Help please

I love Photography and i want a Good camara to take my pictures. Right now i have a Olympus Stylus 4.0 Megapixels. It's not bad, but when i want a good zoom i cant get it from this camara. My photography teacher loves the Canon Rebel, but i don't want to have her judgement alone. I want a good digital camara because its more practical.

Things i look for in a camara:

SLR(or not)
be able to take good wide pictures (ex= brooklyn bridge)
about 7x optical Zoom
good portrait

This is all coming from a novice photographer though. what do you guys think? I would like some advice from people in the industry. Thanks

How much do you want to spend?

up to 800 im willing

About the only thing you're going to find in that range will be a used Canon Digital Rebel. Even then, the kit lens will not suffice your desire for zooming so you'll want to look for an additional lens. Your budget may fall short of your expectations.

what's a good camara if i want wide (panorama type) pictures?

and if i didnt have a tight budget what camara do you recommend

Without a tight budget there are over 100 cameras that someone may recommend.

With you budget I would suggest trying to expand it slightly and go for the Pentax DSLR system.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=360018&is=REG

or the almost released Nikon D50

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=381587&is=REG


Another store;

http://www.wolfcamera.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10101&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&productId=13266005

http://www.wolfcamera.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10101&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&productId=13272607

These are all assuming that you are wanting to continue shooting digital. Going film you'll have a ton more options within that price range.

your wide panorm type shots would depend on your wide anglke lens and not your camera.

however there is is a waY around it too. take multiple shots with a 30% overlap in each frame an dthen sttch them intoa pnorama.

thanks for the help guys.

ARe non SLR camaras good for above avarge pictures?

SLRs give you the most options. The biggest is you'll be able to change lenses to create the effect you want. From Ultra wide angle to Super zoom are controlled by the lens that's on the camera. One camera that covers a very broad range and is quite affordable is the Panasonic Lumix.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=371070&is=REG

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=344822&is=REG

Thanks.

I have never owned an SLR but i was wondering.. can i start to take pictures right wheni get it, or are they useless with me purchasing a lense 1st?

They're pretty useless unless you have a lens on them. The ones I posted links for all come with at least one lens.

and if i didnt have a tight budget what camara do you recommend


Canon 1Ds Mark II


BUT since there is a budget, why not invest a little more and look into the Canon Rebel XT. It is a great camera for the price.

Another camera that shows promise is the Olympus E-Volt. Some folks on another forum have one and are very pleased. I'm not sure what the zoom is for the lens that comes with it but you can check it out on several sites. I'm trying to convince my wife I NEED one.

There are also several lenses made for it. It will take only Olympus lenses right now and I believe there are no third party lenses available as of yet.

It's 8MP and Circut City was selling them on there web site last week for $859.

www.olympus.com

http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/cpg_product_blue.asp?l=1&p=&bc=&product=1140

www.dpreview.com

thanks for the help. I was lookign into the Nikon 70D but it doesnt come with a lense, so i dont know.

you can get a lens for it, camera and lens less than 1200, or check out the D50

thanks again :). THis is so hard. to choose, i want to make the right choice and not end up regreting it.

With digital there's going to be a better one next week anyway.

yeah, very true.

One more question.. how much does a regular lense cost? im assuming its a 35mm

A regular lens for which camera?

Usually a "regular" lens would be a 28-100mm or somewhere in that range or close to it.

For pricing and such I'd suggest looking at www.bhphotovideo.com

thanks so much for you help. I had never had to deal with lens and such, so i'm really slow when it comes to it.

You may wish to visit your local bookstore or library and educate yourself fully on what piece of equipment does what, etc.
Perhaps even you could look on ebay or something to find a whole SLR set up that included everything for a lot less.
www.bhphoto.com and www.keh.com both sell used items that will also help you save a lot of money.

Thanks again:)