- Saki [faqs]

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Canon has a relatively new D300 Rebel (which is a nice camera if you already have Canon AF lenses) however, the Nikon D-70 model is a better camera. It sells for $1k without lens and for $1.3K with an 18-70mm AF zoom.

It is erroneous to compare cameras based on megapixels alone. Yes, in general, all other things being equal, more megapixels equates to a better image; however, other factors include the size of the pixels themselves, the corresponding image sensor size, the color resolution depth (6-bit, 8-bit, 10-bit, 12-bit, 14-bit, or 16-bit), noise floor, light sensitivity, etc.

~ GaySatyr

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Question for you?
What are you going to be outputting to?
If you are shooting stuff for the web that's going to end up at 80 hex 600 or 1024 x 768 - you do not need a 8mp

If you are going to be shooting stuff that ends up on paper and need something that stays sharp all the way up a small poster size, you do need at least 6mp. IMHO you will not see much difference at 8mp to justify the higher cost.

The 8mp DSLR's will be out later this year- Sony's sensor has some noise problem's and no word from Canon yet on their offering.

I took a hard look at the Sony 828 (had the 717) and passed.
For a few bucks more, I wanted a DSLR.

I picked up a Canon 10D body for about $1400 at B&H Photo in NYC and a 50mm F 1.8 II for about 70 bucks. Great for shooting indoors low light no flash.

The Nikon D70 is out now and a debate is raging in the forums over which is better , etc.

It seems the majority of the people prefer Canon's CMOS sensor produced images ("warmer - butter smooth") vs Nikon's CCD sensor, but it's all a matter of taste.

Most people comment that Canon has a better selection of lenses at a lower cost as well.

DSLR's have a learning curve, but you can get some incredible results once you have the basics dialed in.
If you are going to shoot full -auto - it's thowing money away - buy a Sony 717 while there are still a few on clearance for about $500 and you are good for a couple years.

Here's some links that may help you decide:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond70/
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos10d/

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1019

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1034

Hope this helps!

Unicorn

Edited by - Unicorn on 4/10/2004 5:11:17 PM

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If you seriously want a D-SLR, look at the Nikon D70 or the Canon Digital Rebel (D300). If you already have lenses for Nikon or Canon film-based cameras, the choice is made for you: buy the same brand.

If you want a "D-ZLR" -- a digital camera with a permanently attached zoom lens -- look at the Olympus line. My personal opinion is that Olympus offers a combination of features and quality for the money spent that the other major brands have a hard time matching.

Unicorn's suggestion of checking out http://www.dpreview.com/ is an excellent one. They have a wealth of information about almost every significant model on the market.

~ GaySatyr

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Here's more links. Good luck on your purchase.
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1031&message=8025611

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1018&message=7797449

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1018&message=6798053

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--

"The lover knows much more about absolute good and universal beauty than any logician or theologian, unless the latter, too, be lovers in disguise." - George Santayana

"To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man's life." - T.S. Eliot

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- a fast computer
- a lot of hard drive storage / CD or DVD burner
- a camera with a fast USB or Firewire interface and a computer that supports it (or a similarly fast media reader)
- fast digital media cards (i.e. you might be able to transfer at USB 2.0 speeds, but the media's physical transfer rate is much slower)
- large digital media cards (minimum 256 MB)

...then increasing the megapixels on a camera will be a very frustrating experience. Although compression, quality, and resolution settings are different on every camera, you're still likely to end up with REALLY BIG files. For example, my 4MP cam averages 2-3MB per photo on the high quality setting (mild compression). That also takes its toll on battery life and shot-by-shot time (the delay while the camera is saving the image from its buffer to the media--most cameras don't let you do anything during the saving process).

What ends up happening is either you have big files that you're always resizing, or you end up setting your camera to a reasonable resolution/compression and "wasting" the full megapixel potential.

Another practical example is photographer David Bergman using a Nikon D1X (5-ish MP's) to generate a 16+ MB photo of the US Open that was printed on a two-page Sports Illustrated spread.

So unless one is planning on poster-sized prints, I'm not sure what 8MP is really going to buy you.

- Saki [faqs]

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I second Unicorn's endorsement of the Sony 717.

I am very happy with mine, and will be staying with it until DSLRs are down to a more sensible price.

The 717 comes with a decent Zeiss lens which gives you much sharper images and less chromatic aberration than other 5MP cameras.

I haven't printed larger than 6x4 from mine yet, but the 5MP images look damn good at full size on a 19 inch ViewSonic monitor.

If you can get one for $500 it's a bargain. I paid twice that for mine. (tech toys are expensive in Australia )

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