Canon Rebel XS, Nikon D3000, Canon PowerShot SX30-IS? - 1
My dad got me a Canon rebel XS kit for christmas. I'm an amateur photographer at 15. I mainly take pics of my horses and shots of my horses running etc. I try to take photos of people jumping their horse but with my P&S they are always blurry. So I was looking into better cameras not expecting to get one but just looking to see how much I needed to start saving.
anyway my dad said that if this camera wasn't the one I needed or didn't have the stuff I needed he would exchange it.
The Canon Rebel XS: 10 mega pixels, ISO 100-1800, 3fps, 7 AF
The Nikon D3000: 10 mega pixels, ISO 100-1600, 3fps, 11AF
The Canon PowerShot SX30-IS: 14.1 mega pixels, ISO 100-1600, Continuous Shooting Speed: 0.6 frames per second, 3.6 frames per second (2Mpix), 1 frame per second (2Mpix) (the website says this. What does the 2Mpix mean?)
Which camera would be the best for me? I will be taking pics of the horses and just about anything that moves, dogs, goats, chickens, pheasants, and cows. I know what ISO, FPS, AF mean.AF is auto focus points, ISO is the light sensitivity, fps is frames per second which I know I need to get the right pic. Which one would be the best?
Your Dad did fine by you!
The Rebel XS is the best camera of the three for you. Not only does it do slightly more than 3FPS (the site isn't quite accurate), it has the best high-ISO performance of the three you listed by far. That will be important when you want to shoot in low-light or get extremely fast shutter speeds (like for sports photography).
The D3000 and the PowerShot both use CCD sensors which are inferior in low-light to CMOS sensors (like the one in the Rebel XS).
The megapixels are just how big your picture is physically. A 14 megapixel picture can print larger than a 10 megapixel one theoretically, although because of some complicated things about lenses and sensors, etc. I would say you could still probably get a better print off of the XS or the D3000 than the PowerShot.
The 3.6 frames per second (2Mpix) listed about the PowerShot just means it can shoot 3.6 frames per second, but only when the resolution is set to 2 megapixels which isn't large enough to print larger than about 5x7.
Bottom line, I recommend the XS. Look at getting a couple of fast lenses as well, like the 100mm f/2 for instance. If you end up getting a slow long telephoto instead (like a 70-300mm f/4-5.6) you will probably be okay shooting action pictures in daylight as long as you don't mind using a higher ISO setting.
The powershot is a point and shoot camera (and so not recommended for action shots).
the canon eos rebel or the nikon d3000 would be the best choices.