choices, choices, choices

[naznomore_92]

Hey everybody,
It is time for me to buy my first DSLR.......woooo whoooo! I am so excited I feel like I'm adopting a kid or something. Anyway, I have it narrowed down to two cameras in my price range. The Nikon D40 and the Canon EOS XTi (400D). I have a Nikon point and shoot and it has been my baby for a while now, so I have been thinking about keeping it in the family, but off in the distance the Canon is calling. I like all of the cool features on the Canon, but the Nikon has good features too. I have read so many reviews I feel like I am picking a presidential candidate instead of a camera. I would like to hear suggestions and advice if anyone can help. Snap it up.
Naz

[Canuck935]

Hi Naz,

Your best bet is handling both of these camera's yourself. Find a camera store that has both, and hold them, use them, play with their dials and buttons, do some menu diving. You will probably find that you will quickly develop a preference towards one or the other. Buy that one! You really can't go wrong here, so make it a personal choice and don't let any salespeople talk you into or out of anything.

[another view]

They're both good, I'm sure. Twice I've been at the point that I didn't have much gear so it made sense to at least see what the other one was doing (I'm Nikon, looked at Canon) and I didn't really see much that was bottom-line different. Sure they're different, but I meant anything that would significantly improve my outlook on life, my IQ or whatever. Both very good and small strengths and weaknesses on either side.

I will say that since getting a Nikon DSLR that uses the Creative Lighting System (wireless flash system) I really have no interest in looking again. Not that I use it a whole lot but it's very cool. Even for ebay type pictures which I usually shoot against the wood floor we have in the bathroom. Set the flash on a stand, press a few buttons and I have remote flash without cords (that I'll forget about and trip over and/or launch the flash across the room).

[brmill26]

There are a couple notable differences: the D40 is 6Mp vs. the XTi 10Mp. But, that doesn't mean anything unless you either print at very large sizes or do a lot of major cropping. Also be aware that the D40 does not have an in-body focus motor, and therefore some of Nikon's lenses will be manual focus only on the D40. This is becoming less of a problem, but it is worth being aware.

[freygr]

Unless you have SLR lenses for Nikon or Canon, the choice is a wash.

The one time I used a Canon camera the image quality was so different than the Nikon lenses. I was use to the Nikon image look. Don't get me wrong both lenses had good resolution, it had to do with contrast the of the image, and it was a cheap film SLR kit camera.