>She's been sold on the camera (Canon vs Nikon or Sony) and drooling >over this model for well over a year. I'm wondering if this is the >best deal out there... it's the best I can find at any point.
I'm a big fan of Canon digital SLRs, I use a 20D myself. The Rebel models have always been excellent values for the price and will blow away any consumer compact digital model in performance and image quality. However, I usually recommend against "packages". Generally you aren't going to get the best quality items for the price you pay. For instance, the 18-55mm lens is really not a terribly useful one for most people. You'll generally find you need more range for basic family shots and there are better quality lenses to be found at a reasonable price that you will get far more use out of. I personally use the 28-135 mm lens which gives you a much more useable range and fairly good quality image, there is also a 28-105 which is still a better range for general use but about half the price. You may find you eventually need a wideangle lens, but there are some decent lens that go down even less than 18mm which will help when you have a digital like the Rebel which has a 1.6x crop factor which loses you a lot of space on wide shots. Most people will also want a good long-distance telephoto. The Canon 80-300mm IS is quite decent for the price. If you absolutely can't afford that, there are the 3rd party lenses made for Canon as well, but you do get what you pay for and lose not only image quality but will find them fairly slow to autofocus. Memory cards you can of course get really cheap if you look around, and I'd recommend at least 2 gig. If you go on a trip and shot lots of images (particularly if you get into using RAW), you may eventually want even another card of that size or you may find yourself running out of space. I personally check devsdeals.com regularly when I am wanting to find a new memory card at a good price. There's a 2 gig card listed there now for $38 after rebate. The tripods you get in these kits are usually pretty cheap and don't stand up to serious use. Add a telephoto lens on the camera and you may find that tripod unable to stay in place. Likewise camera bags. Usually low quality and not sufficient space once you add a couple lens, flash, etc. I was however intrigued by that price since it was so much below the normal rate from a reputable online seller that I usually deal with. I did a quick search and came up with this: http://forums.photographyreview.com/showthread.php?t=12803 Finally, if price is a huge issue for you, you could consider a used Rebel. There's one on B&H Photo right now listed in like-new quality. These tend to get snapped up fast though so may not be there for long! http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productList&A=buyUsed&Q=371188 HTH! --- Mary Jo ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Create robust enterprise, web RIAs. Upgrade & integrate Adobe Coldfusion MX7 with Flex 2 http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;56760587;14748456;a?http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=LVNU Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:223369 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
