I’ve been longingly reading dSLR reviews for the past year, and it all paid off because Tyla and I got one for our Christmas gift to each other. The hardest part of the whole thing was deciding between Nikon and Canon. I got a lot of recommendations for both sides, but we ended up going with the Canon T2i. To me, this camera is the leading candidate in the $700-800 range. The picture quality is impressive and the video features beat most of the competition. That being said, you can’t really go wrong either way.
I’ll start with a shopping list of what we bought:
- Canon EOS Rebel T2i 18 MP CMOS APS-C Digital SLR Camera with 3.0-Inch LCD and EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens
- Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS Telephoto Zoom Lens
- Transcend 32 GB Ultimate Speed SDHC Class 10 Flash Memory Card TS32GSDHC10
- Caselogic SLRC-206 SLR Camera and 15.4-Inch Laptop Backpack
- Caselogic SLRC-201 SLR Zoom Holster
- Hoya 58mm UV (Ultra Violet) Multi Coated Glass Filter
- Hoya 58CIR 58mm Circular Polarized Filter
- Canon ET60 Lens Hood for EF 75-300mm
- Zeikos ZE-BLR Dust Blower
I’ve been very impressed with the T2i up to this point. The battery lasts forever. We took ~450 photos saving in JPEG+RAW and about 30 minutes of 1080p30 video before the battery needed to be recharged.
The best accessory that we picked up was the Caselogic SLRC-206 bag. Click that link and watch the video review from Amazon. It has a pouch in the back to hold a laptop and the inside is full of adjustable compartments to hold all your gear. This bag doubles as our storage bag at home as well as our carry-on when we travel. The smaller Zoom Holster bag from Caselogic is made of similar materials but it will protect the camera a bit when it’s in my pack during hiking.
The 55-250 lens was a cheap pickup because Canon had a $150 rebate for that if purchased with a T2i kit. It’s not a spectacular lens, but for $60, it was a no-brainer. The next lens that I have my eye on is the 50mm f/1.8 prime lens. I also have my eye on a timer remote (for time lapse photography) and a wireless remote (for easy family portraits or night sky BULB shooting.)
If you’re looking for something in this price range, I whole-heartedly recommend the Canon T2i. Are there other cameras that would make you happy? Sure. But I haven’t used the others. All I can tell you is that I’ve been researching this steadily for a very long time and the T2i was my choice. In fact, it has exceeded my expectations.
I’m still learning my way around the camera, but I’ve already got some shots which look pretty good to my eye. I’m starting a photo gallery called “dSLR Favorites.” I won’t make a post every time I come up with a good photo, but I’ll stick them in this gallery. I’m also adding another three picture strip to the sidebar so you can easily see when I add new photos there. I’ve included a couple below, but check out the photo gallery to see all of the ones I’ve added so far. If you want larger versions of any of the pictures, let me know!
PS. I’ve seen the photos that some of you have shot and know that I have a LOT to learn. If you have advice for me, I’d love to hear it! Please shoot me an email and don’t worry about hurting my feelings. I want to learn!
P.S. Tim and Chelsea got a T1i recently and Tim has started a photo blog. His posts will appear in my “Friends’ posts” section on the right side of this page.