In my opinion there are three things to consider when buying a camera.

The first is the Camera body. Unlike 'point and shoot' type cameras that appeal to the mass market wherein you get very good makes mixed in with not so good ones (i.e. Kodak, Coby, etc.) this is not the case for DSLR. Whether you buy a Sony, Canon, Nikon, Pentax, et al, you can rest assured that you are buying a quality camera regardless of make. That being said, some cameras have some features and/or strengths that might set them above the rest when camera shopping. Sony, for example, is merely a rebranded Minolta DSLR - as such, if you have an array of old Minolta glass at home, it might warrant a move to the Sony product.

The second thing to consider is lenses. As with camera bodies, no company makes a bad lens (well... I don't much care for the Canon 75-300 that some entry level kits have, but I digress). Also, there are literally hundreds of lenses that can fit your camera from the a similar manufacturer or from a third party company (i.e. Sigma). It's widely regarded that Pentax has some of the most premium lenses available for their cameras, but are you missing out on image quality by purchasing a Nikon? I don't think so.

The third and most important consideration when looking for a camera is you, the photographer. The absolute best thing I can recommend when purchasing a camera is to forget about specs, features, and the like (temporarily, of course), and go and pick up the cameras. Not to plug my company too much, but London Drugs (as well as Don's Photo) is a good place to do this. We have all our cameras (with batteries and a variety of lenses) available for you to play with in the store. Get a feel for the cameras. Hold them, look at the controls, compare weight and compactness. Once you find a camera that feels good, start worrying about specs and features you might use.

I suppose the summary of this is that a person cannot buy a bad DSLR these days. Many people berate Sony and Pentax for having poor low light/high ISO performance, but after looking at portfolios from professional and amateur photographers, I can safely say that the best determinant of photo quality has more to do with who is behind the camera than what is inside it.

With that being said, Nikon and Canon seem to be the most popular choices for aspiring photographers. Because of this there is a massive second hand market for these cameras. So if you're looking for cheap glass that's not brand new, you might have better luck with one of them instead of an Olympus.

how is fuji holding up with there cameras? they used to be out front but you don't hear to much latly?

Steve

Thanks Mikey, I am going to do just that. Go down and get a feel for the camera.

They still have some good products in the P&S market... but they don't really compete in the DSLR market... Canon and Nikon pretty much have it cornered, with Sony trying to stick there nose in where it doesn't belong (Yes, I hate sony :lol: )

amazing how fast things change, 7 years ago fuji was top of the slr with there S2 body. I am not much of a sony fan either. I still have the old fuji I bought a long time ago, the S602z I believe, one step under the DSLR S2, 3MP but with the "new honey comb" CCD it gave the same pic as other camersa 6mp. mind tyou in testing I would put it more at 5MP myself.

Steve

the other place you can look for good prices on camera's is at memory express. also im not sure if they offer the ipr program on these but they back their warranty like a champ you dont wait like 3 weeks while your item goes in , its like 2 or 3 days at mem ex still not fixed, replaced with equal or new version of item.

I've got the Sony A100 and am fairly happy with it. Low Light, High ISO shots can be a little noisy... fortunately for me I think I've taken only a handful of shots that fall into that category.

A couple of the features that sold me on the Sony: Backwards compatibility with the whole back catalogue of Minolta AF lenses. There is absolutely NO shortage of usable lenses for this camera, whether from Sony, Minolta, or 3rd parties like Sigma. The other big feature for me is the image stabilization is done with the camera instead of in the lens. Now, I realize that this doesn't produce the BEST image stabilization... however we shot pictures for years and years without ANY image stabilization and having the camera do it for me puts brand new lenses into my price range. Whereas the optically stabilized Nikkon lenses require your first born AND left nut to purchase.

So, I know it's not the best camera money could buy, but it's the best purchase I could've made with my money!!

So I broke down and bought a Cannon XSi at costco, came with two lense and a portable printer for the price other places wanted for just the body and one lense. all I can say is wow, it is a very impressive camera and I have not even started to explore all the features in it.

I would recomend this camera to anyone.

Steve

The number of actuations a DSLR has depends on the make and model. For example I use a Canon 30D, this model is rated for over 100,000 actuations before you would even look at replacing the assembly.

Most people will never use up their actuations, they would probably replace things before that ever happened. You know how we all like our toys.