My old Canon Digital Ixus is great for point & shoot photos at parties, but not that great for scenic or actions shots, especially since it’s all automatic and you can’t change lenses, so I’ve wanted to get a digital SLR for a while now with the intention of learning how to take good photos. Jacqui has had a film SLR for a couple of years and I’ve played with that a little and got some reasonably good photos by trial and error, but it was time to get my own camera.

The first batch of cameras from Canon and Nikon were either too expensive (Nikon D70) or felt a bit flimsy (Canon 300D), so I’ve been watching what’s been happening as the updated models appeared. I was always going to buy either a Canon or Nikon, simply because they’re well respected and both have a massive range of lenses already available. Olympus & Pentax are making good DSLRs too, but just dont have the lens range & availability that the big two do. It came down to a choice between the Nikon D70s (updated D70), the Nikon D50 and the Canon 350D.

The D70s is a nice camera, though quite a bit larger than the Canon and more expensive. It’s got 6 megapixles, a good reputation, and while it gives away 2 megapixels to the Canon, its picture quality is on a par. However, Nikon’s lenses are usually an average of $150 more expensive than the equivalent Canon, and most independent reviews state that you can’t tell the difference between them, and in a few instances Canon’s are better.

The D50 is a smaller version of the D70s. Same pixel count & image processing pipeline, just a smaller camera with a few less features. One of the main negatives is that you can’t get a battery grip for it, as I wanted the option of being able to shoot using AA batteries in situations where I’m away from a power supply and taking lots of photos.

In the end I decided to buy a Canon 350D. Its build quality is much better than the 300D, it’s gone from 6.1 megapixels to 8, and the image processing chip has been upgraded to the same one as used by its more expensive big brother, the Canon 20D, which has an excellent reputation. It has the option of a battery grip, and Canon had just released a starter kit which included their EF-S 17-85mm lens, complete with image stabilisation for only slightly more than the Nikon D70s with stock lens, so it was a fairly easy decision in the end. I was also swayed a bit by the fact that Jacqui’s camera is also a Canon, so we could share any lenses we buy in the future.

I picked the camera up on Friday and have been playing with it a bit since then. There’s so much to learn though that it will take me ages to figure it all out. I took the camera out last night to Christine & Danny’s birthday, but it’s a bit too cumbersome for party shooting so I’ll stick to the Digital Ixus for that. However, I’m off snowboarding in NZ in a couple of weeks and the scenery there is fantastis, so hopefully I’ll be able to get some good shots there. It also means I can claim back the 10% GST on the camera.

Happy Shooting!