A friend now has me interested in the 300D Rebel. It seems to be a very user friendlt camera for only a little more money. And it would introduce me to the world of DSLR's. You can choose which aperture and the camera selects the shutter speeds and exposure, etc.
Or you can choose the shutter speed and the camera selects all the "other stuff". Sounds almost fail-safe.
And if I'm going to wind up spending 1000+ anyway, why not step into the bottom floor of DSLR? Price-wise that is....from what I've seen of the Rebel it seems to take fine pictures. Almost a film-like quality.
The 717 uses sticks. The 828 uses cf and sticks.
First of all you need to buy a couple more lenses to make the rebel compare to the prosumers. To get lenses of the Minolta or Sony quality and speed you will have to dump a good amount of cabbage beyond the $1000. To compare it to the A1 with its IS 28-200mmeq f2.8-3.5 you will have to dump even more cabbage.
Far as manual control. The prosumer I have has a considerably larger feature set than the rebel has. All of the top prosumers you can take full manual control of. Any of the prosumers correctly used will also take pictures that atre "film like".
The rebel will not be easier to take pictures with in general. You will be loosing the live preview that is such a great feature on the prosumers. You will have to be much more adept at using manual controls to use them as effectively. The control layout and set on the Minolta is especially excellent for adjusting things manually on the fly.
If you are inexperienced with no glass i do not see any advantage to buying the rebel and some expensive glass unless you are a portrait photographer. The top prosumers will do the job for most folks.
I am not arguing the prosumer is better or worse. I think you need to fit the best camera or system to your budget and needs. If you do not have existing glass the top prosumers of today are a very good choice. All depends on what you are gonna use it for.
Good luck.