Canon Xsi vs Sony a350

[Ryanmahe]

Im looking to get more into photography, and am curious as to which camera would be a better buy.

The canon has great reviews and is alot smaller, but the only thing that has me second guessing it is that the sony has image stabilization built in, where as the canon doesnt and if you want image stabilization it needs to be in the lense. Is this a big deal, will lense cost significantly increase with image stabilization built in?

Which way would you photo guru's go ?

Thanks for all your help in advance

 

[---XR---]

canon has a huge selcetion of lenses, flashes, and other equipment that you can choose from after you buy the body. sony's selection is minimal. I have no experince with IS on the body, but i shoot nikon and have experience with their VR lenses (vibration reduction) which is the same technology. for the most part the stabilizers are needed depending on what photography you normally shoot and what lenses you use. For fish photography, the lenses used really don't need a stabilizing system. If you shooting birds or sports on a large telephoto prime or telephoto zoom, it is something you'll want to look into.