another newbie here...could use some advice

Hi y'all! I'm a southern gal, mother of four kiddos and a lover of country music and all things chocolate. Four years ago I recieved a Fuji S5000 for Christmas; up until 3 months ago, I never deviated from the AUTO setting. After my fourth baby (and only boy) was born, I realized that the auto flash hindered photos of him--he kept understandably shutting his eyes. So the pictures were horrible! I went scrambling for the owners manual, played around with some other settings...and found a new love--photography! I now shoot many, many picts of my kids everyday!

I took a pj class in college and truly loved it...my prof just didn't love my pictures and really discouraged me from ever taking photos. With kids, I regained a love of photography and really hope to finally capitalize on all the skills I developed as a graphic designer.

I'll be buying my first dslr camera before the month is over (gotta love Christmas cash) and have narrowed my choices to the following 2 lens kits (of course, these probably won't surprise any of you):

• Canon Rebel xti
• Nikon D40x
• Olympus e510

I went to Ritz to look at and hold them. But I could really use some non-salesman advice, so I'm hoping you can help.

My pictures are divided between low-light indoors and natural light out of doors. My kids are quite busy so I get lots of active shots. I also have a springtime dance recital and large Christmas pageant that needs solid picts without a flash.

I really like the Oly because of the Live View. I'm short, so the lcd screen gives me a little extra height in composing shots when my kids are posed in trees or at an odd angle where I can't be crawling around on the floor for the shot. It's also much lighter than the Nikon, which is a plus for my small hands. But the sales guy didn't have a lot of positive things to say about this camera and he admitted that he'd never used it so he didn't know anything.

So, can you please give this newbie some advice?

Thanks.

Another newbie here...and I love my Rebel XTi.

Hi Melinda,

It's so easy to recommend any Canon Eos DSLR especially the Xti, Rebel. It has a perfect sensor and good noise control and with a good lens you are all set. Get any canon lens and you will be happy. The kit lens is probably O.K. to start with. I'd rather invest in a good lens and the 24-105 IS L is one to consider strongly. That's what I chose for my travel use.

However, the Nikon D40 is remarkable in that it has flash synch to 1/500 sec and if you can get a good price, I'd seriously consider that instead of the D40 X. The 7 MP on the D40 is perfect.

The D40 has a special feature in the use of flash. It means that if you wish to use your lens wider open on a bright day wider to get limited depth of field, you could limit ambient light entering the camera by a faster shutter speed of 1/500 second, while giving the right amount of flash to overcome shadows on faces. Not having a high Synch speed is no terrible hinderance or block to great work as most cameras only synch to 1/200 to 1/250 sec! In that case people use neutral density filters (NDFs) to cut down the light.

I do not use Nikons but to be fair, read this.

The Olympus is another good camera and will be less bulky. You might also consider the Pentax K10D which not only is water protected as a Pro camera, but has very good "limited lenses.

Good luck,

Asher

Check out the review of the Oly on dpreview.com. I linked to the conclusions, you'll want to go back and at least check out the images from it too. Then compare the others and see how those reviews match your own experience handling them.

Good Gravy, Asher, that lens goes for a grand at B&H!

Someday.....someday....