I'm a Canon girl also! My first REAL film camera was the Canon EOS Rebel, that I got as a Christmas present from my dad back in probably... 2001-2002ish? I got my start in photography by becoming the unofficial official photographer for my 4-H club at shows and events, since I didn't compete. I started by just giving away copies of the photos, but as I got better and better I started drawing in paying customers. I still have this camera, though I don't use it all that often anymore. Having this camera though was a huge part of my decision to stay with Canon when I bought my DSLR, since I had several lenses and I could still use them if I bought a Canon DSLR, just needed to get a new board put on the lenses so they would recognize a DSLR. The boards cost me a whole $40, much better than having to buy new lenses.
I bought a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT in late 2006, still works like a charm, though by today's standards is a little outdated in DSLR terms at only 8 megapixels. I LOVE this camera though. It was pretty easy for me to learn all the settings, because most of the auto and manual settings were similar to how they work on my film rebel. And I was using the same lenses, so that's all the same. I've dabbled a bit in amateur/pro photography. I used to enter photos in the state fair when I lived at home, since it's in the same town, and I've cleaned house in the amateur division several times, which is awesome because there are cash prizes
It's nothing much, but it more than covered my printing/mounting costs.
List of stuff I have:
Canon EOS Rebel Ti (film)
Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT
Tamron f/3.5 28-80mm zoom lens
Tamron f/4 75-300mm Tele-Macro lens
Canon f/3.5 18-55mm zoom lens
Phoenix 2X Teleconverter
Bower Autofocus SFD35C flash with detachable bounce-hood
Cokin Filter System w/ several filter plates
Several Quantaray screw-on filters
For those of you with Canon cameras, I highly recommend the Tamron lenses. They are made for Canon, and in my opinion are very good lenses! My Tamrons are the original ones purchased for me by my dad back in 2001ish, and they work great. The only drawback is that they're a bit pricey...
My Wish List:
Larger-Aperture Lens, like one of these:
My "When I win the lottery" wish list: (lol)
-21 megapixels... holy crap. Puts my current DSLR to shame... It also costs more than the down payment on my car, lol. I like the video aspect of this camera also. I also really like the 7D; it's a tad cheaper, and can do 8 frames per second versus the 5D's 3.9 fps.. but the 7D is only 18 megapixels.
