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The wife wants a new digital camera. She wants something that is more advanced than the standard point and click but is not ready for a professional grade camera. It would be used mostly for photos of our kids, vacations, and some landscapes. She's been getting into photography for the last couple of years and wants to take some classes.
We've been looking at the Canon Rebel XTi and the Nikon D40x. Anyone have any opinions or experience with either of these cameras?
Either are excellent DSLRs and will be great cameras to grow into. The differences between Canon and Nikon in general are more religious than they are technical. However, between the two, the Canon will give you better high ISO performance. Plus the Canon has a sensor cleaning system, whereas the Nikon does not. That's important, because DSLRs get dust inside that settles on the sensor and shows up as spots on your images. And don't forget which ever manufacturer you choose will affect your lens choices as well.
Other than that, you might want to go into a camera shop and handle both cameras and explore the menu layouts and features in person to see if one of them speaks to you more than the other.
I use Nikon, my reasoning? When i held both cameras in my hands, i liked feel of Nikon better then Canon LOL. I know, it might sounds stupid, but after playing with it, I was more comfortable with Nikon.
Kdog made a good point regarding ISO, i know Canon is better in that area, my D80 still pretty noisy at 800 and up, so PS for the resque!!
Also, you're buying into the system with either camera, find out lens line for both, read reveiws and choose line of lenses that are more appropriate to your subject of photography. Overall, both cameras are great, RebelXTi is newer vs. Nikon D40. If budget not an issue, i'd look into D70 or D80 as well.
I recommend the Canon. A while back I purchased one after a few months of consideration and due diligence. The XTi is a great entry level DSLR. Whats really great is the variety of lenses that are available for the different types of photography she may do.
Take a look at this site for more info on the Canon and its capabilities. There's a forum for XTi owners and image galleries for the different lenses available.
Both cameras have excellent choise of lenses, not just Canon, that was silly comment btw!
Also, 3rd party lenses are compatable with both cameras, could be a lot cheaper and quiet good.
Canon vs. Nikon is a never ending war in photograpy world. You'll need to decide for yourself, and read read read!!
I shoot with canon. I owned the Nikon D40 first, hated it and got the Xti. I should have tried the D40x first before writing off Nikon. Either way, just go try them both out, see which feels better in your hand and best of luck.
I am facing the same decision right now. I ended up following the advice of a lot of people on this forum and going to the store to see how they felt in my hands. Now I'm definitely leaning toward the Nikon... just felt more comfortable to me.
The XTi is a smaller camera than the Nikon you have mentioned, so just because one or the other "feels better in your hands" does not mean that it feels better on our wife's hand. Why don't you let her decide which one feels better on her hands? I have from medium to small-size hands, and the XT is perfect for me.
In regards to Canon lenses, I doubt that other lenses can easily match Canon's "L" lenses. Has any of you been at sports events where there are a lot of photographers taking pictures? Have you noticed the number of white-color to light-gray zoom lenses? Those are Canon lenses.
Nikon cameras do feel sturdier than some of the Canon cameras. I have been a Nikon camera user for years, and still have a film F-3 with motor drive, dedicated flash, and lenses for it. I switched to Canon digital SLR cameras a couple of years ago. On film Nikon was the king, but that's not longer the case on digital.
deckardc,
This is such a nice for you to get for your wife. Since you're investing so much money into it, it might be a good idea to get your wife involved. Something I've noticed is that Canon users almost always recommend Cannon products, and Nikon users almost always recommend Nikon products... definitely hard to make a decision that way
I would read some reviews that are out there, and then see which camera is easiest and most comfortable for your wife to use.
I have a Canon 350D, which I think is sold as the Rebel XT in the USA.
I went with a Canon DSLR because I owned a Canon EOS Elan and already had a collection of EOS lenses; I did not want to have to buy those lenses all over again for a Nikon.
However, I've seen consistently better pictures from Nikon DSLRs than from Canons; the ones from Nikon seem to be sharper, and the colors are richer. I always have to tweak everything coming out of my Canon because it's a little muddy. The flash on my Canon is also incredibly wimpy; I found I had to kick it up to 1600 ISO just to take FLASH pictures inside my brother's house, and even then I had to tweak levels and contrast on every single picture because they still came out quite dark. I was very dissatisfied with my camera that day.
Here's one of the photos I took that day...you can see the grain and ickiness from all the tweaking I had to do to make a presentable image:
I also took these with the same camera, and they came out great:
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