canon rebel xt

[CanonSATX]

Hi, everyone. pretty new here. and pretty ignorant as far as photography goes.

Anyway we have a canon rebel xt all stock. (18-55mm lense)

Is this camera capable of taking some of the cool pictures I have seen on this forum?

I have taken descent pics with it but nothing to impressive. I like storms and lightning. will it take impressive enough pics of things like that?

upgradeable?

[auddii]

Your camera is decent, and great photographers can take some amazing photos on cameras, polaroids and "crappy cameras" in general. I have a similar set up (xsi), the kit lens, as well as a super telephoto that I love. I love the reach of my super telephoto, so I tend to use that as my walk around lens (which gets lots of laughs from people). However, the 18-55 lens is very good and can produce some great pictures.

Personally, I've already seen some improvement in my photos since I bought my camera about a year and a half ago. It's not having the "better" lens since I bought it at the same time as my camera. Instead, it's been practice, reading the advice in all the threads, and posting pictures for critique and actually listening to what they have to say.

As far as your camera being upgradeable, if you're going to invest in your equipment, I'd invest in a tripod since your interested in night/storm photography. There are lots of opinions on tripods and several threads about what's good and what isn't (lots of differing opinions, so you need to go with what works for you). Also, you could eventually get better lenses, but it's not necessary.

Fast lenses are great for dark and night time, but if you are shooting lightning, you'll be using long exposure times anyways, so the lens you have should be fine. But, the long exposures are why you'll need a tripod (or a stable surface to set the camera down - the poor man's tripos ).

If you want to upgrade lenses, think about what you want to shoot. I wouldn't get a new lens until you find something you absolutely can't shoot with your current lens. Once you figure out what it is, that will let you know what type of lens you will need to buy.

I think your set up is fine, so get out and shoot stuff! Looking forward to seeing some of your work.

[CanonSATX]

awesome. thanks.

as for tripods. I have a velbon cx 300... not saying that its good or bad. I have no idea. I mainly use it to record my hunts and put my sony handycam on it, but have thought about mounting the canon on it.

[Mo]

Good beginners camera for sure! All of my work, until a couple of the recent ones, have all been shot with the XT. It has recently been 'retired' but still on-call for backup purposes.

[BRosePhoto]

Ditto what Auddii said above. The 18-55 is a surprisingly decent kit lens particularly if you avoid the some of the extremes of the focal length and aperture.

I would also recommend shooting in RAW or RAW+Jpg and getting familiar with the Canon DPP software that was included with the camera (or the RAW tool in Photoshop). That will give you additional control over your images with noise reduction, distortion correction, etc.

[contributor_M]

To those just starting out, please get famaliar with DPP or what ever Raw editor your camera manufacture has included and don't be so in a hurry to get lightroom or anything else. Yeah those tools are great but what comes with your camera is more than enough to start learning.

FYI

[MT Stringer]

Here is an example using the Rebel XT and a Sigma 50-500 with 1.4x Teleconverter (700mm). It is one of my all time favorite shots.

[scorpio_e]

Good glass always helps:)

[darktiger]

I use to have a XT paired with my 24-105L... it was a great combo... well until I got the 5d... the XT got sold off pretty quickly...