Hello MINI folk. I'm thinking about purchasing a camera for christmas, and I've always wanted a DSLR since I took a photography class last year (35mm SLR, used a Nikon F3). I've looked around a bit at different cameras, read reviews, and compared, but I still have some questions.

1. Where is the best/cheapest place to buy an XTi?
2. Should I buy just the body and buy my own lense? Like a 75-300?
3. Should I buy the kit that comes with a 18-55mm lense?

I'm not totally new photography, but I am to DSLR's and lenses. What I shot with the Nikon F3 I had a 50mm MACRO, and a 100-300mm Telephoto lense. I love shooting macro shots, but can't afford the lense! The cheapest I found the camera for was $305 for the body, $405 with a 18-55mm lense, or $305 + my own lense (like a $190 75-300?).

Which would be the best option? I'm on a tight budget, so I was leaning more towards the $405 option because I can't seem to find a cheaper general purpose lense (cheapest was like $190).

Also: I got my prices from www.royalcamera.com do they seem resonable? Everywhere else I see some XTi's up in the $600+ range for body only, however a couple of places seem to have them in the $300-400 range? It does say that there is a manufactor mail-in-rebate, but also claims that there products are ALL brand new. Any well known places to buy from?

Thanks!
-Cody

 

some good resources here
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/

check the "market watch" forum

i recently took the plunge and got my d400 + kit lense + sigma 10-20mm + 2gb memory

not sure if there is a similar site for you guys but over here there is
http://www.camerapricebuster.co.uk/prod192.html

i bought mine for £493.50 and im seeing the price drop each day on that site!

from what ive read the kit lense is a good one to have bearing in mind the price difference of the body only - plus should you come to re-sale - a kit will always look better kinda thing

take the plunge and you wont regret it :D

 

I prefer BuyDig.com and B&H. Both of the sources are reputable, reliable and fast. The prices might not be the very BEST you can get, but you will be assured of quality service and in case anything goes wrong, you can rely on thest suppliers to accomodate your requirements without hassle.

If you are a DSLR beginner, I suggest you go for the kit with the 18-55mm lens. Play around with the combo till you get comfortable, before you sink anything into the camera system. Unless you are really strapped for money and absolutely need a tele zoom, stay away from the 75-300mm. Get a chaper mid-range zoom (35-135mm, 28-135mm etc) used on ebay or other places. If you are really interested in telephoto, save up for the 70-200 (you can either choose the f2.8 or the f4, both with and without stabilization) or you can get the 70-300 DO.

My advice again, (coming from bitter experience and the endless money suckers my two passiosn are - MINI and Canon 20D ), don't invest anymore till you get comfortable and confident with the system.

 

Having spent 6 years on dpreview and POTN, etc, I conclude that really low prices are usually too good to be true. If I had been willing to wait I would have bought my XTi from CostCo at $819 for the kit. Their return policy is second to none, and no-questions-asked replacement. They will match price drops for 30 days, and will return, or replace over a lifetime. There is considerable experience of this reported on camera forums.
B&H is also very reputable, and you can get lenses and filters and other accessories from them.
The kit lens is surprisingly good and earns its nickname of the plastic fantastic. But, with more money you can get wonderful lenses including the L series which are lifetime purchases.
I have had my XTi for 2 months and love it! A fantastic step up from point and shoots.
The only downside for me has been cleaning--the sensor is very attractive to dust!
If you don't have any investment in Canon, the Nikon D80 is also a great camera. Many feel it is slightly better than the Canon for size, build and ergonomics. Image quality (IQ) is pretty much a match.

cheers,

 

It has been my experience after buying cameras for 25 years ... is the deal is too good to be true ... its not a deal at all. Many place do Grey market ... they try to get a refund or return and see the runaround you get.

I would check with BBB or online ratings places for an off-the wall place like that.

Long established brick and motor stores like B&H, Adorama, 47th Photo, etc have been around probably longer than you have. I would stick to the well established but discount houses.

 

Check resellerratings.com most online stores have the Xti for about the same price(adorama, B&H,calumet) any store that has a price substantialy lower is probably a bait and switch outfit. There are lots of horror stories at resellerratings.com check them out.

Chris

 

Thanks guys. I'll read some more reviews and check out the places mentioned. I surely don't want to get ripped, so I thank you for taking the time to comment!

-Cody

 

I bought the cheapy 75-300 Canon lens you are looking at for $169 then bought the hood at Sammy's for $45. It is honestly not a great lens but you can take some decent photos with it. I took these the very first time I used it.

 

If you didn't know, the cannon digital and film camera lenses are sometimes interchangeable. I had a film Cannon with two lenses and just bought the XT body!!

 

Stay away from that royal camera site and others with such fake prices. Anything less than $700 or so on the XTi is suspicious. If you don't get a box full of hot air, you're getting one that fell off a truck in uzbekistan or something.

There are ton of those grey market sites around NYC. I always look at the contact info, and if they are there or brooklyn etc, I only go with the ones I know. For example the big guys with store fronts like J&R, B&H are pretty much the only ones I'll give my money to in NYC.

Anyway use sites like pricegrabber to compare prices.
Also keep in mind stores like onecall.com who offer 12-month financing. I would not own any of my cameras or lenses without them. They'll negotiate on price a little too as well as match other big name stores. I bought my XTi from them a few weeks ago (and have a year to pay for it...yay).

 

I make special price on cameras, yes?

 

All Canon lenses are usable on the XTi. But EF-S lens are not usable on anything but the crop cameras.

 

I just read my 30D manual and it says that it will accept the EF-S lens.

 

Read here

""After all, when his Google search led him to the Royal Camera website, there was no mention of the missing warranty. The words "gray market" were nowhere to be seen. So he assumed it was the usual U.S. program. Perhaps a tip-off should have been the $350 three-year extended warranty Royal Camera offered on the same page. (Other retailers sell similar extended warranties for under $40.) When he talked to a Royal rep, the gray market issue never came up. Put simply, Crooke assumed too much. When he discovered the truth about his lenses, he tried to return them -- repeatedly. "Every time I called, they kept trying to give me some money back, but they said they could not and would not take the lenses back. ...

Maybe three lessons: 1. Assume nothing. 2. Don't try to Google your way to a bargain. 3. Get advice"

 

Isn't the 30D a crop camera? Only the 5D and the 1-series are FF.

cheers,

 

What's a crop camera

 

it grows corns and rice paddies.

 

Ha...

Ow my side......


Seriously

 

I think once you are in the DSLR world, lens is really the one that makes different quality of pictures. If budget allows and you want to save money from the long run, buy any of the Canon XTi, 20D, 30D, 40D whatever without the kit lens, then buy an L lens such as 17-40 f/4L, 70-200 f/4L, 24-105 f/4L or even the 50mm f/1.4, you save the money from buying the cheapy kit lens, and will have top-notch optical quality to take professional pictures.

On the other hand, if you are not ready to explore the lens world yet, go with the $100 kit lens until you are familiar with yourself with DSLR, then when you are ready, you will at the end buy a much better lens and have that $100 lens as the tuition fee into the DSLR world.

Enjoy ! =)

 

A crop camera has a smaller sensor than a 35mm camera.

Effectively you are only using the center section of the lens - this is not a terrible thing if you have lenses that are poor at their edges.

However it is a pain because you have to treat every lens in different terms, your 50mm standard lens now behaves more like an 80mm one. This has big advantages for telephoto lenses - a 300mm lense behaves like a ~500mm lens etc.

Where it is problematic is in the wide-angle arena, the 28mm that ws adequate for group shots is more like a 40mm (ie hopeless for groups) and you are forced to get very wide angle lenses (expensive) for decent group shot abilities.

I own two 'crop factor' bodies and a full-frame, for sports / action the crop cameras are hard to beat, but in a tight environment the full-frame rocks (and is ~ 4x the price too).

 

Another warning about Royal Camera.

If your looking to buy online, read http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...d.php?t=152480 and specifically http://www.resellerratings.com/seller1895.html

Extremely bad rating for royal.

 

Skip Royal go B&H

 

30D is a crop camera (1.6X) just like the 20d, 10d, d60, d30, digital rebels..
EF-S lenses are short focus lens designed for the newer cropped 1.6X canon cameras, from 20d and Rebel XT and up.

Another thing, the photographer is more important than the lenses are more important than the camera. Most non professional line of lenses wont' even give you pixel perfect results on a 6 mega pixel. The extra pixels just take up space on your hard drive

 

Back from the dead I know... I never ended up buying the camera due to the MINI (had to pay it off and mod it haha) but the MINI has been paid off for a while now and I'm looking at the XTi again.

Prices seemed to have dropped a little bit...does anyone have any recommendations as to where-to order from? I cannot find a black XTi on B&H, but they have a silver one (body) for $660. Newegg has a black one for $660 (body) but are out of stock...they have one with a 18-55mm lense for $730 in stock though.

Anywhere else I should look?

Thanks!
-Cody

 

Amazon black body only $629.

Prices dropping because the replacement is due around 3/08 and the 40D should be out in a month or so.

Good luck