Student looking to go digital, and I have a few questions!

[hellopike]

Hey all, I'm a photography student at the Art Institute of Philadelphia and I'm thinking that I want to make the jump to a Digital slr thie year when I get my tax return. =) Mainly because, as it stands I have images due tuesday, and the school installed a new operating system in the computer labs, causing all the film scanners to become non-fuctioning... yeah. I'm going to have to go digital at some point, so why not soon, right? I have the computer, a good printer, the digital camera is the next step.

So the question is, in my situation, what would you go for? Right now I'm considering eith the nikon d100, the canon 10d, or the canon EOS 300D. I'm leaning towards the rebel, simply for the price. I'm a broke college student, you know? I work part time at a retail job. Money is most certainly a factor. Right now I'm shooting with a Minolta Maxxum 5, so whatever I choose, I'm going to have to reinvest in some lenses. I've accepted that. This is why the rebel is the most appealing at the moment. The rebel is under $1000 and has a kit lens. The other two at between $300-500 more, just for the body.

I suppose what I'm asking, is there any outstanding reason I should go for either of the more expensive ones? I understand the rebel is plastic construction, but I'm not terribly worried about that. I'm not a rough photographer. Is the image quality significantly better than the rebel?

I also have a question about the rebel- what is highest resolution the camera outputs? Will it output aprox. 300 dpi?

And can the rebel be adapted to a hotshoe for studio strobes?


I've only shot with the school's nikon d100, their canon 10d was out. The d100 was nice, but the school only has 2 d100s and one 10d, and you can only take them out for a day at a time and I commute to school, so taking out equipment is more of a hassle then anything.


So please, let me hear your opinions! I need to know if the Rebel is worth my money, or if I should just stop spending money on frivilous things (like food and shelter) to get the moeny for one of the more expensive cameras!

thanks in advance!

student phil

[ugot2bkdng]

Get specs and reviews on all three cameras here http://www.dpreview.com/

A popular vote poll may not be the best way to make your decision.

[gschmickle]

Also, Nikon plans to roll out with the D70 sometime this spring. It will compete with the 300D and be priced in that ballpark. While the specs are sketchy at best right now, you can sift through the rumors and predictions at dpreview's nikon forum as well.

As far as your question concerning image quality goes, there is little or no difference between the cameras you are considering. What you're paying more for in the D100 and 10D are features, metering options and build quality to name a few things.

As Chuck mentioned, a poll is probably not the best thing to base a decision on. Only you can determine which camera best suits your shooting needs right now and where you want to be a year from now. Get out to your local camera store and check them out. See what feels good in your hands and offers a layout that seems most natural to you.

[bobtrips]

The first thing that you should probably consider is lenses. Your camera choice is going to control your lens choices. It will be somewhat expensive to change companies after you've acquired a few lenses.

By the time you get your refund we will probably know a lot more about the D70. If it's out and suits your needs you can start with Nikon and have body choices from Fuji and Kodak in the future as well as Nikon.

Right now if I were buying a mid-level dSLR I'd probably get the Fuji S2 over the Canon and Nikon offerings. And Kodak makes an excellent 14 meg digital for landscape and studio usage. Tons of resolution for ~$4k.

And if I were a photojournalist I might well go with Nikon. They seem to be designing for that specialty.

But you aren't likely to go wrong with either Canon or Nikon. Spend some time between now and then reading on the Canon dSLR, Nikon dSLR, and Pro Talk forums at dpreview. Do some reading at http://www.robgalbraith.com.

There's lots and lots of information out there.

[bobtrips]

A bit more...

If you go with the 300D/dRebel think carefully about the kit zoom. It may not be high enough quality for what you want to do. (Just a warning, not a judgment.) You might be better off buying only the body and getting Canon's excellent 50/1.8 that sells for well under $100 as a first lens.

[gillettecraig]

With the same sensor and lens family, the two Canons should give the same optical performance, there are a variety of functional differences and of course the build differences. The D100 is also good but the D70 is an unknown quantity. The biggest eventual differences could be in the lens families and what ever differences there may be out there, it's really something you would need to evaluate. Of course waiting through DMA may well be a good idea as it's possible there will be some news about competitive systems as well. Some slight unattributed hints and more rumor than usual about Minolta.

[hellopike]

Hey everyone, I wanted to thank you all. Your input has helped me gather alot of good information. I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet, but I've got alot to think about.

thanks again

Phil

[domus_sua]

Hey Phil, I also goto AIPH. I just got my digital rebel and I bring it to school every day. If you'd like to play with it to get a feel for it, drop me an email and we can meet in liberty place. domussua@mac.com

-jon

[brennan]

If you go with the 300d do get the kit lense. While it will have limited resale since it can't be used with a film camera due to a greater back set on the mount, it is an amazing lense for the price. Its results vary from build to build, but IMHO the results are comperable to those from a $4-500 lense. Keep in mind that with the 1.6 crop factor that the 50mm lense gives you the film equivalent image of an 85mm lense. You will really need that lower end and if you want to get it cheaply, you need this lense.

[ihor]

Hey all, I'm a photography student at the Art Institute of Philadelphia and I'm thinking that I want to make the jump to a Digital slr thie year when I get my tax return. =) Mainly because, as it stands I have images due tuesday, and the school installed a new operating system in the computer labs, causing all the film scanners to become non-fuctioning... yeah. I'm going to have to go digital at some point, so why not soon, right? I have the computer, a good printer, the digital camera is the next step.

student phil

I don't understand why your film scanners are non functioning?
Just connect to Mac of PC.

Get the D100

Ian