Sunday, September 30, 2007

HB Presents :Advice Wanted-Camera Edition



I'm kind of a fool for returning my Birthday gift this year, a Canon Digital Rebel XT. My current camera has been dragged around for years, it's worn out, slow and pretty much obsolete. So, as I've gotten more interested in learning about photography and have really enjoyed snapping pictures of Noah, Jon decided to surprise me for my birthday. I've been borrowing his work camera for the past year and it was time to have something to call my own. So, when I looked down at my new SLR Camera, it's lens, strap, case, instruction manual, I was a bit overwhelmed and wondering if I indeed needed or deserved such a cool toy as merely a stay at home Mom.

In the end, I decided to send the camera back and to look for something a little less advanced, cheaper, lighter, more like a high-end point and shoot. Then...two days later I regretted it.

Ok, so that bring us to now. I've been casually looking around at both SLR's and other digitals. I know that some of our readers are also photographers and wondered if anyone has advice or input that would help me with my search. Currently I am trying to chose between another Canon Digital Rebel XT, the Canon S5 or Canon's Powershot G9, which just came out. I would also like to hear from any Nikon SLR owners as I was originally looking at the D40/D70 and would like to know why you chose a Nikon over a Canon.

I've made out a spreadsheet to compare the different camera's and I've also compiled a short list of the top features that I am looking for:

1.) I love photos with people in them and since the person I mainly shoot is Noah and he's a very active kid who never sits still, at the top of my list is a fast shutter speed.

2.)Kind of to go along with this speed theme, I need a camera with a good recycling time and high FPS (Frames per second).

3.)The megapixels are important, but not totally, as I don't do a ton zooming in and blowing images up. I'd like to go no less that 8.0 megapixels.

4.)An articulated screen is kind of fun. Not necessary, but fun. I know the SLR's don't have them.


Ok, so there's the list. Let me know your camera stories if you have recommendations. Thanks for reading and don't forget to check my oh so exciting photos over @ Flickr!

2 comments:

Laura said...

Unfortunately, I can offer you no advice. I, too, would love a more new digital camera. I've had my sights on one for awhile but, it's a pipe dream. Everything you want in a camera is what I want to so, let me know which one you end up with. I am sick of hauling around my bulky Kodak.
On another note, I love the new Noah pictures! You do have a natural knack for photography and I'm glad that you're having fun exploring that avenue.

Jeremy said...

Over the years I've owned a lot of digital cameras, Kodak, Olympus, Minolta, Canon, and I can say that in my opinion, Canon is definitely the front-runner as far as names go, so keep looking at Canons.

Actually, for the past 3 years, I've owned a Canon PowerShot A310 which is a good basic everyday digital camera.

However, if you want to go to a high-quality digital camera, I would suggest checking out Canon's high-end Powershot lineup - I'm personally looking at getting a Powershot S5.

If you want to go SLR - The Canon Digital Rebel is probably a good place to start - kind of on the bottom end of their lineup, but still a good quality camera.

Both cameras above have all the usual bells and whistles, but the one thing I like is you can also manually adjust settings like shutter speed,f-stops, white balance, all the fun things photography is about.