerowo

Re: photography buffs, help me buy a DSLR camera
 

dpreview.com

the ultimate photography review site - just like avsforums.com - the forums there are full of neurotic people but a wealth of info. Great camera reviews.

Re: photography buffs, help me buy a DSLR camera
 

Re: photography buffs, help me buy a DSLR camera
 

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http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...part=1&vc=1

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good stuff in that thread, sure, but it's a year old. A lot has changed.

Re: photography buffs, help me buy a DSLR camera
 

what has changed? the cameras you are considering all more than a year old.

Re: photography buffs, help me buy a DSLR camera
 

[ QUOTE ]
what has changed? the cameras you are considering all more than a year old.

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no they're not. D40x and XTi are new versions. I figured a new thread to discuss this (buying a camera) might be in order.

Nevertheless, if the powers that be diagree, they may feel free to lock this and I will bump the old thread and humbly apologize for creating a new one.

Re: photography buffs, help me buy a DSLR camera
 

I chose the Nikon D80 over the D40 because of lens compatability - I have a significant investment in Nikor lenses that would not work on the D40.

I was also concerned about the "digital zoom" but, in reality, you can do a digital zoom on the optical image when you edit in your photo management software.

Re: photography buffs, help me buy a DSLR camera
 

Your "point and shoot" has 10X optical zoom??

Re: photography buffs, help me buy a DSLR camera
 

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Your "point and shoot" has 10X optical zoom??

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Yup, the S3IS does.

I just checked, 12X actually.