Canon EOS 350d D-SLR (Canon EOS 350D)

Member Name: thecornflake

Product:	Canon EOS 350D
Date:	13/02/09 (42 review reads)
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Advantages: Easy to use, great pictures, wide range of lenses available

Disadvantages: None

When I got into serious Photography a couple of years ago I had a great little camera - a Sony DSC-H2 which had cost me around £220 new when it first came out. It was really good for learning the basics, but I soon came up against things I couldn't do, or couldn't do as well as I wanted for example adjust the aperture to through the background out of focus.

So I ended up conducting extensive internet research, reading endless reviews etc, and came up with the EOS 350d as the camera for me. A couple of hundred pounds later on Ebay and I had a refurbished 350d with the kit lens.

The step up to using a proper D-SLR was quite remarkable. 'Bridge' cameras like the H2 are great but you have so much more control with a true SLR. I found the 350d very easy to learn how to use, and was producing much better shots in no time.

I bought a couple of extra lenses - the 50mm f/1.8 Canon is an essential - you can get hold of one for around £50 and it's incredibly sharp. I also bought a Tamron 55-200 to cover the other end of the zoom range. I found the kit lens to be ok for wide angle shots, but eventually that will have to be upgraded.

When choosing a D-SLR you are choosing which system you will use from then on - Canon, Nikon, Sony etc because the lenses are not interchangeable between brands. So the lenses available play a very big part in your choice - you will probably replace the camera a few times before replacing the lenses if you buy decent ones. There is a massive range available for the Canon and so this isn;t a problem - to be honest I don't think there's much between Canon and Nikon at this level either with the cameras or the lenses available. But if you go for the Canon I'm sure you'll be very happy.

Summary: A great beginner's DSLR

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