QotD: Luxury Wish List

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hey...I am getting a new camera soon...I need your help...what should I look for...I want a digital that's not just for snap shots, but not uber-pro...what's good in the middle :)

vi
Well, I've not really been looking at camereas much since I got my D70s, but I can give you the standard advice I give people who ask (not that it isn't good, just that it's not going to give you specific cameras to look at):

- If you want to get an entry level dSLR, make sure you get a decent lens with it. The lens is more important than the body. In the Nikon realm the 18-70mm kit lens that ships with the D70s (now the D80) is good. The 18-50 (or whatever) not so much. The Canon rebel series has always shipped with a sucky kit lens. If you go with a canon just get the body and buy a decent lens seperately.

- A dSLR camera is just the gateway drug, once you have one, you'll start wanting lenses, and then you'll start to realize where the real money gets spent.

- If you get a dSLR you'll find you've got no macro mode any longer (unless you buy a macro lens), you won't have a lot of zoom capability (unless you buy a big telephoto zoom lens) ... you see where this is going, right?

- If it seems I'm trying to talk you out of a dSLR, it's just because I think you should be aware of the expense, and that there is an alternative. The dSLR-like super zoomer models will give you a camera with a macro mode, big optical zoom, and a lot of MP for about the same price as a dSLR body. I'd look into these.

- the downside of the super zoomers is that they might not be as fast focusing, there might still be some of the typical shutter lag associated with P&S cameras, stuff like that. Make sure you go to a store and try them out and see if it is fast enough for you. This also applies to the dSLRs though, go hold them see where the controls for shutter speed etc are and how they feel to you.

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