Some things to think about: - There really are no cr@ppy DSLRs being sold anymore. Even the new low-end cameras offer the latest in image-processing software and lens technologies. - Even the low-end cameras also offer more than enough resolution (megapixels) for anything short of poster-sized prints. Don't get caught up in the megapixel race. It's like deciding between a car with 300 hp and one with 400 hp. Either will get the job done; your camera choice should be based on more than just raw power. - You really should handle the camera you plan to buy. Some people find some cameras too large to handle comfortably. - The camera you buy should allow you to output pictures in RAW format. This format contains more picture information so you can manipulate it digitally later without losing picture quality. - It's a fact that most people buying SLRs these days never use more than the lenses that come in the box with the camera. Unfortunately, these "kit lenses" typically are not the best the camera manufacturer offers. Check out what other lenses the manufacturer offers and consider lenses sold by third-party manufacturers as well. You may find your pictures are noticeably better with a lens other than a kit lens -- especially one designed for the kinds of images you want to take (macro, telephoto, etc.) - Some manufacturers offer image stabilization. This can be useful in getting pictures in low-light or fast-moving situations. The two types of IS are in-lens and in-camera. In-lens is better, but it means you're paying for IS with every lens you buy. Hard to say if one choice is better than the other. :-P - Keep in mind that DSLR technology is still evolving some. Back when film SLRs were popular, it made sense to spend a good chunk of money on a camera you'd be growing into for 10-15 years. Given how quickly improvements still are being made, it doesn't make a lot of sense to spend well into four figures for a DSLR while you learn to take better pictures. Most DSLRs just aren't going to have that long a practical life. Good luck!

oh,I'm still learning with my xti. It's been great, everytime I learn something new. So I started taking baby steps following directions in the XTi 400D Manual. I found photoworkshop.com/canon to be very helpful. Also, XTisite.com is another. However, makes sure you check out that some of these sites cost money. But, most of the time, they will let you read a few things. It's been interesting. Now that big long lens you spoke of. I too went through the same thing of not realizing it was supposed to be an IS lense to help me with the photograph, unless you have a tripod. Recently, a man I met on a photography forum was speaking about how he was getting rid of most of his long range IS lenses. His reason was, he enjoys and gets as much satisfaction out of the Macros. I have yet to enjoy this anomoly. However, it would be nice to try one of them macros he speaks of. May want to try. Seems to me, smaller lenses have been mostly the cheaper ones. Starr

Got up at 5:30, darn race didn't start until 8, they said 7 on one of the news websites. Had to get there early enough so I didn't have to park too far away, people everywhere all over town. Hot already but not as bad as I thought. Here I am telling you what to do and my photos did not turn out too great. I shot sports mode, buildings & background were bright but runners too dark, many blurry or out of focus, many good and fixable. I am going to have to process each one that's worth keeping (shot 594) and brighten most of them up with shadow highlights. Good learning experience. I shot most in sports mode which kicks into burst, but I'm not happy with a lot of today's because I can't change any of the parameters in that, picks too large apertures and too slow shutter speeds and continuous auto focus I'm not used to at all. It is hard shooting a sea of people, never been in a situation quite like that before. I'm thinking about what to do next time, couldn't figure out how set burst so I could use tv mode standing out there with all those people, should have shot tv mode, 1/800, ISO 800, partial metering. Maybe. I'll have to get some help with that. Coming home, I was trapped in by lots of street closings, had to go way out of my way to find a way out of that maze, lucky I know my streets around here, only one way out from where I got myself. Filled two 1 gig flash cards in about 1/2 hour! Good timing though, a few stragglers were coming up the hill when both cards were full. I'll wait for your photos. Yours will be easy. I know people steal photos. I haven't caught anybody doing that to me yet, maybe mine aren't that good? Somebody in France liked my peacock java applet and wrote and asked, I said ok. What do I care? I just don't want people making money off my work. Will address some of the other issues later. Too bad you have to break up your lily garden, that would be very hard for me to do. You must be either a specialist or have special lilies and maybe getting older like I am? Granny out shooting a race. Hah! I wonder which lens would be best for that? Used 50mm with a different race, much smaller, this time went with the 28-135 so I could zoom. 70-200 not wide enough even if I had it which I don't. That is a conundrum for sure since I was so close to most of them standing on the sidewalk, brushed by a few, tried not to get in their way. Then some other photog gets in my way. There now you taught me something about bracketing. I've been doing it the hard way. Shoot, look at histogram, set exposure comp or some other adjustment. I'm going to try bracketing and quit on the bright end like you do. So thanks for that tip! I dared not shoot that race in AV (my favorite) because with the early morning bright light and shadows, it would have picked too slow a shutter speed. Frustrating. THIS is where I would like to have been positioned lol. She hadn't turned her camera toward the race yet, she had to swing it about 45 degrees to her right to be pointing at the runners coming up the long hill. I fixed this one a little. Later, Alice

The Canons that I'm familar with have two focusing modes: continous and only at exposure time. In the continous mode, the focus mechansiam is active all the time and is using up battery charge. It is constantly trying to keep the scene in focus as y u move the camera around. Many users turn this off to conserve power. In the other mode, the autofocus become active only when the shutter button is pressed half way down to its first detent. In this mode, the shooter must allow enough time for the camera to focus before pressing the shutter all teh way down to record the shot. In good light, those Canons do focus fairly fast, usually in the time it take the user to compose the scene. But focusing takes more time for low light and at long zooms. The farther the zoom, the longer it may take. I think that on onme of your deer shots, the camera was not fullt focused when the shot was recorded. In another matter, I have been able to hand hold shots up to 2 and maybe 3 times zoom in good light where the shutter speed is fast. Once you approach 5X zoom and beyond, you'll need someting to steady the camera or very fast shutter speed. Your shots of the deer appear to be at least 5X zoom.