irishskywalker wrote:personally I would spend $55 more and get the new Canon T3 - http://www.amazon.com/Canon-Rebel-T3-Digital-18-55mm/dp/B004J3Y9U6/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1323756355&sr=1-1

Absolutely! Why would you not want the upgrade to 12.2 MP and 720 HD Movie capability for that little bit of money.

Personally, I'll be waiting for Woot to post a t2i here (and beat amazon's current $600 price-level by a good 50 bux or so hopefully)... but i'm not holding my breath ;-)

Pretty sure you can get these for under $450 all day 'err day. Nothing to woot about.

This was my first DSLR, so I've got a bit of a soft spot for it.

If you're willing to spend a bit more I'd definitely recommend the newer, [much] more capable t3 (1100D), or some of the strong competitor offerings from Nikon, Pentax, and Sony.

Otherwise, if you're aware of and okay with its limitations, I'd still recommend the XS for a beginner who is on a tight budget AND is unsure about whether they're going to be interested in or stick with photography.

The XS is basic and entry level but is still quite a step up from many point and shoots even with just the included kit lens. You can take some pretty nice pictures and it's good for learning about the many of the features/settings of a DSLR.

Seems expensive for a camera that came out so long ago. I would echo other comments about little at other newer models for a tad more money.

I bought this camera a couple years ago, and I love it! Although I'd like to sell it and buy a fancier one, because I enjoy this DSLR so much.

Very good beginner camera, and lets face it if you're not a beginner you wouldn't be looking at these types of reviews.

The included lens is good for what it is, but 55mm is roughly equivalent to normal vision (ie. no zoom) So don't forget to budget for a better lens. My current (mid-range budget)lens is ~2x the cost of this camera, but the lens is a very integral part of any camera system.

The Amazon deal of the Day today was a zoom lens for this camera that I have been eyeing for a year - ever since I got the Rebel for Christmas last year. The zoom lens was $299 for months, then recently went on sale occasionally as low as $199. Today, it was the lowest I've ever seen it - $149 - and my husband better have bought before it sold out, or I'll...

Good camera for website product photos?

I am looking to upgrade from my P & S for my product photos, ebay, website, etc. All are indoor photos of rather small products, shot in a light tent. I use my macro setting now, with limited success. The more I shoot, the more demanding I am on the quality of the photos. Any recommendation on this camera for indoor product photos?

Great entry level DSLR! Sorry, I don't know why the font is so large on this comment!

For anyone just starting out in the DSLR world, here is my overview on the basics of digital photography.

1. The camera body is only part of the equation - if you ask me, any good DSLR from Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Fuji, Panasonic, Sony, etc, will take amazing pictures at anything above 8 Megapixels. Just make sure you learn the modes so you know when to change the ISO, the white balance, and decide if you want to shoot in RAW mode or JPG. These 3 settings have the most impact on taking pictures managed in the camera body.
   
   *******Equally important is the flash, and most important is the lens you use. You'll notice these items are equally expensive, and with lenses, you can spend thousands. at the very least, get a big flash, diffuser for it, and the $100 50mm portrait lens. You'll have people begging you to take pictures at the next birthday, soccer game, wedding, and more!
   
   
2. Buy a big flash - this is probably the biggest mistake people make who buy these cameras. The flash on the camera isn't sufficient in most cases.
   
   ***Example: Indoors at a birthday party you use the big flash to bounce light off the ceiling and get rid of darkness under kids eyes and create nice even colors.
   
   ***Example: Outside on a sunny day you'll use it for fill flash to get rid of shadows made by the Sun, too.
   - the Speedlite 430EX II will be a good start
   - you'll need a diffuser to create softness, skip starbucks this week and pick up the Stofen Omni Bounce
   
   
3. Get a fixed 50mm lens for portraits right away. The thrifty 50 is $100 and will create those beautiful headshots you see with crisp focus on the face, and a blurry background. Put the dial on the headshot setting and take some shots. This Canon 50mm lens will be great.
   - Next you'll want a zoom/telephoto lens for sports and sightseeing. The Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS]Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS is your next buy- you'll be leaving this on the camera most of the time since it gives you ultimate flexibility for portraits to zoom.
   
   
4. Grab an Eye-Fi Wireless SD card - with wifi built-in and it'll send the photo's to you computer automatically - no hooking up wires, or popping out your sdcard to download photos from the camera. This is my favorite gadget and saves me tones of time. It'll upload automatically to your computer, favorite social media and online albums too! Check out the Eye-Fi homepage for more info!
   

pjhad wrote:canon.com has some great deals right now on refurb dslrs, this one in particular is $374, then there is a code for $5 shipping. they also have the T3,
a 12 meg camera with newer sensor and newer lens for the same price.

what's the code for the $5 shipping?

I bought this camera a couple of years ago for my daughter who was taking an advanced photography class at school and this camera fit the reguirements. There were many students with the same camera. I paid around $599.00 for a kit that also included a Tamron 80 - 300 mm lens which wasn't/isn't the fastest or sharpest lens in the world but it, along with the camera and the standard lens it came with, did the job very nicely. We still take the camera with us where ever we go along with a Nikon point and shoot. It does everything the reviews thus far have pointed out. It is not the latest or the greatest camera out there and as noted by others, has been discontinued but if you are looking to upgrade from a basic point and shoot camera, this is the ticket at the right price for sure. Also, there are several web sites that sell refurbished/used lenses that are priced based on condition of the lens and the bottom line is that most of these web sites are on the conservative side as far rating the lenses they are selling. The bottom line is you can get some incredible deals on lenses for this camera and most will agree that it really is all about the lens. It can be used as a great point and shoot or it has enough adjustments on it for you to do everything manually to bring out the artist in you. This is a great deal, no question about it.

j3jymann wrote:I've been looking for an SLR this just might be the one for me

I have a T2i and love it. I have seen this camera in action and other then the mega pixels, there really is not a difference. I suggest if you are thinking about getting a DSLR, don't pass this up.

woot4jam wrote:amazon link: B001CBKJGG $479 rather good reviews.

399 is not too bad of a price at all.

you'd have to buy refurbed to get that price normally...

-Jam

I remember when Woot used to sell stuff for 50% less than you could get it for anywhere else, including Amazon. Not saying this isn't a good deal for those who want it and can't wait a few months to buy it for this same price pretty much anywhere, but I rarely find anything on Woot anymore that I have to buy *right now* because it's such a good deal.

Just checking my personal history.... 46 woots in '08, 21 in '09, 15 in '10 and 3 in '11.

Still pretty good deals on wine.woot though, generally 30-40% off retail. Clink!

Hey woot! do you mind updating the Facebook share link. It links to the 8" android smart tablet and I need my friends to know they should get me this camera for Christmas? Huh? HuH? Do ya? Do ya?

If it is a problem on my end then please shoot me with a Woot! monkey and knock my two brain cells together so they form a thought and I can figure this out.

Anyone have thoughts on this (or equivalent level DSLRs) for astrophotography? I've got an 8" schmidt-cassegrain I've used only for moon photography with an old 35mm Pentax. I'd like to make the jump to deep imaging but I just don't have the patience to burn an entire evening using old school "hope I got this thing in focus" film.

Thoughts on heat of the sensor? 30 second exposure time maximum too low? etc?

michaels1715 wrote:The Amazon deal of the Day today was a zoom lens for this camera that I have been eyeing for a year - ever since I got the Rebel for Christmas last year. The zoom lens was $299 for months, then recently went on sale occasionally as low as $199. Today, it was the lowest I've ever seen it - $149 - and my husband better have bought before it sold out, or I'll...

As long as I'm already in wet-noodle woot-lashing mode.... talk about poor timing, selling the add-on lens for this camera on Amazon the day *before* the camera went on sale @ woot!

You have to figure that it is no coincidence these two items showed up so close together on Amawootazon, so who's the idjit that put the lens on sale a day too early?

Hello? McFly? First people have to buy the camera, THEN they need an add-on lens for it. Sure, the lens sold out so no loss there, but how many people are going to forego the lukewarm deal on this camera due to the need to buy a better lens and having a recently expired deal for one on Woot's parent site slapping them in the face?

StickyC wrote:The perfect match for Amazon's (now done) Gold Box deal of the day Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS Telephoto Zoom Lens for $150. It's all entry level kit, but a good entry level.

Exactly. Key words = "now done"

domurat wrote:Great entry level DSLR! Sorry, I don't know why the font is so large on this comment!

Buy a big flash -Speedlite 430EX II will be a good start

Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

Grab an Eye-Fi Wireless SD card

Few notes. If you're going to go with this over the T3 for $50 more why would you spend so much on a 430exII? A yongnuo 565 is almost on par for less than half of the 430.

Why 18-200? The 18-55 and 55-250 perform better. It comes with the 18-55 so a cheap addition of the 55-250 would better suit a bargain shopper. If you don't mind foot zoom to cover 55-70, personally I say skip the 55-250 and step up to the 70-300 IS USM if you're going that route. Cheaper than 18-200, MUCH better lens and once you get a taste of USM you'll beg for more. Or you could skip that and save up for your first red line lens, a 70-200 f4 (non-is)

The eye-fi is junk. It is a slow card which will tend to make you run into the buffer real quick. The metal cover behind the door on the rebel impacts the distance really bad. For the price of that card you can pick up 2 FAST 8gig sd and a cheap SD reader which will not only take pictures faster, but move files faster and give you 4x the size

I have to agree with several other posters though, You should really skip this and go for the t3. I'm not just talking pixels, but better metering, better focusing, better low light, bigger screen, newer sensor, newer processor, etc.

No Video! Why? Oh why?

neploxo wrote:I bought this item for the same price during last week's Woot-off. It is the best purchase I have ever made on Woot.

I've been wanting to move to a true DSLR, and this camera can't be beat for that price. I'm also interested in astro-photography, and this camera is one of the most popular lowest-cost entry-level choices.

I unpacked and had it working in minutes. It is easy to use with fully-automatic settings, and there are buttons for every manual setting without going into confusing menus.

Several things to note before you buy: 1) No video. This is a still-only camera that can shoot a maximum of 3fps in burst mode. 2) No wireless remote. It has no IR sensor, but a wired remote is an option. 3) Uses a rechargeable Lithium battery, not standard AAs 4) You will need to provide a storage card (Up to 4GB SD cards are available under $10 many places)

Canon has discontinued this camera, which has been one of their most popular. I'm not sure what model they're going to use to replace it, but this Woot deal represents $100-$150 off the average retail price for it.

I also purchased this during the last wootoff. It arrived this afternoon. As a photography, I am strictly a not-very-good amateur. Am very pleased with this camera. Very intuitive to use. After charging the battery and putting an 8GB SDHC card in it, I was taking pictures within seconds. AF and IS work great compared to my canon PowerShot S3. Can be fully manual with all controls as buttons immediately accessible without using menus (this makes or breaks a camera if you want to use it for anything other than P&S). After showing my 7-yr olds, they are now running around taking photographs *on manual*, setting the aperture, shutter speed, barrel zoom, and manual focus. It is really that easy to use.

And also compared to my P&S's, it is ready to take the next picture in less than a second, it doesn't take forever to register the photo to the memory card.

That's my experience, if it's of any help to anyone. Woot on!

A nice feature on Canon DSLR is you can use lenses you have. Nikon moved focus motors to the lenses instead of body, so you need all new ones.

After reading all the comments, I decided to go with the REFURB T3 on canon.com, its total with the $5 SHIP11 code brings it to $410! That beats this deal!

mjamesskuba wrote:After reading all the comments, I decided to go with the REFURB T3 on canon.com, its total with the $5 SHIP11 code brings it to $410! That beats this deal!

Beach camera has new T3s on fleabay for $400 shipped, and they are authorized reseller with US cams(full new cam warranty).

irishskywalker wrote:personally I would spend $55 more and get the new Canon T3 - http://www.amazon.com/Canon-Rebel-T3-Digital-18-55mm/dp/B004J3Y9U6/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1323756355&sr=1-1

Good find.

Hmm. Unfortunate timing here. Canon is running a promotion on their direct site offering the Rebel T3 with this lens for $373.99. You'll pay a bit more than that after tax + shipping, but it's more than worth a few dollars for the upgrades past the Rebel XS. Better autofocus system, newer version of the DIGIC image processor, movie capabilities, higher ISO range...again, definitely worth the few dollars for an upgrade.

Also, no matter what camera you buy, I echo the wise words of those before me when I say: buy the Canon 50mm f/1.8 prime lens too.
It's $85+s/h+tax on Canon's website right now. The 1.8 aperture means limited depth of field, which gives you that beautiful out-of-focus look on everything but your subject. Seriously. Don't skip it.

100% Agree. Whle dpreview.com gave it a pretty good review, that was July, 2008 - at least a generation ago for digital cameras. Apparently the EOS XS does not take any form of video. FWIW, I have a Canon T2i with the 18-135 lens. While it takes great 1080p video, it still is not a replacement for a camcorder or even a Point-and-Shoot with a motorized zoom. It's pretty impossible to zoom smoothly with a manual zoom.

Looks like a good deal for an entry level camera... but I would never part with my T2i and find the extra money is worth it to have the video, more pixels, better processor. Just my opinion!

I'll add to the chorus. This was my first DSLR. Bought it at the PX in Iraq. I also had a copy of DSLR Photography for dummies, which I never read all the way through. It just got me started in the right direction.

Its the low end of Canon's line, but a MASSIVE step up from anything non DSLR. It will beat the pants off your point and shoot in everything but size and weight.

Keep in mind this camera cannot do video. Step up to the T1i minimum for video, or T3i if you want to get ahead of the game.

Remember that any lens you buy for this thing will work on higher end SLRs too, so moving up is easy, and Canon generally sticks to their button layout making learning a new camera quicker.

I would highly recommend this camera to anyone looking to get into DSLRs, anyone who wants to have BETTER family photos, and anyone who needs better low light performance.

That said, if you buy this and put it on the auto settings, you're throwing money away. Use the P (programmed) setting at first, read up on ISO, Fstop and Shutter Speed, then venture into manual. Its like a manual transmission; its more work, but you can get better work out of the machine when you learn what you're doing.

illuxion wrote:

Beach camera has new T3s on fleabay for $400 shipped, and they are authorized reseller with US cams(full new cam warranty).





I only can find it there for $479, but that includes a case, memory card, filters and lens cleaning kit

I bought the Canon superzoom SX30 a few months ago. Which is the better camera?

I own (2) 50D and (1) 7D. This is a GREAT Price for this camera!

pz@woot wrote:A nice feature on Canon DSLR is you can use lenses you have. Nikon moved focus motors to the lenses instead of body, so you need all new ones.

It depends on which Nikon body you're talking about. Of the current-production bodies, anything above the 5100 has a focus motor in the body, so you can use them with lenses that don't have motors, and you'll still get autofocus.

ckeem wrote:What a deal WOOT... Even B&H Photo is beating your price...

And who cares if its a refurb. Last I checked you'll still be getting the same warranty.

Glad to see WOOT finally got a decent DSLR on here. Won't be clicking the oversized I want one button on this one though.

Unless I missed it in the fine print somewhere, the one you linked to at B&H isn't a refurb - it's just used.

I have a Nikon Coolpix 8700. Its not an SLR and have often felt like the quality isn't as good as I wanted. In many high resolution shots on the highest settings, even in the best of lighting I've seen a lot of digital grain.

How much of an improvement would I be seeing if I got this Canon? I've taken a year of photography classes in college (while doing my Graphic Design Degree) so I know a decent bit about photography but mostly on the composition. Basically will this allow me to take more professional images?

Thanks

(Edit: I realize now how stupid it sounded. I know it'll help me take more professional images but is it worth it I guess I'm asking.)

domurat wrote:Great entry level DSLR! Sorry, I don't know why the font is so large on this comment!

For anyone just starting out in the DSLR world, here is my overview on the basics of digital photography.

[list=1]

Just make sure you learn the modes so you know when to change the ISO, the white balance, and decide if you want to shoot in RAW mode or JPG. These 3 settings have the most impact on taking pictures managed in the camera body.

The basics of photography are aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. Smaller aperture gives less light, but a greater depth of field (more is in focus). Faster shutter speed captures fast motion, slower shutter speed blurs it out. Higher ISO gives brighter images for the same amount of light at the expense of noisier images. Photography is all about balancing these three things to optimize your image.

White balance is only important if you're shooting .jpg. If you're going to get an SLR shoot in RAW. The included software with this camera will let you process the RAW files quickly and easily.

domurat wrote:

*******Equally important is the flash, and most important is the lens you use. You'll notice these items are equally expensive, and with lenses, you can spend thousands. at the very least, get a big flash, diffuser for it, and the $100 50mm portrait lens. You'll have people begging you to take pictures at the next birthday, soccer game, wedding, and more!

Buy a big flash - this is probably the biggest mistake people make who buy these cameras. The flash on the camera isn't sufficient in most cases.

Save your money for now. If your contemplating a $399 camera it doesn't make sense to right away buy a $300 flash. Learn how to use the kit and then, and only then, decide you need an advanced flash setup. The pop-up is fine for now.

domurat wrote:

- Next you'll want a zoom/telephoto lens for sports and sightseeing. The Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS]Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS is your next buy- you'll be leaving this on the camera most of the time since it gives you ultimate flexibility for portraits to zoom.

Why get an SLR if you're going to slap on one lens that *poorly* covers the whole range of interest? Just get a point-and-shoot if you want something that doesn't require you to change lenses.

Does anybody know where I can get a replacement cap for the lens? It's bigger than a standard cover.

No video is essentially a deal breaker in 2011. This camera *was* decent. Video is now required of most photo students, for better or for worse.

Great Camera! Great Price! If you are purchasing your first DLSR then this is the camera for you to learn with. I have it and love it!


A note about the lack of video- Who wants to shoot video with a heavy camera when most smartphones shoot acceptable quality these days?

This is an all around great camera for anyone looking at buying a basic DSLR camera. Its has got all of the capabilities you need (full auto mode) but has many other that allow you to get creative.

The manual will explain how to use every setting and is very user friendly. Three years ago I started using my dad's Rebel XT (similar to the XS, but older) and now I am a 17 year old professional photographer in highschool.

These cameras are baus, they hold up to anything. Canon is an amazing brand and I currently have a 5D with an assortment of lenses.

Like I said, if you want to get a DSLR and dont want to deck out a bunch of money ($399 might seem like a lot for a camera, its not in DSLR world) then get this camera. Great for beginners and this thing can really do work if you slap a nice lens on it.

Hope this helped, you can see my work at
http://benbphotography.com/

limerix wrote:379.95 here
with free shipping?

I wouldn't touch that place with a ten foot pole! Looks just like another site I thought I was ordering a Nikon D-90 from, never got camera, never got a response, changed my debit card, because online posts reported that people's cards had been used all across the country after ordering and never getting the product. Different name on site, but site is exactly the same in layout!

I would use extreme caution, actually I would not give them my card # period!