I have been in the market for my first "professional" camera for a few months now. I have loved photography for quite sometime and have finally decited to take it a little more seriously. I am in search of a camera that in semi advanced but not too advanced so I become ahead of myself. I am scared of spending too much money and also afraid of not investing enough for good quality. I was thining of the canon EOS-3. I have been doing lots of reasearch on cameras and photography but am still a little unsure. I will be taking photos of a varity of thing from landscape, architecture, to wildlife. I am looking to spend a decent amount of money as well. Thanks, Kimberly

-- Kimberly Muccio (kam9581@aol.com), May 15, 2001

Answers

For Canon,

<$1000, EOS30, 28-135IS, <$2000, EOS30, 20-35USM, 70-200/2.8L, 50/1.8II <$3000, EOS30, 17-35L, 70-200/2.8L, 50/1.8II, 1.4x or 2x <$4000, 2 EOS30 bodies or EOS30+EOS300, 17-35L,28-135IS; 70-200/2.8L or 100-400L/IS, 50/1.8II or 50/1.4, 1.4x or 2x <$5000, refer to Photo net " What camera should I buy", and beyond my moral standard of 35mm format investment.

You see the rationale here that camera is "a just box to block the light" and lens give you the picture.

-- George Zhang (george.zhang@syngenta.com), May 15, 2001.

Kimberly, I own EOS3, 1N, 1nr's and a 1V. If your looking for a pro camera i would go with the 1V this is one camera worth the money, EOS3 is not even in the same arena. Study some brocures you will SEE! what i mean. THIS IS ONE you won't outgrow! Rich.............

-- Richard Dattilo (fire@nls.net), May 15, 2001.

The camera is also that "box" that attaches to the lens. This "box" also acts as the middle-man between the lens and the photographer. The lens is told what to do, when to do it, how to do it, etc., by the information passed between the lens, body and photographer. It will also be the "box" that meets your eye, that feels different from the other box in your hands. On and on and on. Try not to devalue the importance of body selection. Lenses mean a great deal in the quality of results(I have taken great interest in choosing the right lenses for my photographic interests), but I also feel that different bodies (EOS 3 and Elan 7) enable photographers to compose photographs and to control the actions of lenses in different ways. I am not trying to say that you need an EOS 3 to take better pictures. I am saying that you need to decide what meets your needs as a photographer.

If you really have the money to buy six lenses, a body and a 550EX (The 550EX is almost an absolute must for any Canon user), do what feels best to you.

-- Roger (rashrader@hotmail.com), May 15, 2001.

Hey RIch,

Your statement about the 1V and the EOS 3 not being in the same arena...absolute brilliance! Ya know, come to think of it, I don't understand how people keep confusing them. The price should be a dead give away that they are different cameras that do different things. Huh, you are really on to something there! The EOS 3 and the 1V are different. Wow! Maybe that is why Canon gave them different names and why the 1V costs so much more then the EOS 3?! Thanks!!

-- Roger (rashrader@hotmail.com), May 15, 2001.

Thats right roger, good is not cheap, and cheap is not good! if you check the specs on eos3 vs 1v, if you know anything about either camera you can see there miles apart. 45 ms mirror,pc link,film id inprinting,improved mirror bound suppression,creative photo cutting edge. The lady wants a pro camera so what!!!! I can see you havn't ever used 1v, it shows RICH.................... Sorry Kimberly, this was mean't for MR roger

-- rich dattilo (fire@nls.net), May 16, 2001.

I've had the Canon A2 camera body with several lenses now for four years. I started with a Canon Rebel XS.

My comment to Kimberly is that it doesn't matter how fancy or expensive the equipment is, if you don't know the basics of photography, the photos aren't likely to be zingers.

In my opinion, unless the added features of the EOS3 and above models are understood, they won't be used and the extra $$$ is best spent on better quality lenses instead. If a person is "easy" on his or her equipment (ie doesn't run in fields with 2 cameras wrapped around the neck or tend to leave them jostling in the back seat of a car), the A2 is plenty rugged enough and has more features than some will toy with.

Definitely do your homework as you are doing, but don't be afraid to put your money on lenses over fancy settings on a camera which the owners manuals tend not to explain well anyway.

In my opinion, any Canon product is a good product that you'll enjoy!

If this is your first camera, the models above EOS3 are likely to be overkill until you get lots of practice with the subjects you described. I've been photographing now for 7 years and find that moving up from model to model tends to prevent your first purchase from being more than can be understood before new technology makes it obsolete.

Good luck!

Sue

-- Sue Butler (sue@butler22.com), May 22, 2001.

I've taking photos for over 15 years with a Pentax Spotmatic with a Takumar lens, and a Canon AV-1, the most creative pictures done with Pentax.

And I have bought 1 month ago an EOS-30 with an Ultrasonic 35-80 f/4- 5.6, and is amazing what you can do with it, great pictures, great details, perfectly rugged to do a run-over-the-field with your camera hangin' from your neck....It is a blast...

I dont'k quite understand how professional a picture becomes by having a camera with so many toys, such as mirror interchange, faster shutter, or things like those.

I dont'k know much about EOS-3 or EOS-1, they must be worth the money for all the "extras" the come with, but for an advanced-amateur as myself an EOS-30 is far more than what I was specting... It has so many "automatic" things that I am amazed, I used to do all that by knowing my camera. In the Pentax I didn't have TTL, Auto-Focus, AEB exposure, winder, or any of those things you can see in an EOS brochure...

But I tell you something, if you like taking pictures, and you can afford buying any, I would expend the money in buying the best body ever...once you have the body, you can buy a lens as soon as you can save some money...

And don't forget that if you already have a Rebel 2000, you can use its lenses if you don't have enough money to buy one...so you can expend all your money in the top-ranked-best-body Canon offers...

Wish you the best....

-- Diego Garcia (samsagaz07@hotmail.com), May 23, 2001.