Equipment choice

[TRMG]

Hi
Question for you sports shooters and I know this will be a lot of personal preference.
I like to shoot outside mostly, soccer, softball for my kids age 8-12. Some inside of basketball. I am not a pro but would like to develop my skills and take great shots. My experience has been an Olympus e500 with 2.8 50-200 but I get a lot of out of focus shots. Are the AF features of the camera below "quicker" that that of Olympus? Cost benefit is important. So - what would you pick?

Canon 40d or Nikon d80 (maybe 200)
Canon 70-200m 2.8 USM IS L or Nikon 70-200 2.8 G AFS VR
and 1.4x converter for either brand
or Canon 70-300 EF 4-5.6 IS USM or Nikon 4.5-5.6 G ED IF AF s VR

[ciddog91]

I don't know how much a 40D runs, but I shoot with a 30D and love it. I think it is more than adaquate for me as I am not a pro or even semi pro. I just wanted good pics of my sons gymnastics meets. I also don't know much about Nikon.

I think that a 30D with the 2.8 lens would be more than enough and not cost as much as a 40D. Learning your camera is most important though. Most cameras can do more than we can. The best camera in the world will not work if the person behind it does not know how to use it. I would buy some books to learn about the camera to use its all of its capabilities so you can get more out of it.

Just my opinion.

Phil