I'm on my third Canon Rebel, bought one when they were first introduced. For the money, it's an excellent camera that also takes good video.
I take a lot of pictures for my job and the one thing I need is the ability to take a side shot of a car, get the entire car into the picture without having to back-up a million miles. You can't do that with P&S cameras.
Complete side shot, no portion of the front or back of car not in picture
:xyxthumbs:
I hate to correct you but getting the entire side of the car in the shot without walking back a mile has nothing to do with DSLRs. IT'S THE LENS.
I'm guessing the lens you're using is an 18 - XXmm. But when attached to a Cannon Rebel, it isn't really 18mm. That's because the CCD sensor is smaller than a 35mmm film frame.
The Rebel has a crop factor of 1.6 meaning when an 18mm lens is mounted on it, it's the equivalent of a 28.8mm on a 35mm film camera.
You can find 28mm lens on point and shoot cameras all day long.
I shoot a Nikon DSLR and there are plenty of reasons why a good quality compact makes way more sense for car and swirl photography.
1. If you're into detailing, you're anal. If you have a camera with a removable lense, you're going to positively HATE cleaning the dirt and dust off the CCD. It requires special tool, chemicals and technique. If you don't clean the CCD, you will see spots in your shots when you bump the f stop up to f16 or higher. Think of them as etched water spots on the hood of your car.
2. A low end lens on a DSLR is a slow lens. Your photo above is not too sharp. I'm guessing your lens is something like a F3.5 -5.6 and the lighting in the garage wasn't bright enough to allow a shutter speed quick enough to allow you to take a sharp hand held photo.
3. For under $500, you can buy an Olympus XZ-1
Olympus XZ-1 Review: Digital Photography Review
It has an extremely fast 28 -112mm equivalent lens that's f1.8 at 28mm and f2.5mm at 112mm. That's a whole lot faster than a Nikon pro 70mm- 200mm F2.8 zoom that costs $2,500.
An f1.8 lens lets in approximately FOUR TIMES AN MUCH LIGHT as an f3.5 lens. This means you can shoot in much darker conditions with a shutter speed fast enough for sharp photos without a tripod.
4. Another benefit of the Olympus is free RAW processing software. Without going into detail, shooting in RAW format allows you to post process as if you decoided to use different settings on your camera when you took the original photo. This is not the same as tweeking a jpeg. Cannon, Nikon, etc. require tghe purchase of software to process RAW images.
5. Try and find something close to a 28mm - 112mm that's just a straight f2.5 let alone f1.8 at the open end. You won't - at any price (well, maybe Hasselblad made something for NASA0.
6. It's all about the glass, and a very fast f1.8 -f2.5 zoom opens up way more possibilities than a DSLR wityh a cheap or average kit zoom on it.
7. The last time I checked a true 18mm for a Nikon DSLR with a crop factor of 1.5 requires a Nikon Nikon 12 - 24mm f4 at about $900. Cannon makes a 10 -22mm f3.5 - 4.5 for $859 (that's a true 16mm) but remember - F1.8 lets in four times as much light as Cannon's 16mm equivalent 10mm at f3.5.
8. There are plenty of cheaper point and shoot zoom cameras that are 28mm equivalent at the bottom end.
