5/4     Um, so I asked the question yesterday about the Canon digital rebel
        and what problems people seem to say it has that prevents someone
        from moving beyond point-and-shoot yada yada. The kchang link reply
        wasn't helpful... anyone know what the deal is?
        \_ While we're on the topic, does anyone have a good article that
           explains white balance. is this an issue only in digital or film
           as well?
           \_ It's an issue in film development.
        \_ Go to the forums @ http://dpreview.com. In fact, all digital camera
           questions should go there.
        \_ user interface.  Digital Rebel has terriable user interface to
           be operated manually (i.e. adjust both apature and shutter speed
           manually).  Having said that, the best teaching tools is
           go get a (used) 100% manual camera with a 50mm lens, and take
           black n white classes, you will be amazed how fast you improve.
           \_ I totally disagree; digital is a much better way to learn,
              because you take more pictures and get more rapid feedback
              about how they came out.  As for adjusting both aperture and
              shutter speed independently, how often is that really necessary?
              Aperture or shutter-priority mode with exposure compensation
              will handle almost all the needs of most photographers.  -tom
              \_ How often?  All the time if you know wtf you're doing and
                 want the best results.
              \_ it's two degree of freedom no matter what.  Digital
                 Rebel is not designed to tinker with both without pushing
                 tiny buttons to switch mode.   and, yes, Digital is much
                 more convinient than 35mm, but convinient doesn't equate
                 to better tool to learn.
                 To move beyond point n shoot requires dicipline, and
                 I've seen too many newbies lost his/her dicipline
                 completely with digital camera.  For beginners, it's
                 more important to *THINK* before shutter is pressed,
                 it's more important to use plain old center-weighted
                 meter to read different exposure situation (instead of
                 rely on AI).  Most beginner knows the existance of
                 exposure compensation, but they don't know when to
                 override the automatic meter.  Further more, B*W film
                 is known for unlenient latitude toward exposure.  Each
                 failed exposure means the image will not come out at all.
                 For digital camera, like all consumer product, a lot
                 of effort has put into software which automatically
                 making adjustments so the picutre turn out correctly.
                 That, combine with unknown characteristics of CCD/CMOS
                 exposure latitude, give newbies false sense of
                 security.
                 \- i really really hate this recent trend in cameras/lenses
                    that make changing the aperture a pain in the ass ...
                    worst are ass lenses like the nikon Gs which have no
                    control ring. even on high end cameras prefer you
                    to use one of the on-body dials ... which just seems
                    difficult handle while trying to take pix quickly.
                    i think most people just care about composition for
                    fairly easy shots to take. digital is sort of a
                    brute force approach ... bracket like crazy and pick
                    your shots later. if that isnt an option you need to know
                    what you are doing. it ise usefulto have EXIF info
                    but i think few people end up going over this stuff.
                    "taking better pix" != learning photography. for the first,
                    go digital, if you can afford it. for the latter,
                    canon f-1, if you can afford it. --psb
        \_ When I was looking for a SLR digital camera I spoke to some of
           the pro/near-pro photographers at work about which canon to get
           (10D vs digital rebel). They all said that the 10D was overkill
           for someone learning photograhy and that the digital rebel was a
           much better choice. One said that while the ui wasn't the best
           for full-manual shooting (the reasons given above, plus a few
           more to do with the focal points) it was good enough to learn all
           the aspects of good photography without getting bogged down in
           the minutiae of a "true" pro camera. One or two told me that they
           had a digital rebel which they used for personal photography
           mostly because it was lighter and smaller than the 10D (and
           similar).
           Personally, I feel that the digital rebel is a great camera
           (given that you get a pretty good lens w/ the camera for around
           $950 or so). I've learnt more about photography with it than I
           did with a fully manual camera mostly because it lets me take
           lots of photos and compare the results of my manual settings with
           those of the fully auto settings. I have played around with fully
           manual cameras (my dad is a photonut) but I could never get
           decent enough photos to stick with it and learn the nuances
           because it was too hard to get a decent photo (I would often
           leave my camera at home on trips, because no pictures was about
           the same as getting really crappy pictures, not so with the
           digital rebel). YMMV.
           \_ i read about someone german guy hacking the digital rebel ROM
                to unleash all the features in the more expensive 10d.