Buying a Digital SLR Such As the Cannon Rebel (Part 1 of 2)
So, you are the point where you are ready to move on from your vanilla point-and-click camera.
It served you well, and there is nothing wrong with it, it is just that you are feeling the urge to be more creative and to start producing some spectacular photographs.
It's a pretty big decision, you're going to spend close to $1000 for a good quality digital SLR such as the Cannon Rebel, so take your time and do your research so that you choose a camera that's going to give you years of pleasure.
Features When you are choosing a camera, the first thing to look at is how you plan to use it.
You can use a Cannon rebel as a point-and-click camera and it works just fine although you may find that the default settings can leave some of your pictures underexposed.
If you are like me and are interested in travel photography, you are probably looking for portraits with good depth of field and tend to take many pictures of landscapes and places (architecture).
Do you take nighttime shots, typically pictures of people in cities or are you more interested in taking daytime family portrait shots.
Some people take lots of sports or action oriented pictures! Alternatively, if you plan to get creative, will you start to look at your photography and the picture pictures you produce, as an art form? The Canon rebel SLR does a good job in all these areas, overall it has great image quality and the basic setup has enough flexibility to cope well in just about any situation.
The feel of the camera is very important; does it fit your hand? Does it fill solid? Is it too heavy? Are you comfortable using it? What other features the need? If you like to take panoramic photographs then you may want a burst mode on your camera.
Again, the Canon rebel does a good job here, the burst mode works well although early models of the camera tended to freeze after about 20 shots.
Battery Life One of the most important selection criteria should be battery life.
The Canon rebel comes with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery and it is important to look after it well.
Make sure you buy a spare battery (maybe even two) and make sure that you recharge them often.
Rechargeable batteries typically discharge about 1% off their energy every day so it is possible for the battery to fully discharge without you using it.
This phenomenon actually increases as the battery ages so the drain will get faster.
Make sure to rotate your batteries and periodically fully discharge them before recharging, (this will help with the battery lifetime).
Make sure that you buy a good quality charger as this can have probably the biggest single impact on the life of your battery, poor quality charges try to charge the battery too quickly which also stresses the cells and quickly reduces both the lifetime of the battery and charge carrying capacity.
In part 2 we will look at the accessories that you will need
It served you well, and there is nothing wrong with it, it is just that you are feeling the urge to be more creative and to start producing some spectacular photographs.
It's a pretty big decision, you're going to spend close to $1000 for a good quality digital SLR such as the Cannon Rebel, so take your time and do your research so that you choose a camera that's going to give you years of pleasure.
Features When you are choosing a camera, the first thing to look at is how you plan to use it.
You can use a Cannon rebel as a point-and-click camera and it works just fine although you may find that the default settings can leave some of your pictures underexposed.
If you are like me and are interested in travel photography, you are probably looking for portraits with good depth of field and tend to take many pictures of landscapes and places (architecture).
Do you take nighttime shots, typically pictures of people in cities or are you more interested in taking daytime family portrait shots.
Some people take lots of sports or action oriented pictures! Alternatively, if you plan to get creative, will you start to look at your photography and the picture pictures you produce, as an art form? The Canon rebel SLR does a good job in all these areas, overall it has great image quality and the basic setup has enough flexibility to cope well in just about any situation.
The feel of the camera is very important; does it fit your hand? Does it fill solid? Is it too heavy? Are you comfortable using it? What other features the need? If you like to take panoramic photographs then you may want a burst mode on your camera.
Again, the Canon rebel does a good job here, the burst mode works well although early models of the camera tended to freeze after about 20 shots.
Battery Life One of the most important selection criteria should be battery life.
The Canon rebel comes with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery and it is important to look after it well.
Make sure you buy a spare battery (maybe even two) and make sure that you recharge them often.
Rechargeable batteries typically discharge about 1% off their energy every day so it is possible for the battery to fully discharge without you using it.
This phenomenon actually increases as the battery ages so the drain will get faster.
Make sure to rotate your batteries and periodically fully discharge them before recharging, (this will help with the battery lifetime).
Make sure that you buy a good quality charger as this can have probably the biggest single impact on the life of your battery, poor quality charges try to charge the battery too quickly which also stresses the cells and quickly reduces both the lifetime of the battery and charge carrying capacity.
In part 2 we will look at the accessories that you will need
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