Digital SLR buyer's guide

Between yesterday morning (when I woke up with an epiphany that I need to by a new camera, and that too a digital SLR) and 5 minutes back (when I clicked on the "Place order" button of Amazon's shopping cart), I learnt great deal about digital photography.

I always like Amazon's reviews (no matter which site I am buying from). Also their "X% people bought this item" feature gives some idea about product popularity (although those numbers look pretty skewed when you check out second item on that list). So Canon Rebel XTi (10MP) and XSi (12MP) seemed like decent candidates for my budget (after a long fight with my stingy self of course). From the reviews these models seemed clear winners. XSi was rated 5 stars by 170 out of 213 customers. And 85% bought people bought it. But I still wanted to understand what I was getting before drilling this big a hole in my pocket.

One of the reviewers mentioned this book "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. It's a fantastic book. After going through first 40 pages, I got pretty good idea of all the photographic jargon I found on DSLR product page. The aperture, shutter speed, lens, CMOS sensor, significance of MegaPixel, etc. I also found useful articles elsewhere . Although I didn't read it fully, I found the wikipedia article on "depth of field" amazingly detailed. Also this article on the lense that comes by default with XSi, (18-35mm f/3.5-5.6) is also detailed.

edealinfo.com showed a pretty good deal on the XSi model. Although their math showed that it will cost me $607 at Dell Home, I found out that they have conveniently forgotten $50 tax. Especially when I compared this on Amazon, which had the camera for $637 and free shipping and zero tax - my decision was easy (Moreover this earns me 3 times points on Amazon visa).

... the pocket feels lighter. Hopefully it will pay off in long run ...