lag time between pushing the button and capturing the image

i have recommeded getting a rebel xti or similar to use as a point and shoot to learn on, while at the same time having expandability beyond any p&s. only tradeoff is size and a little bit on price.

 

Wow. I remember starting with the FtB manual everything, going up to the APS Nikon Pronea 6i - first SLR and then within six weeks going to the EOS system and never looking back. All because APS didn't have 800 speed at the time.

Who knows - I might have been a Nikon user if it hadn't been for that. I moved from APS to the above-Rebel : Elan IIE to A2E Bootleg model and to EOS 3 before switching to digital with the D30. The D30 was technically a step down and I've missed my EOS 3 and what it could do, esp. with autofocus and spot metering (why I got a 30D instead of a 20D)

Each step was with an increase of knowledge - from negatives to slides, JPEG to RAW(CRW) - a natural progression.

Now that entry level dSLRs are so cheap (TY Nikon) it's easy.

 

A little off topic, but Roger, you reminded of my introduction to digital.
In Epcot having lunch at La Cellier in December, 2003, I watched a young couple looking at their camera. They were looking at the back of the camera at the little lcd screen. I made the comment to my wife that here is a whole new generation who will have no real pictures of them. I was being sacrastic. I had no idea of the power of digital. I thought we would all spend the rest of our lives looking at the back of cameras to see our pictures. Boy, was I wrong!!
Our first digital camera was a cheap little 2mp kodak. It took ok pictures, but was pretty limited in its abilities. Which is why I began to consider a new slr. Also, I kept taking pictures with film and having them processed to cd and no prints. Now, I make slideshows for family and have pictures printed online and shipped directly to family.

 

Craig, I was a little opposite than you, but just as naive! When I first started hearing of digital cameras in 1999, they had really only been around a few years, and were still not frequently seen. I decided to jump wholeheartedly into the world of digital photography despite knowing very little about computers (big mistake!!). I wanted to be able to take lots of pictures without having to print them all, as it would help me learn how to take better pictures without the waste of money buying and developing film.

My first camera was a 1MP, 15x optical zoom floppy-disk camera with some neat features, and what seemed at the time to be amazing resolution! I had only gotten my first computer 2 years before, and still barely knew how to use it. I discovered that I didn't need to set the camera to the full 1MP - if I set it to 640x480, I could get alot more shots on a disk, and when I viewed them on my computer, they still filled my screen with amazing shots!

Only a few years later, as I learned more about computers and began to understand resolution, did I realize that having my computer screen set to a resolution of 800x600 and taking my pictures in 640x480 format had essentially left me with 3 years of very tiny, unprintable memories! Arrrgggh.

Fortunately, I learned after that mistake - and my next camera was a 5MP with manual control capabilities - permanently set to 5MP Fine mode, and my next computer got a 17" screen set to 1280x1024 resolution. Since then, I cannot shoot in Auto mode on any camera. My pocket cam is on P mode so I can at least get to the Program Shift, white balance, ISO, and metering modes...and my prosumer is constantly moving around between Manual, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, and Program mode.

I think alot of people were in denial about digital for a while - but some of the smarter ones waited, as alot of us who jumped in early made some stupid mistakes or discovered the shortcomings first so they could be fixed for everyone else.

I still have 3 or 4 trips to Disney in 2000 and 2001 forever saved as 640x480 memories!