I've been using a borrowed Fuji Finepix S9000  for the past few months and I really like the results but so many on here have been talking about Canon XT and XTi that I'm wondering what the differences are from a photographer's view, not from some website's info.  Can someone help?

Here is info on the fuji 

Thanks!

It all comes from your photography.
Hobby? Serious? Or just snapping pictures for fun?
Want to invest some $$ into your memories?

Basicaly, we are taking about Point&Shoot fuji against DSLR.
Lenses is the major difference.
Probably my cheapest piece of glass in my bag wil produce better image quality than the P&S lens.

And now is where it comes to life - while for I believe similar $ you can have basic dslr + basic lens VS p&s camera, and you are just taking pictures, you are probably better off with p&s, because your lens would not leave the camera body even if you have dslr.

Where you want to go higher, consider the dslr body as just a start, where the lenses are twice as important, and often same price and higher than the body alone.
And beware, it might get serious - and it's not cheap.

I say it's up to you, where you want to take your photography skills. I say skills, because with dslr+lenses+ other comes need to understand a whole ot about photography itself.

Hope I've helped a bit.

Tomas

I understand a little bit of that Tomas, and I'm still learning.  I guess my question is when you say the fuji is a P&S.  I'm adjusting the focus, white balance, shutter speed, and aperature all manually.  And I can purchase other lenses for the fuji.  Does that still make it an amature's camera? If I can do all that with the fuji - what MORE can I do with the Canon that would make me want to go that route?

Sorry it came out that way, I have really hard time to keep up with the forum in terms of (how people change avatars), so I have (except couple of old time members) often no idea who is of what experience and knowledge.
So it wasn't menat like that for sure.

Now, where we left it -
I'm under great impression that you cannot change lenses on that Fuji, you might be able to add some converting or so called tele or macro lens in front.
On dpreview it says slr-like camera with range (equivalent to 35mm format) of 28-300mm, 2x digital zoom, aperture f2.8-4.9, ability to focus from not even and inch away.
Sounds good.
I'd not compare Canon's slr with this Fuji, because those are totaly different.
The difference is in the lens. And a major one.
It does not matter if I put 100mm macro lens (and that is not even L lens) on old 10D or 1DMkIIN. It will take (except resolution, which above 6mp does not matter anyway) great picture on both of those cameras. But image quality of same thing taken with "macro" feature of Fuji will not by a chance match them.
I'm not saying the Fuji will not take great pictures, it will.
The manual settings is a plus, of course.
It's not amateur camera. Amateur camera is my wife's Coolpix 4100. (thou it can run manual settings as well)
Fuji S9000Z  (aka S9500) now on market for +- 600$ is "uncle Sam's" camera

If you show up with it at a studio and ask if they hire you as a second or third shooter for a wedding to gain experience, thay will just show you the door.
But we are not talking about all this, I hope I answered your question about what group of cameras this belongs to, also hope I made clearer the difference between camera groups.

And for the end, I have to repeat my question - what you want to do with your camera?
Becasue it all starts there.
However, budget is also a issue.
Because XTi with kit lens will produce similar images to Fuji S9000. And both are for similar price.
Sadly, even in photo equipment, you get what you pay for.
For just the idea of it, just now my camera bag standing here consists - hmmm -
roughly 5 grand worth of equipment. And that means it's packed light [;D]

Tomas

RedBarn:

I understand a little bit of that Tomas, and I'm still learning.  I guess my question is when you say the fuji is a P&S.  I'm adjusting the focus, white balance, shutter speed, and aperature all manually.  And I can purchase other lenses for the fuji.  Does that still make it an amature's camera? If I can do all that with the fuji - what MORE can I do with the Canon that would make me want to go that route?

I'm going to disagree with Tomas (a rare thing) and say, "Yes, it is an amateur camera."  It is a very good point and shoot, but it is not a DSLR.

Note the comparison between the 100% crops between a Canon and the Fuji photo from www.dcresource.com (used with permission)...

Please keep in mind that I am not picking on your camera.  My backup is a Canon Powershot S80 which is a very adjustable point and shoot, and takes great photos - but it is not a DSLR.

One area you will find loads of difference is the ISO settings.  While a 30D can take very good photos at 1600 ISO, a point and shoot is pushing the limits hard at 200 ISO in most cases and rarely gets a usable photo at 400 ISO.

The sensor is smaller and just not as good as most DSLR sensors.  You also lose focusing ability, which is something the more expensive DSLR's are better at as well.

Can you take great pics with the S9000 - probably so.  Can you take better pictures (if you are skilled enough to take advantage of the features) with a good DSLR?  Most definitely.

This is really great information guys.  I really appreciate it.  I am self-taught - with the Fuji.  I knew nothing about apperature and shutter speed before using this camera.  But I was hired by several people this fall because they saw the results of my photography with an Olympus D550 P&S! So I'm sure I need to upgrade, which is why I borrowed the Fuji, but I'm thinking of going with a pro camera.

Just not sure I'm ready.  Do you recommend that I keep practicing with the Fuji until I have a better grip on manual settings?  I still don't have the hang of apperature.

Thanks again.

Amy,

I started learning on a Panasonic fz-30, Similar type camera to the Fuji s9000 you have been using (I actually almost bought it over my Panasonic).  Well after a few months of using it I liked it a lot but, when I compared my photos to my friend that had a Nikon D70s I was disappointed.  I thought I originally made the right choice because I was scared to deal with different lenses and "Manual" modes on the DSLRs.  It intimidated me.  Well, I quickly decided that if I wanted more than snapshots out of a camera I'd better get the DSLR, I ended up with a Nikon D80 and am much happier.  Another thing that I have noticed between the 2 is that the pictures on the D80 stands up to the work I do in photoshop better than the ones from the Panasonic,   I shot both cameras in RAW.  I hope this helps a little.  Sorry if it's a little confusing.

Michelle 

RedBarn:

Do you recommend that I keep practicing with the Fuji until I have a better grip on manual settings?  I still don't have the hang of apperature.

Yes, and read some good books:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0817463003/ref=pd_kar_gw_1/002-9885315-1713611?%5Fencoding=UTF8%2CUTF8&v=glance&n=283155

Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera (Updated Edition) (Paperback)
by Bryan Peterson

I've also found this to be informative and well laid-out.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0715318063/qid=1137015059/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-9885315-1713611?n=507846&s=books&v=glance

The Photography Bible: A Complete Guide for the 21st Century Photographer (Paperback)
by Daniel Lezano

And this is a neat book with simple ideas that might help a lot of people (including me) take better pictures.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0715314998/qid=1137015101/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-9885315-1713611?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

100 Ways to Take Better Photographs (Paperback)
by Michael Busselle

If you are one of those people who "don't do well with books" then take classes at your local college.  If you can't do that, then find online courses.  But you've eventually got to learn those things and the basics aren't that hard.  If you have an eye for photography, then knowing how to get the camera to see what your eye sees is the difference between occasionally (or even often - if the light is right) getting a great shot, and being able to get a great shot when you need to get that great shot.  That and practice!

Thire is always some camera just over the horizion that is capable of taking sharper photographs.  A lot of photographers learned with 35MM film cameras, even though a medium format camera was a "better camera", that is you could take sharper photographs with it and a lot of medium format camera owners looked down their noses at 35MM owners.  Guess what?  Their was 4x5 view camera owners looking down their noses at the medium format users.  8x10 view camera owners felt suporior to 4x5 users, ect.

Having used everything from 16mm motion picture to 8x10, I can say that their is a place for all format sizes.  What is important is understanding the strong points and weak points of you equipment/format and using it to you advange.