classicguna said:I just called up J&R to know if the lens that they ship with the XSI KIT is a IS lens or not for my order. They confirmed me that its an IS lens. So i think J&R is not customizing the prepacked contents from Canon.

This guy confirmed that it has the IS lens.

Which makes sense, cause Canon doesn't sell this camera with any other lens as a kit, and they don't sell a non-IS 18-55mm lens separately either.

AquaX said:Good deal on this. I ended up picking up the XTi kit that they had on sale as it was ~120 dollars cheaper than the XSi, and I'm on a pretty tight budget (had to stretch it just to get an XTi over a D40).

I've heard lots of good things about the f1.8/50mm lens, so I'll probably be picking that up in a few paychecks when I have a little more available cash.
y u didnt get the Xt using the loyalty program ?

The one they sell at JR is a standard zoom lense and not an Image Stabilizing lense. I hear it makes a world of a difference during low light

HowieYung said:The one they sell at JR is a standard zoom lense and not an Image Stabilizing lense. I hear it makes a world of a difference during low light

No, it comes with the IS lens. It's been verified with J&R. Please don't come in here and make statements without knowing what you're talking about.

Willie67 said:erdong77 said:With good light, it may be true.

However, PS is simply blown away in dim light by DSLR in terms of focusing, images, etc. In low light, xsi, coupled with a 50/1.8, simply will beat any PS, however good it is, by far.


jonnythan said:halo0 said:I couldn't disagree more. The pics you get with a good entry level DSLR right out of the box on full auto mode will blow away any pics from a P&S. You don't have to want to devote your life to photography in order to want to take better pics than a P&S.

No they won't. You're quite wrong. There will be little to no difference in picture quality at ISOs below 400 between, say, a G9 and 40D. Actually, due to the amount of post-processing the G9 will do in camera, the G9 will look better than a 40D.

Focusing is much, much harder on a DSLR. Plus they're way bigger and heavier. Getting a good picture out of a DSLR takes a lot more work than a P&S. A lot of people new to DSLRs spend their first few days wondering why they suddenly can't take a decent picture.

The person said they would not want to buy any more lenses, so the 50 1.8 is not an option.

I owned a severl generations ago Canon S30, got a great 8X10 from 3.2 MP camera, still own a G5, and own XT. Like Johnnythan said, going from P&S to DSLR was a learning curve.

For people who don't want to play with settings, like the person said, they are better off with P&S.

Thanks guys for the advice. This site is always very helpful.

I'd like to eventually maybe learn about taking good pictures but bet. 13 hr work days and family commitments that leaves me with little free time. I can't even finish my new pc that has been sitting on my workbench or play any video games that I've bought but not even opened yet.

With that said, I've actually placed a preorder for the Panasonic Lumix dmc-lx3. I was going to get a Canon G9. I'll see if that keeps me happy for my purposes. If not then I'll move up to the dslrs.

I have been deciding between the XSi and the 40/30D for a while now and pulled the trigger on the XSi--and I'm glad I did.

The main, most obvious difference between the two is the size and weight. This is what you should value most imo. Do you prefer a smaller more portable camera for travel, all-around use? Carrying to concerts? The XSi is extremely portable (for a DSLR) while I would not want to carry the 40D around all day on a trip to Europe...

The viewfinder on the 40/30D is a pentaprism in opposed to mirrors, which is supposed to be brighter, but I've compared the two and they look almost identical. The older Rebel XTi and below have significantly worse viewfinders though.

I actually prefer the single large LCD on the back of the XSi to view all settings instead of the separate LCD on top of the 40D. Although, I think the 40D's back LCD also acts as the XSi's so the settings are displayed twice.

Some people say the scroll wheel on the back of the 40D makes it easier to use and adjust settings. I have had no problem with the XSi and find adjusting all settings easy and quick to do.

XSi uses secure digitla cards, 40D compact flash. I'd rather buy SD cards.

Also, 40D has 5.5fps continous shooting while XSi is 3.5. If you want to shoot sports, action shots, babies running around, the 40D could more likely capture that special moment. Not a big deal for me.

Image quality should be virtually identical between the two. The XSi might have a slight edge because of the more megapixels (debatable). What matters most is what lens you use, however.

I would definitely recommend the 50 f/1.8. You simply cannot get a better value'd portrait lens for around $75. I have one in the mail, but have read enough and have a couple friends with them that I know it's a good "second" lens after the kit lens.

jonnythan said:erdong77 said:Curiously, I can hardly believe a super compact camera, such as SD1000, can have F2.8 lens. When we talk about F2.8 in SD1000, is it the same thing as the aperture in 24-70 F2.8L?

I simply do not believe it. Otherwise, even the small SD1000 can have very shallow DOF, and will work like a champ in dim light. That does not sound like true.

Picture of SD1000

Look at the lens.

The SD1000 can have a shallow DOF optically, but this is hampered by the size of the sensor. It's so small that out-of-focus objects in the image tend to be a bit sharper than you'd expect for a similar f-stop on an APS-C or full frame camera.

The biggest detriment to low-light performance in a P&S is ISO.

This is not quite right but you're on the right track. This issue is "depth of field", which entails the range of objects in a photo that are within focus (i.e. "sharp"). The depth of field is far greater on point and shoot cameras with small sensors vs. dSlr's with larger sensors. The physics are that depth of field is inversely proportional to format size. My 1ds has a shallower depth of field than my 40d at every focal length and my 40d has a far shallower depth of field than my shiny new refurb sd1000. A medium format outfit would have far less depth of field, for any given focal length, than even my 1ds.

With a sensor that is about 1/6 the size of my 1ds, there is virtually no way to throw background elements out of focus with the sd1000(the sd1000 lens is 5.8-17.4mm equiv to 35-105mm, or 1/6 the size). This is easily possible with f/2.8, or even smaller aperture lenses, with my 40d or 1ds. So if you're interested in taking portraits that "pop" or having subjects stand out against smoothly blurred backgrounds, you need a dSLR or a p&s with a large sensor (if that exists?). P&S cameras are usually pretty good for landscapes, group photos and other types of pix that usually require greater depths of field. That said, other than being small in size and make movies (yet) or have tilt-out screens (yet), dSLR's can usually do most everything photographically that a p&s can do. A p&s would not be capable of doing many things photographically that can be done with a dSLR.

There are countless benefits to both p&s cameras and dSLRs. As to being "blown away" by one vs. the other, I think that's a pretty subjective argument. You really need to know what you're interested in shooting, what your budget is and what your photographic cabilities are to make the right decision. Despite my heavy investment in photographic equipment, one of my favorite photos of all time was taken on a lowly powershot s10. But don't take my word for it, Ansel Adams made some of the best photographs the world has ever seen on some pretty junky cameras.

I got the G9 from the canon trade-in program recently. But man this deal is too hot. Contemplating if I should pull the trigger or not.

jidteach said:Erick13 said:My biggest problem is trying to figure out if I want the XSi kit or the 40D kit. I was thinking of upgrading, but I also want the 28-135mm IS lens too. By buying the XSi and the 28-135mm I'm at nearly the same price of the 40D kit with that same lens. Once I have it figured out I'm going to sell my current XTi.Others will disagree, but I since I hike to shoot pics, the weight factor on the xsi makes it the better choice for me. You can always fleabay the 18-55 IS kit lens for at least $120 to bring the net cost down.

To me the weight isn't a big issue. I nearly got the 28-135 lens before, but I ended up buying an Archos player instead. I'll just have to talk to the wife about it.