Thanks for the tips! Now, I'm in.

This is a great site! I've been reading your reviews from the "outside" during the last several months while I was upgrading my lenses. Your comments helped me to finalize my recent purchases of the 17-40 f4L, 24-70 f2.8L, and the 70-200 f2.8L IS. Of course my local salesman was I great help as I must have brought home over a dozen lenses to test during that time.

I thought I would return the favor by becoming a member and posting my two-cents-worth in the future regarding these lenses and anything else that I may be of assistance.

My background: Prior to jumping into the digital realm, I held out as long as I could with 35mm and medium format equipment (all primes, no zooms). Near the end of my film days, I had mostly Contax/Zeiss equipment (T2 and TVS point-and-shoots, G1 and G2 bodies and lenses, and RX SLR system). Although I feel that I am qualified to comment on these equipment, I believe that I must wait a bit longer before making any recommendations and comments regarding this current generation of optics and digital bodies.

Thanks again. So long, for now.

Welcome !
Glad we've been of assistance.
From reading your profile I'm looking forward to you joining us in the "Sports" forum.
Oh yes, and "Nature", and "Photgraphy as Art" too.

I'm interested that you chose the 10D as your digital body and not the 20D or 5D.
Maybe it would help others making the decision to move to DSLR to know why.
With your experience of Cotnax/Zeiss 35mm and Bronica MF, what led you to choose the 10D?

A few years back, a company for which I was shooting decided to buy the 10D in order to speed up the publishing process. Until that time, I was using my Bronica to make the shot, having the film processed, getting enlargements made, and scanning the enlargements to create product brochures and pamphlets (I don't recall the reason why we didn't scan the 120 film directly at that time). We estimated that, by shooting with the 10D (which had just been introduced at that time), we eliminated about 4 days of waiting/running around for every project.

I was the only person to use the 10D so when the company decided to sell it recently, I bought it for a steal. Even though the 20D was available when I bought this 10D, I felt that the differences were not great enough to buy a new 20D over this "used" 10D. With digital equipment in general, I believe that you get more bang for the buck if you upgrade every other model (at a minimum). So I bought the 10D knowing that I would probably replace it with the successor to the 20D. Little did I know at the time that the 5D was just about to be released.

The 5D seems to have everything I need except for the frame rate. I like the smaller size over the 1D Mark IIN for photojournalism. Of course the full frame sensor would be a joy to use. Now with talk about a 30D, I may have to wait to see the reviews on that one. The line between pro-sumer and professional models will become not so distinct rather soon, I think.

Still, since the 5D seems like a near ideal fit for me, I will probably buy one within the next two months. I have a major trip coming up in the summer from which I only want to bring back files from an 8MP or 12MP sensor (with less noise than the 10D).

Now if Canon decides to put the 5D's sensor in the 30D, then I may have a problem...