First DSLR Camera Help Please!!!

[Soccer Princess]

I think I am ready to make the plunge to a DSLR camera. I have a point nad shoot that I'm just not really pleased with now that I have a baby. This is what I want in my camera: no lag time in between taking pictures, will not take blurry pics of moving baby/child, good zoom and quality, and more crisp photos. I have been looking at Canon T3, T3i, or T2i. The lens it comes with is 18-55mm. I have also been recommended to get a 50mm as well.

What are the main differences between these three? If I get the T3 I can add on the 50mm now. If I get one of the pricier ones (T3i or T2i) I will have to wait a few months to get it.

Will the kit lens alone be okay for taking pictures since I am just starting out?

We will be going to WDW in 3 weeks and I would love to take it with me and get better pictures there. Will the 18-55mm lens be okay for the trip?

Any other recommendations? Thanks so much!!

 

[Frantasmic]

What do you want to take pictures of?

The 50mm isn't that expensive. Personally, I'd go for the better sensors of the T3i or T2i now and then decide what your next lens should be.

The 18-55 that comes with the kit is a good, image-stabilized lens that will capture a lot of the pictures a first time dslr-er is practicing with.

 

[Soccer Princess]

In general I want to take pictures of my daughter and our family/pets.

On the trip I will want to take pictures of rides/parades/shows and our family.

 

[photo_chick]

Every camera will take blurry pics. Honestly, the requirements you put out there don't necessitate a DSLR. And unless you learn how to use whatever camera you get you're likely to still encounter many situations where you end up with blurry shots.

The T3 is a solid entry level camera. It has everything you need to make a great image (as do most camers). Just not as many bells and whistles as the T3i. I usually say go with the kit lens until you know more about lenses. That way you don't waste money on the wrong lens for you.

 

[Phil'sFrontier]

I also think you will be fine with just the kit lens for a while until you know what you want in a second lens.

Blurry photos aren't caused by the camera or the lens(assuming everything works ok). It is usually either too slow of a shutter speed for the situation. Or the lack of a tripod. Possibly incorrect focus, but with the depth of field in today's point and shoot cameras usually the whole picture is in focus. So in other words your camera is not taking the blurry photos, you are.
Hopefully that helps

 

[Frantasmic]

What the other posters are saying is correct: you can take blurry pictures with a dslr if you are just going to shoot in auto.

Are you using flash indoors with your daughter?

Please read Understanding Exposure by Petersen before you purchase your dslr. It will help you see what you need to do to get better pictures.

You would have been a good candidate for www.woot.com 's deal the other day: a new T3 with a kit lens for $399.

Now, for your trip, if you are interested in taking pictures inside dark rides, the kit lens, and in some cases even a nifty fifty won't take clear pictures like you see on here. The ones who are taking the better pictures have a higher end camera and/or lens set up.

 

[boBQuincy]

The kit lens (18-55) is a pretty good lens, where it falls down is it doesn't focus very fast and it is a "slow" lens (meaning it does not let in a lot of light). By comparison the inexpensive 50 lets in more than four times as much light, allowing a shutter speed four times faster. In low light conditions the T3 and 50 lens should do better than a T2i or T3i and the 18-55 lens. One point that you probably already know, the 50 does not zoom. It is good for chasing children and pets around but be prepared to do a lot of chasing!

Canon's programming tends to keep the shutter speed as high as possible in low light before going to a smaller aperture. What that means is that even in Auto mode the shutter speed in a low light situation will probably be as fast as possible for the conditions, giving you the best opportunity for eliminating or reducing blur. Still, there is no substitute for learning what the different modes and settings will do, this is our best means to guarantee a clear sharp photo under difficult conditions.

The 18-55 is a good all around lens for most photos and should do fine at WDW. I use a similar range of lens for most of my photos there.

 

[disneyboy2003]

I think I am ready to make the plunge to a DSLR camera. I have a point nad shoot that I'm just not really pleased with now that I have a baby. This is what I want in my camera: no lag time in between taking pictures, will not take blurry pics of moving baby/child, good zoom and quality, and more crisp photos. I have been looking at Canon T3, T3i, or T2i. The lens it comes with is 18-55mm. I have also been recommended to get a 50mm as well.

What are the main differences between these three? If I get the T3 I can add on the 50mm now. If I get one of the pricier ones (T3i or T2i) I will have to wait a few months to get it.

Will the kit lens alone be okay for taking pictures since I am just starting out?

We will be going to WDW in 3 weeks and I would love to take it with me and get better pictures there. Will the 18-55mm lens be okay for the trip?

Any other recommendations? Thanks so much!!

I'll echo what many of the previous posters have already said: getting a dSLR camera doesn't automatically mean the end to blurry photos. It is still very possible to get blurry photos using a dSLR camera.

There are 2 different reasons why photos are blurry: motion blur and out of focus. To avoid blurriness due to focusing problems, be sure to learn about how to choose the correct focus point when you take your picture, so that the camera knows exactly what you want it to focus on.

Blurry pictures of a moving baby/child are probably due to motion blur. I'm going to guess that you were trying to take pictures of your baby in low light conditions. When cameras see low light conditions, they typically use a slower shutter speed to let more light into the camera. However, when using slower shutter speeds, you run the risk of blurriness due to the motion of your subject (your baby) and blurriness due to camera shake.

The key to avoiding motion blur is to use faster shutter speeds. Faster shutter speeds can "freeze" the subject and prevent motion blur. However, faster shutter speeds let less light into the camera, potentially making for an underexposed (too dark) photo. In this case, you should then use a larger aperture and/or higher ISO to let the camera "see more light". This is how shutter speed, aperture, and ISO all interact with each other to form the "exposure triangle". When you learn about the basics of photography, you will learn how these 3 things interact with each other to make a properly exposed photograph.

In terms of what you listed for what you want to camera, pretty much all dSLR's have little to no lag time in between taking pictures. Probably the slowest dSLR camera will let you take up to 3 photos per second in continuous burst mode. That should be pretty fast for general purposes.

In terms of blurry pictures of moving baby/child, the key to this is faster shutter speeds, as I mentioned above.

A "good zoom" is more dependent on the lens than it is on the camera. Remember that you can actually change lenses on a dSLR camera, so that if you don't have enough focal length (don't have enough zoom), you can always switch to a different lens that has a longer focal length (has more zoom).

For "more crisp photos", they will likely depend on proper focusing techniques, such as selecting the correct focus point on your camera, as I mentioned above. It will also depend on using a fast enough shutter speed to prevent motion blur. In general, dSLR cameras can and do provide "more crisp photos" than point-and-shoot cameras, but much of this is also dependent on the photographer as well.

There are plenty of websites out there that compared the Canon T3, T3i, and the T2i. You can honestly take great pictures with any of these dSLR cameras, no matter which of these cameras you end up choosing.

 

[Soccer Princess]

Thanks for all of the input! I appreciate it!