Your Questions About Canon Rebel Xt

rob answers:

There are [only] two Digital SLRs at the moment that possess video recording capabilities: The Nikon D90, and canon 5D Mark II.

EDIT [6:14pm PST]: I must point out that Vicseo’s post is a bit misleading. The DMC-FZ28 is NOT a dSLR. It’s a “superzoom”, or point and shoot camera with a long zoom. What it lacks compared to the XT (or any other dSLR) is a big sensor, optical viewfinder, and ability to interchange lenses.

rob answers:

I’ll give you some criteria used in choosing a lens, and then suggest a few that I would use for this purpose.

1. Zoom or prime
Zoom lenses are lenses that cover multiple focal lengths. Prime lenses cover a single focal length. Zooms should NOT be confused with telephotos (lenses for shooting far away things), as telephotos can be either zoom or prime. Zooms give you greater flexibility, but primes offer superior image quality at a given price point. Primes are also available in larger apertures (see below).

2. Focal length
Remember that your DSLR is a “crop” sensor DSLR. This means that your sensor is significantly smaller than 35mm film, and only uses the center of the image circle created by a standard lens. The simplified result of this “crop effect” is that you need to multiply the focal length on the lens by 1.6 to get the effective length on your camera. (No, the lens doesn’t magically change, but the crop will make you move YOUR position, which will change the perspective rendered by the lens.)

The classic ranges for 35mm film are (give or take)
14-24mm = Ultra Wide Angle
24mm-35mm = Wide angle
40mm-70mm = Normal Perspective
70mm-135mm = Short Telephoto/Portrait
135mm-299mm = Telephoto
300mm + = Supertelephoto.

So take the lens’s focal length and multiply by 1.6 to figure out how the lens will work on YOUR camera.

Note that EF-S lenses are lenses designed for your reduced image circle. This doesn’t mean that you gain any optical benefits (quite the opposite in most cases), but some of these reduced-circle lenses represent great values, or at the wide end (EF-S 10-22) offer perspectives not available in full-frame lenses.

3. Maximum Aperture
When you see a number like f/2.8 or f/4-5.6 on the side of a lens, it tells you the maximum aperture that the lens is capable of achieving. Larger apertures give you a few capabilities. They allow you to shoot in lower light without flash (more light coming in = faster shutter speed). This is VITAL for sports photography, or any situation where the subject is apt to be moving. Larger apertures also allow you to shoot shallow depth-of-field shots, where the background and foreground are blurred to isolate the subject. A larger aperture lens can be stopped down for more depth-of-field or slower shutter, but a “slower” lens cannot be opened up. Larger apertures also offer faster auto-focus (with a few exceptions), as lenses slower than f/2.8 disable some of the AF sensors on your camera.

4. IS
Some Canon lenses offer IS. IS is a gyroscopic device that lives in the back of the lens and tries to correct for lens movement. This is extremely useful when you are shooting hand-held, but still can be useful on a tripod or monopod (although some older lenses require that you disable IS on a tripod). IS is great for shooting STATIC subjects in low light, as it will allow you to use a slower shutter speed than you would otherwise be able to. Some IS lenses offer “pan mode” which will stabilize the lens vertically, but allow you to pan the lens horizontally (think racecars with the background blurring as they move). IS is almost useless for most sports, as the key issue is not camera movement, but getting a shutter fast enough to stop the subject’s motion.

5. Little red rings
The Canon “L” series of lenses is the “L”uxury lineup of optics, and they all have a little red ring around the front. In reality, this designation has more to do with being designed for professionals than for use as a luxury item. The L series lenses are *typically* of higher optical quality AND build quality than their consumer grade cousins. For zooms in particular, there are VERY few offering really strong quality in the consumer lineup (EF-S 10-22, EF-S 17-50IS, 70-300IS being the most notable exceptions).

6. Third party lenses
Tamron, Sigma, Tokina…. People take sides on the “are third party lenses ok” debate as vehement as their stances on major political issues. In my experience, some third party lenses offer an excellent value for the money. That said, ALL lenses have a certain variation in quality between copies of identical lenses. Test 3 copies of a Canon 50mm 1.4 in the store, and you will likely see a difference in performance. This tends to be even more pronounced in 3rd party lenses! So I recommend that you only consider purchasing a 3rd party lens from one of the three manufacturers I listed, and only if you can test it in store, or if the store has a fair return policy.

There ARE other concerns when buying a lens, but this should be more than enough to get you started.

That said… For your stated purpose:
You need a focal length where you can shoot at a bit of a distance… So telephoto is where its at here. If it were me, I’d be looking at the EF85mm f/1.8 or EF100mm f/2 primes for a value option with this purpose. If you feel you need more reach, the EF200 f.2.8L is superb and value priced at about $500. If you decide that you need a zoom, the least expensive telezooms I recommend are the EF70-200 f/4L or the 70-300 f/4-5.6 IS. The non-IS 70-300 is not very well built and offers a different (and much inferior) optical design from its IS brother.

rob answers:

The XS is the next evolutionary step of the EOS Rebel lineup. It is a few years newer, it uses an upgraded sensor and processing engine, and it has in camera sensor cleaning (not a magic bullet but it’s better than nothing). The XS also takes SD cards and it has a higher fps rating with a higher sustained fps rating as well (even higher than the next step up, the XTi). It also comes with an image stabilized lens (when bought from a reputable dealer), the image quality is the same but you can shoot in slightly less light.

If you don’t find an XT for a bargain basement price I’d get the XS, but if you can find it really cheap you could use that extra cash to buy a different lens like the 75-300.

rob answers:

You can use your 75-300 mm at 300 mm. The exposure is 1/ISO at f/16 so you can hand hold the shot. Be sure to have your focus set at infinity. You may want to bracket a little. Depending upon where you are in the world, f/16 may give you too much exposure

At 300 mm the moon will still only fill about a fifth of the cameras frame, but if you shoot using RAW, you can crop a lot of the sky out later.

I bought an adapter so I can mount my camera on my telescope … That worked the best.

rob answers:

Go to Menu on the Camera, go to communication, change it to Print/Ptp OR PC conection- what ever one its on change it to the other one…. This SHOULD let you upload without any special programs.