ukulele_ninja

Sir Travis what experience do you have shooting in manual modes? Like Vroom brought up, if your buying a DSLR just to shoot in full auto its really not a very economical choice and your not going to be happy with your results.

Some things to consider:

Your gonna need a better flash than the one that comes with the xti, the 430ex is your best option but its added cost. As for an affordable zoom lens, the 75-300 but its bottom of the barrel, still good, but dont expect to really unleash the cameras potential until you are willing to shoot in manual mode and spend some real money on a couple decent lenses.

__________________
http://raptr.com/badge/7183de702f2e4...bbc43e0/fs.png

Sir Travis D

I'm sure with a few months of using it, I can learn how to use a dslr. Now, I don't think we can spend $200 on a flash alone, so I am looking into cameras that are dslr, and have a good zoom lens. I mean, the 18-55mm zoom lens that's included on the xti is worse than my $100 camera's combined 5x digital and 3x optical zoom. I assume the more mm, the more zoom, but I would also like to have a lense that is good at portrait type photos too, so I do not have to change them all the time.

edit: the 75-300 lense looks good, but will I be able to take non-zoom photos with it?

edit: This has better reviews, will it be a better COMPATIBLE lens? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16830998812

ukulele_ninja

just having more mm is not going to do much for you. Yes you will get more zoom but the flipside is you will get significantly less quality and a higher aperture on cheaper lenses. Also most dslr's do not come with a zoom lens packaged with it, the stock lens with the xti is an incredibly powerful lens in fact, i use it more than some of my pricier lenses. It comes down to learning how to use it and what its capabilities are. You may want to investigate how much telephoto lenses cost before you willy nilly by a dslr thinking you can pick them for cheap because you cant. Most decent ones cost more than your camera body runs :0

also, dont discard the idea of buying an external flash...your going to want one

If your not willing to spend the money on your new dslr hobby, then you may want to stick with a high end P&S

__________________
http://raptr.com/badge/7183de702f2e4...bbc43e0/fs.png

Sir Travis D

Ok, but the lens really didn't zoom. Are there any lenses that can take close up photos like 18mm and get maybe 150mm zoom?

edit: It's not like I don't want to spend the money, we don't have $2092 for everything I need an upgrade on. I don't need a $4000 telephoto lens, I just want a good dslr that has a good closeup/zoom lens.

ukulele_ninja

The stock lens is not a telephoto lens thats why it didnt zoom in real far. Its awesome for portraits and just normal day to day use. The cheapest 150mm I found on amazon was this sigma: http://www.amazon.com/Sigma-50-150mm...6161211&sr=1-3 which has a huge focal distance 50-150 and a decent 2.8 f-stop.

__________________
http://raptr.com/badge/7183de702f2e4...bbc43e0/fs.png

Sir Travis D

Ok. This is 28-200mm

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16830998148

Will that take decent portraits and zooms?

I don't see why I found a 200mm zoom for $400 and you found a 150mm for $500.. I don't think my link could be worse..

ukulele_ninja

Do you know how f-stops work? You may want to research the subject because they will become your best friend in your search for lenses. Basically, the lower the number, the better the lens quality is going to be (to an extent)

That lens would be a pretty good choice for a good knock around lens that you could use for a variety of different situations, but its not going to get the results of a telephoto zoom if thats what your looking for.

__________________
http://raptr.com/badge/7183de702f2e4...bbc43e0/fs.png

ukulele_ninja

the telephoto equivalent of that lens would be something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Sigma-70-200mm...6161737&sr=1-7

Notice the lower f-stop

__________________
http://raptr.com/badge/7183de702f2e4...bbc43e0/fs.png

Sir Travis D

What I want is a decently priced lens that can take a picture of landscapes, zoom in on a sports game, or anything in between. I don't want to be taking pictures of the stars or anything. I need an overall good lens for different situations, and since this is my first dslr I don't need a professional lens.

now, the xti body is around $550 on newegg. I found the body here for $300

http://shopdigitaldirect.com/catalog...oducts_id=7689

Does that look like a good site?

edit: Looks like a fraudulent website.. from reviews atleast

ukulele_ninja

lol, you need to realize there is no one solution lens that does it all thats what im trying to explain to you. There are different lenses for different situations and if you want to do several different types of photography situations, then you will need several different lenses at your disposal. Dont expect to find a 'one size fits all' solution.

__________________
http://raptr.com/badge/7183de702f2e4...bbc43e0/fs.png