Thanks for the info so far everybody, and thanks in advance for any further thoughts on this.
I've read all the relevent links and now I think I need to look over some specs. It seems the "best deal" on a (new) DSLR is right around $500, give or take. These would be Canon T3 + 18-55mm lens. Going up to the T3i adds another hundred or so though I'm not quite sure what the difference is yet. And it seems the T2i is another $50-75 above that. Not sure why. Need to research.
I could save money on a DSLR getting one used, but I'm not sure I trust "some guy I don't know" on Craigslist.
As JR mentioned, there are other choices than DSLR, so I'm going to dig in. What specs do I need to get to, I guess I need ones that take pictures quickly (as in, a burst mode that takes lots of pictures in a few seconds, with each picture being a very brief exposure to reduce blurring). What's this called in technical specifications lingo, and what are some good values?
Marc
Well, if you want to go DSLR, you're right that I'd avoid Craigslist. Most big towns or cities have camera shops still around, and most of them deal in used cameras as professional and semiprofessional photographers decide to move up to bigger, better, nicer, or newer equipment. Some deals can be really sweet. If you don't have a nice photography store nearby, reputable pawn shops aren't a bad alternative...
If you want to stay with something new in box, newegg.com or some of the other online electronics sellers have some good deals. I'd stay away from Ebay too, because it's hard to know what you're getting until you have it, and the sellers might not be very reputable. I actually got my camera at Best Buy on sale, as the newer models were coming out, so the older ones were discounted pretty good to move them out and make room for the new ones. Best Buy and other electronics stores can have some pretty good deals, but that's not a given, so you really have to do your homework. Do some research online, and look for reviews and professional recommendation pages online to get a better feel for the features you need and the ones you don't. DSLR's DO have a lot more flexibility, just like the old film-type SLR's before them, but most of them have tons of features and usually have a fairly steep learning curve, maybe more than you want to get into if you're not an amateur shutter bug, but just want some nice pics of your launches. If that's the main thing you're after, most of the "pro-sumer" models will do just fine for that kind of shooting... You just don't have quite as much flexibility as you would being able to change lenses. But, of course, that flexibility DEFINITELY comes with a price...
Do some research and read up on things... Don't just take the word of whatever slick willy salesman in the store tells you... they DEFINITELY are either more interested in moving higher priced stuff to increase the store sales and profits or their commissions (if they get them, depending on the store), OR they're trying to meet quotas or move certain items that might not necessarily be what you need. You have to be knowledgeable about what you're buying, compare features and prices, and then make a decision. This is where a good camera shop can come in handy-- they're usually more concerned with customer service than the chain stores, because they're more reliant on repeat business to stay alive.
SO as for features?? There's a lot of differing opionions on options, and a lot of it depends on what you want to do with the camera. The biggest thing the camera manufacturers and stores want to shout about is megapixels. While it's true that in the "early days" of digital cameras, more megapixels was ALWAYS better, basically the need for more megapixels has plateaued... you won't be able to tell the difference between a picture shot with a 15 megapixel camera and a 10 MP cam at most standard display sizes. MP is the resolution, much like the film size on old film cameras. The larger the film and negative, the better the resolution. That's why 35 mm cameras produced so much better looking pictures than the old 110's, which had a film frame size about half that of the 35mm. If you've ever had enlargements made of a 110 image, it turns grainy and blurry very quickly, and anything over about an 8x10 was practically worthless. 35mm images could be blown up to small poster size in many cases without getting into objectionable fuzziness or graininess of the image, depending on the quality of the camera, film, and photographer. Professional grade equipment in 35mm could go MUCH bigger! Ever wonder why those old Ansel Adams pics blown up into posters look so good?? It's because he used cameras with ENORMOUS film sizes... MP is like that. If you're just doing 3x5 or 4x6 prints, or looking at the pics on a computer monitor, even a 2-4 MP camera is adequate (a modest point and shoot). If you want to display the pics on a large-screen TV, then the more megapixels you have, the better the image quality will be. 5-8 MP is usually adequate for most uses and enlargements up to poster size... 10 MP is certainly fine. If you're blowing up pics to put them on the side of buses or on billboards, you'll probably need more than 10 MP, but otherwise, 10MP is all you'll probably ever need for average use. One other thing to consider is, the larger the MP rating, the larger the file size for each pic, and the less you can put on your card... and the more space they'll eat up in storage. Most cameras can be set to lower MP settings; in fact on mine I set it down from 10MP to 5MP, which is more than good enough for most shots/conditions. As electronics have improved, they have been able to cram more and more pixel sensors onto a chip... actually the bigger the chip the better... but most cameras have a sensor chip size at most about the size of a postage stamp, and most are much smaller, maybe 1/2 to 1/4 that size. The larger the sensor and the larger the lens, (and that goes hand in hand with the quality of the glass, especially on DSLR's) the better the image quality will be, regardless of the resolution (MP's). That's why DSLR images look SO much better than equivalent pics from a point-n-shoot with their tiny "bubble lenses" or the "pinhole" lenses in microcams like we put on the side of a rocket...
If you're getting a DSLR, you'll need good glass... get the best glass you can reasonably afford... but good glass costs! You need a good wide-angle lens and a decent zoom lens. That's what's nice about the prosumer models, is that they have the glass built in, so you're not buying glass... less expense, but usually a little less quality and of course less flexibility. I was looking at the new Fujifilm model that replaced mine (well, it's the second or third new replacement model past mine actually) and they're up to a 24X optical zoom. Mine is only 15X IIRC... The wider the zoom range, the more flexibility you'll have in shooting. IGNORE "digital zoom" numbers altogether... that "feature" is absolutely worthless-- it's a "cheat" manufacturers use to play up cheap models with low-quality glass. OPTICAL zoom is what you want... if your camera has digital zoom, just turn it off and leave it off... all digital zoom does is "zoom in" on a small portion of the already small sensor, and then blow that up to fill the entire frame... As someone else mentioned, you can do that inside the computer to "zoom in" on the parachutes and stuff on the way down in editing software... BUT, since you're basically just "cropping" the picture and then blowing it up to fill the entire frame, you're losing resolution, therefore graininess and fuzziness will increase substantially, and it gets worse the more you digitally zoom.
For rocketry, especially liftoff shots, a good burst mode is essential. Make sure the burst mode is easy to access (not requiring a laborious process of going through several menu pages or steps to turn it off or on). Some cameras have a single "burst mode" setting or at most a couple... better quality cameras for rocketry use will have more selections... My camera will shoot 33 pix in a little less than 3 seconds, which is good enough for most rocketry uses... I usually get about 5-10 pix of the liftoff, more if I can follow the rocket as it's ascending and keep it in frame... (that's where not being zoomed in too much definitely helps-- zoom in too much and it's virtually impossible to keep the rocket in the frame as it's accelerating away). It downselects the MP rating at the 33 frame rate to 3MP, to reduce the filesize and allow the buffer to hold all those pics at once before writing them to the card. There's several other settings to allow it to have higher resolution (say 5MP) at a reduced frame rate or number of frames (I think it's 22 frames at 5MP) Good cameras will have these different settings, allowing you to choose what resolution/frame number/frame rate you want for the particular shooting you're doing. They're not ESSENTiAL though... I myself usually just use the 33 frames at 3MP setting, and then toss the unneeded frames. Since rocket activities are usually done in full sunlight conditions, even 3 MP pics look pretty darn good... but of course if better quality is what you're after, then the lower frame rate at 5MP is going to produce sharper pics...
Most cams have plenty of flexibility in different "modes", like nighttime, backlit scenes, snow, water, sunset, fireworks, sports, etc... These modes allow you to quickly set the camera for special conditions like backlit scenes near sunrise or sunset, low contrast/high light conditions (snow settings), high reflection situations (water or lake settings), fast action (sports) or low-light conditions (fireworks) settings. Actually I have a blast photographing the fireworks shows in Indiana near the inlaw's home over the fourth of July... all you need is a tripod. Of course the better the camera, the more flexibility and settings it will have; this is what really sets them apart from point-n-shoots which have usually a LOT less modes available and don't do as well with the ones they have. The main difference between the better quality camera models is the way the camera is set up, how intuitive or difficult it is to use and learn to use. Some are DEFINITELY easier than others! My Fujifilm even has different color modes= B/W, standard color, and "vibrant" color which 'brightens and enriches" various colors to produce more vibrant, brighter colors... got some AMAZING sunset pics at the beach with these settings a few years back... even had one featured on Channel 2 News during the weathercast (they select the best contributed pics for their weather forecast background image). Heck I've even got into shooting lightning storms, though I need some practice on this count... there's a lot of luck involved, and you have to have a tripod, and use the burst mode to shoot a TON of pics and then toss the ones that are blank... but it's fun and dramatic...
Later and hope this helps! Good luck! OL JR
