It's kind of funny to imagine you as a gift-giving dad, krellin. One moment you are cursing and yelling at everyone left of the tea-party movement on this site and the next you're buying cameras for your daughter. You should let that warmer element of your person shine through in our discussions every now and then who knows how much easier you'll convince people to sympathize with your point of view! :-)

(Ow and I don't know shit about cameras, GL with that, consider my comment a useful bump)

Not asking people to sympathize with my point of view. Asking people to exercise their brains, utilize history and logic...I could care less if you like me.

As for my gift-giving...think whatever you want about the real life me - i also sat down at the sewing machine and made halloween costumes for my daughter and her 2 friends, i painted a mural on my one daughter's bedroom wall (tropical beach scene...), etc. I also teach them to be self-reliant, to be entrepreneurial (we ran a family business for a couple years and they aprticipated) and not stick their hand out when they can work for something on their own. They are *horrified* at the amount of debt attached to them, personally, that the Federal government has wrung up, and findit offensive that when they start to work, they will pay higher taxes to cover the excesses of past and current gernerations. YOU should be horrified as well. They understand the basic truth that if you *confiscated* the entire wealth of the "1%" you wouldn't dent the national debt...and that spending money on those that refuse to work is obscene...as obscene as it would be to give a kid a B+ on a test who never studied and failed said test. I teach my children common sense...and am a gift-giving Dad because they learn their lessons, they participate in our household as they can. If they were not great kids...I wouldn't be asking about a camera.

As for the camera itself...it is a gift....and it is a tool that will allow my daughter to investigate a potential career option, or at least a cool hobby that she can enjoy for a lifetime. Totally worth the time and effort.

Thanks for the bump...and the comment, by the way.

You should learn about cameras....the little technological wonders we pretend are cameras on our cell phones, etc at garbage. the world of photography took a *gigantic* blow when everyone started believing the myth the iPhones take good pictures...it's truly sad. :(

Haha that's actually pretty convincing krellin. I'm actually principally against countries having debt. It's a dogma of modern economics that they should, but nobody ever managed to convince me that having a debt is a good thing. I think it's better to bring down the debt to the point where the government has a little surplus money to spend on large investments. That's they way I organize my own finances anyways.

But, back to cameras: iPhones really have terrible cameras. I always hoped Apple would develop a large version of the iPhone that had a very powerful camera function as well as its current computer and telephone functions. I'd immediately buy it, even if it makes for a heavier object in my pocket: always being able to take pictures is just too much fun.

Good luck again with the camera and may it shoot some nice pics of you and the family!

"That's they way I organize my own finances anyways."

Fact is, *most* people try to live their *personal* lives in a fiscally conservative way, and yet when they get in the voting booth, they suddenly think that everyone else - and government in particular - should not live that way. it's quite mind boggling. But it is fundamentally all wrapped up in the *false* notion of "fairness" that is foisted upon so many. if Person A has x,y,z then everyone else should, too, regardless of the fact that person A sacrificed and worked hard to get what he has.

I have an idiot brother-in-law with an "Obama phone"...frequently recieves financial assistance...and yet someone the asshole manages to board and feed to f*ing HORSES...

Figure that one out...

Problem with iPhone camera...and 8any* point an shoot, for that matter, is that they fundamentally operate differently from an old-school camera, with a lens that opens and closes, for a longer or shorter period of time and with a larger or smaller aperature, thus creating different depths of field, etc. Instead, the computer figures out how long an "exposure" to have and just captures that length of time on the sensor, and adjusts the sensitivity of the sensor as needed....causing dirty, grainy pictures in most low light conditions, etc...bahhh...it's all crap! 4 of the 5 cameras i listed ar DSLR - "single lens reflex"...old-school style cameras in operation, with high quality image processing (for the price) and most important, high quality glass in the lenses.

Krellin, it was one thing when you were just discussing MMOs and cameras and the like, but now you're doing your angry belief spewing again. Man up, damnit.

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/30380135.jpg

Ghug --- Little troll, there is no anger in that post. The truth is most people I know that vote for liberal extremism live their lives as fiscal conservatives. Truth is I have a jackass brother-in-law that owns 2 horses and receives government benefits. Not anger...just truth, you sad little man. Perhaps *you* are the one that needs to "man up" and examine your stated beliefs versus your own way of life....except I expect you are too afraid to discover the truth behind the lie of your political beliefs.

You are excused now. I will ignore any further outbursts from you, little troll boy.

Now - if you have anything to say about Nikon vs. Canon I would appreciate it. Thank you.

Hey Krellin, you shouldn't be talking about politics at all for a really really long time. At least not until you MAN UP.

I have a Canon t2i and really like it. I heard the t3i also was good, but the new t4i not so much. I haven't used other DSLRs so I can't provide a comparison, but the t2i was a good purchase.