jj2f1

Oh, I just thought of another lens. You can get the EF 50 f1.8 for less than $100 as well. This is a good low light lens for the price.

kitwetzler

Like others have suggested... it's ALL about the lenses.

For my money, though, it'd have to be nikon. Buy your lenses from a reputable used place, like http://www.keh.com

dmz

I finally bit the bullet and ordered a Canon 30d. With the $100 factory rebate you should be able to get the body for about $1k even. Don't get the crappy kit lense as it will only drag down the quality of the camera. I didn't want to spend too much money for my everyday lense for now. So I just got a Canon EF 28-105mm II USM Zoom Lens for $230. Not the best but it's supposed to be 10x better than the $100 kit lense. You can't beat this setup for $1300. The Nikon D80 with the 18-135mm kit lense comes close (it also costs $1300. It's ok to get the Nikon kit lense because they are usually better quality than Canon kit lenses). But dispite the slighly lower MP (8.2vs. 10MP) I feel that the metal body, faster AF in low ev, better performance in higher ISO and better fps in burst mode makes the 30d a better camera than the D80 for the same price.

arrrmand

if you're going to use it in auto mode as any other point & shoot, don't bother wasting the money on a dslr because it'll only yield you slightly better (quality) pictures.

learning the aperature size, shutter speed, iso, white balance, metering, etc controls first on a mid-range camera, perfecting it, then making the step up to a dslr is what i'd recommend, because otherwise, you're just another person with amateur camera skills with a great camera that's not being put to good use.

i think it's been said before, but i learned everything i know strictly from dpreview.com and no one/nobody else.

arrrmand

avoid quantaray and the generic knockoff lenses that you may find where ritz or wolf camera associates will try to sell to you.

the only lenses i'd buy would be sigma and nikon

www.bhphoto.com , www.adorama.com, and www.buydig.com are the sites i'd buy from.

jarod

Canon > Nikon
Buy the best lenses you can afford
Pick up a book to learn the basics of how a camera works
Shoot shoot shoot
Don't use photoshop to fix your photography mistakes


/thread

jasonw

Dude! The Rebel made the tide rise!

kitwetzler

In the under $2000 bodies, the Nikons are *MUCH* better in that they have a much larger viewfinder. I can't manually focus a 20d/30d very reliably but can a D80.

Plus, the D80's high ISO noise is much more film like, which looks better.

That said, they're close enough to where it's all about personal preference and what you can get cheaper. I personally prefer the look and feel of nikon cameras. That's not something that can be argued because it's really up to you.

jarod

The viewfinder can be fixed. There's cheap aftermarket eyepieces that can be swapped in.

High ISO noise? I guess it's nice to have noise that is more "film-like", but I prefer Canon's low noise to start with. Canon's image sensors produce great low noise high iso images. You are right though about the feel of the lower end Nikons in comparison to the lower end Canons.

My reason for going canon:

image quality
lens selection
low noise in high iso mode
full frame for $3k (I have a 5D)

arrrmand

to join in this discussion, imho, any non rebel canon dslr is great. it bugs me that nikon finally came out iso 100 dslrs when the canons have had it for a while.

i just absolutely hate everything about the rebels for their build quality and interface.

i have to do more research though to be a judge of the d200 and d80 vs. the 20/30d