Next Steps from the Point and Shoot

So I mentioned in my last post that we've been approached by a few of our family and friends regarding advice on upgrading from their point and shoot to one of the 'prosumer' DSLR cameras. Here's the email exchange between Mark and his cousin regarding the upgrade:

Tom: Question for you - we're looking at buying a DSLR camera and wanted your advice. We want to spend around $1000. Do you like yours or would you recommend something different after owning the one you have? Thanks for your help!

Mark:
We have the Canon XT DSLR. We’re very happy with it but only after we upgraded the lens. 90% of the pro-sumer grade DSLRs that you’ll find will come with a great body but only a so-so lens. When we bought ours we were really happy with the speed and additional manual features but we noticed that the image quality wasn’t always as good as pictures that we had taken with our high end point-n-shoot. Turns out that the lens on our high end point-n-shoot was of a higher caliber than the one that came with our DSLR. Once we found out the problem we invested in a top of the line lens and it made a world of a difference.

I would recommend going for the newer version of the Canon XT which is called the XTi. B&H sells it for $670. I would also recommend not getting the low quality kit lens that sometimes comes with it in a package deal. Instead (sticking near your budget) I would recommend getting the Canon EF 28-135mm f3.5-f5.6 IS USM. This lens will have greater “zooming” capability, high quality motor for auto focusing, and image stabilization to prevent blurring from a shaky hand.

Lens Review
Lens cost: $400

What they can do:
-take multiple photos faster than point-n-shoots (as fast as 3 per sec and up to 14 consecutive shots)
-take long exposures, for example shots of the stars (see example 1)
-controlling the focus on a portrait and decreasing the depth of field (adding the nice blur in the background, see example 2)
-Easy manual focus control. You’ll be able to adjust the focus by turning the lens ring.

What they cannot do:
-no videos
-looking through the LCD screen to see the image before you take it as you might with a point and shoot. You must look through the view finder.

Example 1:














Example 2:

So, after that email, Tom did indeed go and buy the XTi. Here's his response:

Well, I did it, after lots of reading and research... got the XTi and 28-135 IS lens like you suggested. Boy, what a camera! I'm worried that my wife won't be able to hold it up... good thing I got the IS. I think that's gonna be key when shooting our little girl in weird settings and action shots.

I've looked around for a smaller "walking around" lens to supplement this one but haven't found one with IS (which I think I'll need) that has good reviews. I looked at the 17-85 f/4-5.6 IS as a substitute for the one I got but it was about 100 bucks more. Do you guys have any others or do you just use this one? I think we're just going to have to get used to the larger size now that we've graduated from point & shoot.

Looks like we're on to another lens hunt! More later!!