which slr

[rickus]

o.k, I bet you have all seen this question till you groan,but it,s here again.

I used to have an olympus om1n years ago,and enjoyed greatly ,the advantages of the slr systems.
I loved the simplicity of the om1n . for some reason ? I drifted out of photography .

a couple of years ago ,I got a simple p&p and it did ok for a while,but the shutter lag got on my nerves ,so I looked around and after much research I went for the canon S3IS, now don,t get me wrong ,I like the camera very much, but it don,t do what I want some of the time.

I now want a SLR, because I want to go to a higher ISO without getting awful noise above 400.

I want and greatly miss proper manual focus on the lens instead of buttons and toggles.

I want at least 8 mpixels,

I want super pics preferably in jpeg( I have never used raw files,but believe you have to spend half you,re time in editing)

I will probably never go above a4 size,but like to crop deep some times.

I would prefer a simple camera,as apposed to complicated. But if it,s worth the struggle will learn .

I,ve been looking at the canon eos 400 d and30d,,nikon d40 and nikon d80.,olympus e-400 and e500....just come from a review of the canon 30d and my head is buzzing with thoughts that perhaps it,s to much camera for me...

come for advice to the people whom matter and have no axe to grind,the users..

sorry for being long winded.....Please give me you,re views....Rick:mad2:

[dave sz]

well, what do you need 8mp for? I know that the pentax k100d or the k10d are just as good if not better than all the cameras you pointed out...

[rickus]

my point and shoot is 6mp, so I thought I,d go up and be bullet proof...probably listening to all the advertisers...:blush2:

[Frog]

go here http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare.asp and click buying guide on the left.
You can then do a side by side comparison and I'm sure all the models you mentioned have full reviews.
Good luck

[rickus]

go here http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare.asp and click buying guide on the left.
You can then do a side by side comparison and I'm sure all the models you mentioned have full reviews.
Good luck

Thanks for the link Frog,I,ll go and look now....Rick.:thumbsup:

[ravenmore]

I just went through buying a DSLR for the first time. After weeks of research I can sum it up like this:

Canon XTi: Nice specs on paper. Felt dinky in my hands(a lot of people complain about this - check it out in person first). Less than impressed with the kit lens. Nice price point though. Dust removal system too, although have heard mixed results on its effectiveness.

Nikon D80: This is what I ended up going with. Higher noise levels at higher ASA's but still very acceptable (I shoot live bands a lot). Kit lens is much nicer. Build quality feels great. Spot metering. Really I felt like this camera compared more directly to the Canon 30D. It has more sophisticated metering than the Nikon D200 (higher end camera) and has better noise levels at high ASA's. Has most of the feature set of the D200 at a lower price. More expensive than the Rebel though.

Pentax K10D - Really wish I had looked harder at this camera. Great price point since it really compares more to the D200 and 30D. Is weather sealed. Has vibration dampening built into the BODY so it works with all lenses. It is effective too apparently. Those 2 features for that price alone really make this camera hard to beat IMO.

If I had to do it all over I'd probably go with the Pentax depending on the deals out there. I did find a stellar deal on the D80 that sealed the deal for me (plus a lot of my friends have Nikon gear which will be compatible if I need to borrow something). Check out Cameta Camera on ebay when you get ready to buy. They were simply awesome to deal with. I was blown away at their customer service. The "salesman's samples" camera equipment packages are a heckuva bargain IMO.

[dmdct]

Pentax K10D with 18-55 my first real digital. I have a Olympus 720sw which was my first digital which I got to take on fishing trips and give me an introduction to digital cameras.

I got my K10D last week and have taken 400+ images. I could not be more pleased. NO camera is perfiect....and I have had a pretty fair number over the last 40 years....from a Leica M-2 to a Hassleblad. They all served their purpose in their time. But prior to the Pentax my favorite all time camea was a Canon RT (with the pellicle mirror); it's the one camera I wish I had not sold or traded. But, that's all water under the bridge.

The K10D was the digital camera I have been looking for. I am sure I nearly drove my local camea dealer nuts with my dithering over the Canon, Nikon and Olympus. After reading the first reviews for the K10D it took me eactly 24 hours to make the decision (about the time it took to transfer some money).

The manual WB mode is my latest discovery.....so simple to make an on the spot correction. I created an indoor daylight WB that seems to work perfectly. On my camera all that was required was a B2 adjustment. When I compared the still life setting to the monitor image the color match was "perfect".

Glad to have found this forum.