Nikon vs. Canon

[MarkoD]

Originally Posted by jostafew

Not exactly answering the original question but I'd like to pose an alternative; Pentax. Stabilization is in the body so you don't re-buy it with every lense, any Pentax lense going back to the dawn of time will work with a modern body, and for the price the feature set is very good. I looked at the T3i, D5100, and K-R and ultimatly chose the Pentax. The K-5 is an excellent camera as well but I was on a pretty tight budget.

Getting back to the original topic, it's been mentioned above but I'd have to agree that the modern cameras are pretty decent and that the photographer will play a much bigger role in the resulting photos then the hardware itself. Feature sets will differ a little so your choice will probably come down to which features you find most valuable (video features, burst speeds, etc.) and trivial as it may sound, how the camera feels in hand. I had to drop the T3i from my list for that reason! Go to the camera shop to touch and feel the candidates, and have a good think about what kind of shooting you want to do. That should help you decide.

in camera stabilization is useless. image stabilization is mostly helpful for longer focal lengths. and the in camera sensor stabilizer just cant move enough to compensate the the shake at telephoto focal lengths.

anything below 100mm on a full frame body shouldn't need IS

and if you ever being a serious photographer, you dont want to be stuck with pentax gear.