Ditto what Mary said about the 18-55 lens. My Nikon came with a 28-80 which I really didn't find that useful at all. It seemed like I was always saying, "Move in a little closer together". My choice for an all around lens has been a Sigma 18-200mm. Like Mary said, you do lose some quality with the third party lenses, but I'm so amateur I don't notice it much. If I had to do it over again, I probably would have opted to buy only the body and add the lenses that I wanted later instead of the kit.
On 1/1/07, Mary Jo Sminkey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >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:223370 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
