I know its early

[jiggin pig]

I have a question for canon guys. I am looking on buying my wife a new digital body. I previously bought her the Canon elan 7. I didn't know anything about cameras at that time. She was going to school for photography. The camera worked out great, but it was not what she wanted to major in when she finished. She and i stil love to take pictures though. To make a long story short, i am looking on getting a digital body for around 700 bucks. I want to stick with canon because we are extremely happy with the product, it's time for digital. I am just starting on doing some research on digital body's. I don't know dump about them. what would you suggest for this price range. she already has plenty of lens's for the elan. thanks for the help. I figured this would be a good place to start. Ok i did some quick research and found out i will be spending a little bit more

[Steve Foss]

For that price range, you're looking at the Canon Digital Rebel XT. It's an 8 megapixel camera and is smaller than the other Canon DSLR bodies, which often appeals to women because they have smaller hands. Regarding speed of focus and frames per second, the XT should compare very closely with the Elan. I shot an Elan IIe before switching to digital. I now shoot the Canon 20D, which is faster in most ways than the Elan series, but the XT should be right in there, and it's an excellent camera body.

When you buy, be sure you buy an XT kit. It will have the body, a battery, battery charger, USB connector cable and Canon's in-house software to get you started. Some bargain basement prices online fool you by supplying the body alone, and you have to buy the battery, charger and such separately, which wipes out the savings.

If you buy online, I recommend B&H or Canoga Camera. I do all my photo supplies/equipment buying from Canoga. At Canoga, you can get the XT camera kit (no lens, but you already have them) for $650.

If you want to go up a step to the 30D, you're talking around $1,200. I'm not one to say get a lower-quality camera, but that's almost twice the money. I'd stay with the XT, simply because the image quality will be exactly the same (almost the same sensor and identical in-camera image processor). If you and your wife find you are really getting into it big time, you can upgrade and still get a decent price for the XT used. The 30D has a bigger buffer, which lets you trip the shutter more times before the camera has to write to the memory card. It also focuses lenses faster than the XT, has better autofocus precision, a more sophisticated ability to calculate focus on a moving subject and keep it in focus (Al servo feature) and a 5 frame-per-second burst rate, compared with the XT's 3 fps.

Of course, the thing you'll need first that doesn't come with the camera is a memory card. I'd recommend a 1 Gb card with an 80x write speed. That'll let you pack on hundreds of jpeg images and will allow the camera to clear its buffer fast and keep shooting. That'll run you well under $100.

Good luck.

[jiggin pig]

thanks for the fast reply, i will have to see how much my holiday check is for. Hopefully i can get something nice and quick for her. thanks again.