New or Used DSLR?

Good luck with your camera. I think that you're really making more of an investment into a system of lenses than a camera body by going with the 20D. I bought my camera several years ago (300D digital rebel) and I still use it today. I figured it would be something relatively inexpensive to start with and something to learn what features were important to me for my next camera. The lenses I picked up along the way is really where the big money went and all of that will still be useable when I get my next camera body.
 
:D Congrats, you'll enjoy it - too many folks get hung up on getting the latest and greatest. And while the body is important in some aspects they're a little bit like computers. By the time you get them home and out of the box a new one is coming out already! Like dendronepthya said, the real place to spend your money is lenses ;). Because even if you have a 1D series body with a junk lens it won't give you as good of results as a cheaper body that you save those extra pennies on and spent on a good lens.

:D And yep, you'll need much larger cards - 512mb in my camera will give me about 40 shots at most (I shoot entirely in RAW). Fortunately 2 and 4GB cards aren't that much anymore and lots of places have sales on them all the time.
 
I am sure I will enjoy it. :) I got two 4 gig Sandisk Extreme III cards for $70 (post rebate). Just doing some reading now...filters, lenses....
Ok so do I understand this correctly? I have the kit lens from my 35mm Rebel which is I think the 28-80mm lens. If I use that on the 20D it would be like using a 45-128mm lens and the 18-55mm kit lens that I am getting with the 20D is as it states...an 18-55? :confused: Thanks! :)
 
Ok. That's what I was wondering. Thanks! So this conversion should be made on all lenses due to the 1.6 cropping. Right? Sorry if these are silly questions.
 
:) Basically what it is is that the sensor of "crop bodies" is smaller than that of a full frame or standard 35mm. In Canon's case they have two different sizes of crop bodies - ones with a 1.6x crop factor and ones with 1.3x crop factor. The rebels and XXD series are both 1.6x crop factor. Don't worry too much about trying to figure out the "real" focal length - the only time crop factor is really all that important is when you're trying to compare against non crop bodies. Because having the crop factor doesn't magically make your 200mm lens into a 320mm one, it just LOOKS like it is. It'd be the same as if you took a standard 35mm shot and cropped it a little bit ;).
 
When using a crop body, the short end is really where you're going to lose out. I found through taking a bunch of pics that I cherish the 18mm end of the little kit lens. Most of the time it is because I am trying to get a picture of something in a tight space and I can't back up any more without leaving the room. I think that is where the 1.6x really hurts.
 
I use a 20D and if you have the software and good with photoshop you should learn to shoot in RAW. It is much beter format for detail and editting. Once you have editted it you can convert it to a tiff or jpeg for storage and e-mail and internet use. You will just have to get a big CF card to hold lots of shots.
 
Thanks for the further explanations. :) The camera should be here Monday - faster than I thought but I am not complaining! I do have photoshop CS - I will take your advice on shooting in RAW. That was my plan but this is all new to me. :)
The kit lens should be wide enough for some decent canyon landscapes right? Lens purchase/s will be down the road. Buying a new lens now would be nice but I will have plenty to learn first. :D Although I do wish I could afford a wide angle lens for the trip. :(
 
:D Do you have a tripod? If you do, and while you're at the canyon and if you run into that time that the kit lens just isn't wide enough you can always take a series of shots and splice them together in photoshop. Because unfortunately to go even wider its going to take a little bit of investment to get into that UWA range.
 
Yes I do have a tripod - although it is less than sturdy. It's my dad's old tripod from 1970 something. I will take it with me if I don't get anything else as at least it is pretty easy to travel with and I hope it is steadier than my hands. :)
I am used to splicing images in photoshop with my p&s cameras. Yeah I have looked at some UWA lenses and unfortunately that isn't fitting into the budget right now.
 
About shooting in raw that is prefferable but it fills up the card a lot faster. I would start shooting with jpegs until you really get the feel for the camera. Then switch when you are happy with the results. Plus a slower computer will work with jpegs a lot quicker during the learning phase.
 
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