Digital SLR or not

[shirleyb]

I've been dying to get a digital SLR, mainly to get rid of the lag.

I've had a couple of point and shoot digitals, and my last one was decent, but not great, and DH ruined it in Florida last month.

So, since I am in the market for a camera, I picket out the Rebel XT, but now I'm starting to second guess myself. By the time I pick up the camera, and a lens or two, and a flash, and who knows what else, I'll have quite a bit of money tied up, probably more than I want to at this point.

Anyone have any good recommendations for a digital point and shoot? Has the lag issue gotten any better since I bought my last one or am I best to stick with my original plan of a digital SLR?

I'm really pretty clueless with talk of f stops and apertures, etc.

 

[jann1033]

just as a for instance you can get the rebel and kit lens for around $600-700 i think( there was a rebate but not sure if it is for rebel xt or just the newer model, pentax might be cheaper yet) you can get a canon s3IS ( or similar brand) for around $400...personally for the 200 or so i 'd go with the dslr...the shutter lag has improved in p&s and they have lots of nice features but if you have a real interest in "photography" vs just taking some great photos i think eventually you will want a dslr anyway and you can use the auto modes while you learn...the kits lens will be ok for now (when i bought my first slr, i used the film kit lens for 2 or 3 yrs before i really felt the need to get another one. so you can get it when you can, it doesn't have to be right away)and if you want to get more lenses you can always use them with other bodies later...the p & s will always be a p &s and eventually you might out grow it. if you haven't used a slr thought a dslr is a learning experience
if however, you really just want some great pictures and maybe some creative modes where you can learn shutter, apeture etc and don't want the initial outlay, the s3 types would be fine for a few yrs...just the prices of dslr seem so close now that it almost isn't worth buying the s3 types if you really want to get deeper into the subject.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Lag has improved. What camera did you have before? It might help if we could provide you a comparison of the old lag to the new lag.

 

[shirleyb]

Thanks for the responses. We had an HP camera, and I don't know where DH has put it right now to find out what model it is. It's probably 2 or 3 yrs old at this point.

One more question, will I need to purchase an external flash pretty much right away if I go with a Rebel, or will there be settings to allow me to get decent photos without one?

 

[Groucho]

The DSLR's built-in flash should be as good or better than on most any PnS - just still not as good as a flash really should be.

If your main concern is lag, you might be better served with a good PnS.