Hi everyone, sorry if you get this type of thread a lot.

My family is going to buy a high quality camera and I am looking for advice. I know the Canon EOS series is very popular. They come in 10, 12.2, 15 and 18 megapixels and that seems to drive the price.

I know megapixels is pretty important but Is there a huge difference in quality between 12.2 an 15 megapixels such as it would be worth the price? Which model would you recommend if you were to buy another one?

Here is a Best Buy package that I was thinking of. Camera: Rebel T3 12.2MP with 18-55mm lens and telephoto lens 75-300mm model C21-9892 Best Buy had these items bundled last week for $699. $100 off buying them separately.

There are a lot of Nikons out there too that see to be competitive in price to the Canons.

The camera would be mainly for family travels as we are buying it for our trip to Italy this summer. Personally I do recreational photography and am excited to play around with it. I love doing close up shots, lining up fences, objects and pictures of sun rises etc.

Thanks for any advice.

Mateo

T3 is good ya. The quality of the image is like, 90% the lens. So no, the megapixels wont really effect quality, though getting a nice lens will hugely.

If its just gunna be used for your trip and you might use it as a hobby try go for D3100 or D3000 if you dont want video.
If you can buy off the internet I would recommend a Canon xs or xsi or xti.

My personal choice would be a T3 with kit lens.

The biggest benefit for high megapixels is the ability to crop. People underestimate the importance of MP in image quality. MP is information captured at the time of exposure. That's why the D700 can't touch the 5d II.

not quite true mate. as omar stated below, the more pixels the more information you get. so the best lens on a 12 mp sensor wont give you an image quality as good as on a 21mp sensor.

Even if you laugh. When you compare a 1:1 photo from a 5d II and a D700, it's more like 2:1 to 1:1 ratio, respectively.




This post was edited by onepagememory on May 11 2011 10:24am

Wasn't laughing. Was smiling.

D700 and 5DII apples and oranges.

you

Video isn't too important at all. We have a shitty video camera that gets the job done. It seems to me like the kit for sale seems like a good choice for my family. My dad is the one paying of course and that seems to be the one he was looking at but we both don't know much about cameras. Since I think it's coming with two lenses, a regular one and a telephoto (which if i remember is for big zoom in) then this one should be fine
Thanks everybody.