Buying Criteria - What I Looked for in a Camera

I heavily considered at one time or another all the other competing DLSRs - Nikon D70; Olympus Evolt and E-10; Minolta 7D; Pentax; etc. as well as alternative Canon models - the 20D, 10D and EOS 300.

Future posts will be devoted to discussing each of the competing brands I seriously researched / reviewed but passed on for the Canon XT. To lay the groundwork for such discussion, the following are the criteria and uses that I sought to match with the best camera / best camera value . . . .

I heavily considered at one time or another all the other competing DLSRs - Nikon D70; Olympus Evolt and E-10; Minolta 7D; Pentax; etc. as well as alternative Canon models - the 20D, 10D and EOS 300.

Future posts will be devoted to discussing each of the competing brands I seriously researched / reviewed but passed on for the Canon XT. To lay the groundwork for such discussion, the following are the criteria and uses that I sought to match with the best camera / best camera value:

USAGE
Listed by priority.

1. Newbie / Novice Accessibility: Features that allow a novice photography to quickly, if not immediately, produce professional quality results - image quality that is at lease a notch above Canon G6, Sony F717 and many notches above snapshot cameras. This feature was no. 1 as I saw it as a key underlying factor to obaining quality images and usability in all the situations below. Nonetheless, I would have been willing to trade ease of use for quality, ie. reviews predominately regard camera 'x' as outdstancing the others for shooting concerts, weddings, people, etc. . . . but requires a steeper learning curve to get those results.
2. Event, Concert, Theatre, Speaker: Indoor and Outdoor. No flash. Dim or stage only lighting.
3. Wedding: Similarly to no. 1. Indoor. No flash. Normal room or hall lighting.
4. People / Portrait - Candid: Spontaneous moments - non posed. Street or Indoor - normal, available light.
5. People / Portrait / Glamour: Planned, posed moments and prop use. Outside or indoor using professional studio lighting systems - fixed or flash.
6. Mixed Media: Capability for producing shots that could be included in video productions, inserted among video frames, and not look out of place in professionalism and image quality / look.
7. Product / Object Photography: Capability for "catalogue" quality shots of products for websites, packaging and promotional materials, including flyers, brochures and print catalogues.
8. Architecture and Landscape: Lastly, capability for magazine / postcard quality shots of cityscapes, buildings, building adornments / ornamentation, etc. Further research indicated the biggest determiner of quality for landscapes / cityscapes and tall or wide buildings, would be the quality of the wide angle lens used.

CRITERIA
For me, my usage priorities determined the selection / benchmarking criteria, as follows:

1. Low Noise at High ISO: Ability to photograph up to iso 1600 with little noise and preferably up to iso 3200. High iso shooting maximizes the ability to photograph in dimly lit situations without flash.
2. Lens Selection / Quality Reputation: A track record of lens and cameras that are considered pro standard, proven to produce magazine quality, award winning photos.
3. Immediately Quality Results [in Automatic mode]: This counts on the evaluative metering of the camera to be spot on and a good lens.

I originally did not consider having 8 megapixels instead of 6 megapixels [a la Nikon D70, Pentax *istDS, and even the Canon Digital Rebel] to be essential. And this lack of priority was heavily encouraged by numerous reviews, which kept emphasizing that a 20% plus pixel increase to 8 megapixels from 6 was not very significant, especially if you don't print larger than 11" x 14".

Since purchasing the Canon XT I have come to strongly consider the extra 20% pixels an important "buffer" to have. I will explain more in future review of the CAnon XT along with regular updates of my experience. Look for that as well as the follow up posts that will often reference my criteria and usage in reviewing my interest and than disinterest in the Canon XT's competitors.