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Oh yeah, one other thing. I'd skip that 500mm Vivitar for now. That's a mirror lens, btw. I don't know if you're familiar with mirror lenses, but they have some major drawbacks. Get your bread and butter lenses and accessories first, then consider things like mirror lenses.
Oh yeah, one other thing. I'd skip that 500mm Vivitar for now. That's a mirror lens, btw. I don't know if you're familiar with mirror lenses, but they have some major drawbacks. Get your bread and butter lenses and accessories first, then consider things like mirror lenses.
So true! I have a 500mm mirror lens and frankly don't use it except once or twice a year. Even then I don't share the images it makes because it isn't up to the quality I like to show to others. You have to have a LARGE amount of light to get a decent image because they are so slow, and the backgrounds that are out of focus look...odd.
Hey Nancy, it's been mentioned before on this thread, but since you posted the above I wanted to make sure you understand.... The cameras you're considering all have the "crop factor" with a smaller sensor than 35mm film, so to get the equivalent of that 200mm lens (on your 35mm film camera), you'd want a 135mm lens. Smaller sensors have their drawbacks but also advantages. Lenses are cheaper!
I've been a Canon user (mostly professionally) since 1968 and have always had good luck with them. Initially Nikon had the better system, then Canon did, and now I think it's pretty even between the two. (I was a newspaper publisher throughout the 70s and had Nikons for staff cameras.)
I wouldn't knock Sony either, except the last time I called their tech service department they were totally clueless. I asked a very simple question about flash compatibility and was told I'd have to buy a camera to find out if it would work with standard studio strobes. That was before they bought out Minolta, so hopefully they have better people in their tech department now. I sure hope so!
Pentax and Olympus also make good digital SLRs from what I hear, and they've been around about as long as Canon, Nikon and Minolta. My guess is that for consumer grade cameras, they're all pretty equal.
As a professional, I'd stick with Canon or Nikon for now, but that's mostly for reasons that wouldn't affect you. (i.e., Canon Professional Services, huge lens/accessory selection, excellent high-end pro bodies, etc.) For amateur use, the only real advantage that I know of with Canon and Nikon is that they're more popular -- more dealers and more friends who might loan you a lens or flash when needed.
Have fun shopping, and let us know what you get!
Thank you for your advice/info. I'll definatley let you know what I decided on.
So today DH and I were off to the Chevy dealer to have my blazer inspected when he swerved to miss a pair of pliers in the road but caught them with the rear tire, sure enough they punchured the tire, great! So we came back home and he tossed on the spare and we headed to Cost Co since that's where they were purchased and we have a warranty.
So since we have some time to kill we tootle inside the store and lo and behold there it is, a new display of digital camera packages and what do you know, they now have a Canon T1i package.
So after reading reviews and pricing different stores and websites. DH asked me if it was a good price and I said yes, so he said grab a box and get in line! So that's exactly what I did.
I am so excited and I wanted to thank you all for your advice. I'll be posting photo's soon!
So today DH and I were off to the Chevy dealer to have my blazer inspected when he swerved to miss a pair of pliers in the road but caught them with the rear tire, sure enough they punchured the tire, great! So we came back home and he tossed on the spare and we headed to Cost Co since that's where they were purchased and we have a warranty.
So since we have some time to kill we tootle inside the store and lo and behold there it is, a new display of digital camera packages and what do you know, they now have a Canon T1i package.
So after reading reviews and pricing different stores and websites. DH asked me if it was a good price and I said yes, so he said grab a box and get in line! So that's exactly what I did.
I am so excited and I wanted to thank you all for your advice. I'll be posting photo's soon!
Sweet! Thats great to hear. I think you will have a great time learning your new camera. Do you get to use right away or is it a Christmas gift. My wife sometimes make me wait for things like that around the holidays.
Sweet! Thats great to hear. I think you will have a great time learning your new camera. Do you get to use right away or is it a Christmas gift. My wife sometimes make me wait for things like that around the holidays.
Derek
Oh no, DH let me open it up, in fact he opened the box. I've got the battery charged and now just have to sit and read the manual and get it set up to start using, or maybe I should say get "me" set up, lol. It's an early x-mas gift.
If you know how to use a 35mm film camera, it's just a matter of learning the buttons and menus. Instead of selecting the film speed, you set the ISO on the camera. Instead of picking indoor or outdoor film, you set the color temp on your camera. It's not really much different than shooting film. I shot a wedding the first week I switched to digital. Some people thought I was nuts, but I just treated it like a film camera and had no problems.
One thing you'll want to learn to use is the histogram. Digital has narrower latitude than film, but the histogram will save you from poor exposures.
im going the other way, more and more i appreciate my old nikon fe with velvia 50 film... just beautiful colors and resolution thats soooooo smooth that my digital just cant match it yet...
as much as i like my nikon d300 the velvia images look so much more alive. im not sure exactley what the equal resolution to film is but the number 25,000 megapixels minimum seems to stick in my head.
fine detail like blades of grass, hair and leaves look so much nicer to my eye in slide film.
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I sure hope so!
So that's exactly what I did. 
