Which digital slr should i get? a canon 350D or a 450D?

Question

i'm a beginner at photography and i'd like to know what's the better dslr for me? my dad just handed me his old Canon 350D. i've wanting to get the Canon 450D or the Canon PowerShot G9. I wanna know which one is best best for me to start with.

Answer 1

I am going to split the difference and recommend the 400D, save a little money and get yourself a nice lens.

How about the 28-135mm IS and the 50mm f/1.8.

I would also recommend staying away from the EF-S lenses. As you move up the ranks the S lenses won't work with the full size sensors. You will discover changing cameras will be come commonplace, but good lenses can go from camera to camera for years of great service.

Answer 2

It is great to start with 350D.  For a beginner, you will get pretty much same results with either 350D or 450D.  G9 has a small sensor compared to 350D and you cannot change the lens.

Answer 3

I would stick with the 350D and take the money and buy a nice lens for it. The lenses are much more important than the camera body. Ask yourself what you like to shoot and get a good lens for that. Your lenses will last decades so while you have the money it is good to build up your lens collection. You can replace the camera body in a year or two after you have learned how to use it very well on manual.

Landscapes: Wide angle like the EFs 10-22mm

Portraits: Go for a 50mm prime lens. There are a few choices here but the best bet for the money is the 50mm F1.8 at $100 U.S.

Sports or Action: A fast telephoto zoom lens like the 70-200mm F2.8L. You can also get the 70-300mm IS (image stablized) lens.

Macro: EF100mm F2.8 macro

Edit: Concerning the EFs lens.

Normally I would not recommend an EFs lens but for wide angle there really is no other lens for a cropped sensor DSLR that will do. None of the other wide angle lenses are wide enough.

This lens by the way would be an L series if it were not designed for the cropped sensor models.

Somehow I think that you are probably not going to be buying a 5D or 1DS anytime soon. So this would be the wide angle lens for all of the Rebel series and the 30D and 40D.