I'm new around here and I posted
This Thread a few weeks ago. I just thought I'd let you guys know that I did get the 400D and I love it! I think I took about 160 pictures since last thursday when I got it.
I already had an old Rebel G 35mm camera with a 35-80mm lens on it, so with the 1.6 multiplier that works out to be around a 55-90mm when placed on the digital camera. A perfect fit since the lens that came with was a 18-55mm. Obviously, I'd get some better quality with some more fancy lenses, but it'll do for now. Either way you can probably pick up that 'old' lens dirt cheap if you wanted a bit more range.
'First light' for astrophotography purposes was last thursday when I saw the moon was up at midnight and slapped the camera on the back of my Celestron C-90. I already had the hookups from my 35mm camera so it was a breeze. Surprisingly, the 8 year old remote shutter release cable worked just fine too.
The tripod is not very good and I couldn't dampen down the vibrations much, so the images were not as sharp as I wanted... but I was still pretty impressed that I got decent pictures from such a shoddy-non planned photoshoot.
I'm looking forward to getting it hooked up to the 6" we have that has the tracking system... I'm embarrassed to post my moon pictures here since they're not worthy of the quality stuff you guys post daily.
But once I get some better images I'll make sure to show you guys.
The ergonomics of the camera work just fine for me, despite all the reports to the contrary. I like the lightness, and the camera has more features than I know what to do with. The dust cleaning feature seems to work fine... within 2 days I had dust on the screen on the inside near the top of the camera (viewfinder) from swapping out lenses and crap in the middle of the night. But the sensor is fine and all my images are flawless.
The northern sky is pretty good from my house, so I'll try to get some pictures of object that you Aussies might not get to see on a regular basis.
Reallly looking forward to getting a shot of M81 and M82.
-TK