... Having been in the SLR world back in the 90s, I knew how much control you could have over your imagery, but I forgot just how great and fun it really is. Digital makes it even better. I wanted to give a quick run down of things I really am happy about vs. a point and shoot camera and maybe that will help people make the dive into SLR. The XTi is a really great camera to take that dive with.
Instant shutter release - I can't tell you how many good pictures I probably lost waiting for my Canon Digital Elph (had a SD110 and a SD700IS) to finally take the picture. With the XTi, you press the button and it takes the picture right away. In low light conditions, you might have to wait a second or two, but its still much faster. And with the sports setting, you are more likely to get a sharp image when there is lots of motion. You can take that picture of someone hitting a baseball right when it makes contact.
Multiple pictures per second - This is the frames per second rating. Not only does it take the picture fast, you can take a few pictures in a second. This allows you to just hold down the shutter release button and snap away, allowing you to ensure that you get action shots at the right moment. Recently I took my daughter to the zoo and took a picture of her feeding a giraffe. Because I was able to take multiple pictures per second, I was able to capture all the right moments of the event. I've actually taken this feature to the extreme by making some time lapse videos using 6000 frames of 4 fps pictures taken in 1.5 hours.
Quality of image - The 2nd picture I ever took with this camera was one of the best pictures I've ever taken of my daughter. And I was just playing around. Colors look better, lighting looks better. Its not about megapixels, its about lens quality.
Settings wheel - Having the wheel on top to control the settings of the camera is invaluable. You can instantly change between a portrait shot and a sports shot, macro and landscape, etc. On Point and shoot cameras, this often involves navigating a menu, which is time consuming and prevents or discourages you from taking certain types of pictures.
Lens can be changed - This is probably the most obvious feature. You know those great close up pictures of birds, flowers, insects and stuff? Those weren't taken with digital zoom, they used a real zoom lens. The difference in quality is enormous and digital zoom is a poor substitute for having a real 300mm lens. This camera doesn't come with a 300mm lens, but can buy a cheap 70mm-300mm Canon lens for a couple hundred dollars and take much better pictures than on any point and shoot camera.
Accessories - There is a whole world of accessories that are geared towards SLR cameras, you really don't know it until you start looking. So far I've bought a 70-300mm zoom lens, a UV filter, a polarizing filter, IR remote trigger and a remote timer.
Some things to be mindful of:
Get a UV protective filter to protect your lens. They are only like $10.
The screen is not a viewfinder - I didn't realize this either until after I bought it, but I understand why this is the case, you want to be looking through the lens. Honestly, this isn't as big of an issue as you might think it is. You still get to review your pictures on the screen and there is lots of helpful information about your settings.
Learn about photography - As great as this camera is, pictures still don't compose and take themselves, you should learn at least the basics of good photography. You don't have to spend a fortune or take a lot of time either, you can just get a short and small book that explains things like depth of field, composition, etc. ...
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