Advice: I need help choosing a dSLR!

[inkista]

Originally Posted by PH0T0GEEK

I guess I'm just assuming since photography is a hobby I will be doing for a while, I should put in that extra ~$250 to invest in a better body ...

And what I'm saying is, that in my experience, spending extra money on a better body doesn't mean you keep it any longer--you just have more features to mess with while you have it. It's like a cellphone or a computer. Most folks trade them in every three to five years. These are digital electronics, and expensive ones go obsolete just as quickly as the cheaper ones.

... since the T2i is newer and it does have higher ISO setting, video, MP, and other stuff ...but even then, I'm still a beginner photographer so I can't really tell if those things are worth the investment. ...

Then, my advice is to wait until you know. In the meantime, learn the camera you have to its limits. Most cameras outperform their users; always have, always will. When the XS frustrates you by losing you images you wanted, that's when it's time to think about upgrading. The specific frustrations will lead you there.

I made the leap from an XT (350D) to a 50D, and the ISO performance gains I got were marginal. Maybe a stop at best, and I lost some performance on the low end and some dynamic range. Trust us when we tell you the improvements are there, but also when we say, they're not that big. Chances are good you may be hard-pressed to see them.

Use what you've got until it doesn't work for you any more. THEN consider upgrading. Because the longer you wait, the better the feature sets get, and the more money you can save.

[PH0T0GEEK]

Originally Posted by inkista

And what I'm saying is, that in my experience, spending extra money on a better body doesn't mean you keep it any longer--you just have more features to mess with while you have it. It's like a cellphone or a computer. Most folks trade them in every three to five years. These are digital electronics, and expensive ones go obsolete just as quickly as the cheaper ones.


Then, my advice is to wait until you know. In the meantime, learn the camera you have to its limits. Most cameras outperform their users; always have, always will. When the XS frustrates you by losing you images you wanted, that's when it's time to think about upgrading. The specific frustrations will lead you there.

I made the leap from an XT (350D) to a 50D, and the ISO performance gains I got were marginal. Maybe a stop at best, and I lost some performance on the low end and some dynamic range. Trust us when we tell you the improvements are there, but also when we say, they're not that big. Chances are good you may be hard-pressed to see them.

Use what you've got until it doesn't work for you any more. THEN consider upgrading. Because the longer you wait, the better the feature sets get, and the more money you can save.

Thank you inkista! That advice really did help me clear things up a lot. You're right, I'm just going to stick with my new XS until it dies on me or when I feel like it's necessary to upgrade to another one.

[bigben6]

Originally Posted by PH0T0GEEK

Thank you inkista! That advice really did help me clear things up a lot. You're right, I'm just going to stick with my new XS until it dies on me or when I feel like it's necessary to upgrade to another one.

I think this is the right move, to aid in the learning process consider,

ISO abilities without noise problems is .1 stop better, thats almost impreceptible
FPS from 3.0 to 3.7 is a bigger gap but neither one is particularly fast and for nature/scenery/objects it wont matter a lick
IQ 66 vs 62 is not a big gap and thats also some arbitrary rating they came up with, given we dont even know HOW they came up with it i would argue if it is not a HUGE gap is prolly a usless stat hontesly, if it were 50 vs 80 id say maybe its worth considering.
MP - i print 6.1mp files @ 8x10 withou any issue, do you intend to print bigger?

Inksta normally has a good intinct, and in this case i agree fully, work what you have, learn it, then buy what you NEED not just something "better"

[ceremus]

Err, not quite, the ISO difference between the two is not .1 stop. Overall ISO sensitivity of 6400 on the T2i/T3i are a full two stops greater than the XS's 1600, not counting the T2i/T3i's expandability to 12800 ISO. Whether or not you can tolerate the levels of noise present on the images taken at ISO 6400 or greater is another question altogether, but the noise performance of the T2i @3200 ISO is at least comparable to that of the XS's @1600, that's at least one full stop advantage of usable ISO.

Whether or not that feature is important enough for PH0T0GEEK to consider switching will of course be entirely up to him, although I'm still in the camp that the smart money is better invested in the glass.

[bigben6]

Edit, i kinda left out a part, we r both right i just phrased it prooly.