Camera purchase advice

Jennifer,

If you’re on a budget the 30D is a great camera- I used one for about a week. For about $300 less you can get a new 20D body, which has most of the same features. Not a big iPhoto fan, but if it’s all you have, it may work fine for you.

Cheers,

Dave

why exactly do you want to upgrade ?

30D should work well for you, but if money is really tight, a better combo might be 20D and Photoshop Elements 4. The Adobe Camera Raw plug-in works with Elements 4 and it is a much better RAW converter than iPhoto. It also has better captioning tools than iPhoto and if you are doing photojournalism professionally captions are extremely important. (Although truth be told, the 6.4MP Digital Rebel has excellent image quality. It is a little slow for sports and news, but great for portraits and feature work). jack

Thank you for the input. I realize that I do need to get better educated in my software that I use for my photos. I like to enhance a shot rather then try to make a bad shot look acceptable.

I plan on using both cameras. The major reason for a second camera is the constant lens changing I am doing while I am wandering city streets or other places that I shoot. It is nerve racking trying to change lenses in hopes that you do not drop them and I am concerned about the constant changing, that eventually it will ruin the lock mechnism on my camera.

would you consider getting the rebel xt, which, if i understand correctly, is essentially the same sensor as the 30d, and doesn’t have many drawbacks, on top of being cheaper and much lighter ?

I own the 30d and I’ve also shot with the rebel xt. I prefer the 30d because you can change the ISO in 1/3 stops, which comes in very handy. Have you thought about saving money for the 5d? It’s a nice camera as well.