Topic: Camera newbie...bear with me

[kuuan]

dgodwin is very right with his caution abt. the D40 and D40x, they need lenses with the motor to autofocus built into the lens, which limits the choice to just a few, quite expensive ones. Other than that they are great cameras, so if you don't plan to buy a lot of lenses but might be happy with the ones in the set than there is no problem.

About the 2 sets you had linked earlier I noticed that the 'wide angle' lense of the Nikon started at 28mm, which on the digital camera actually makes it abt. 40mm. For me this definitely would be too little coverage on the wide side and if it only was this 2 choices I'd take the Canon package for having the wide lense starting at 18mm.

Other than that playing with cameras in shops to simply find out which one lies best in your hand, you feel most comfortable with, and which gives you the most confidence that you actually can use all it's features would be the best advice IMHO.

And to complicate matters:
For a socalled 'entry dSLR' I personally would prefer either a Pentax K100D ( or K100 Super ) or a Olympus E510. Easier availability of great lenses specially for the Pentax, both of them having 'in body' image stabilisation and focus motor, the later even having live LCD preview, Olympus being the first to offer that, sure will be standard soon.

check out: dpreview.com for reviews or ask at the forums there. ( the reviews are a bit canonbiased though )

best luck,
kuuan

[phanophish]

Sigma, Tokina & Tamron all make some good lenses for all the major systems as well.  Not all of their lenses are top quality but some are very good and typically much less expensive than the Nikon/Canon equivalent.  I just recently picked up a Sigma 18-50/2.8 for about $380.  It is a really nice lens and I'm very happy with it.  The same Nikon/Canon lens is closer to $1000, and although very slightly better for my needs not worth the extra $$.  Another great resource for lens info is the reviews section at FredMiranda.com

[crackhead]

How does the D80 image quality stack up to the D70?   I was never very happy with the high ISO pics of the D70 (waaay too much shadow noise and smeared detail).  does the D80's meter have the tendency to underexpose by about a half-stop as well?

I'm waiting for Nikon to come out with their full frame digi SLR.... finally have a true wide angle lens with my 17-35mm f/2.8
 

[phanophish]

The D80 is basically the same sensor as the D200, which is to say a pretty big improvement over the D70.  I've got some great images from my D70 but the noise can be noticeable when shooting high ISO.  I just picked up a D200 and it is much better, but still not quite on par with the best offerings from Canon (5d).  All that said, you can get great images with any of them if you are careful on exposure. I use manual a fair amount of the time for concert shooting as properly metering the lights is very tough.  Find something that properly exposes under the lights and stick with it.  I find the meter usually overexposes the highlights so you are not only blowing the exposure, but giving up some shutter speed as well.   Another huge tip.  Get Noiseware.  It is amazing.....

http://www.imagenomic.com/products.aspx

This image was with my D70 and a bit of Noiseware work....

[phanophish]

This image, while not bad is a good example of the blown out highlights I'm talking about when you overexpose the image.  Notice how the detail on the bright areas of Josh's shirt loose any detail.  Same with some parts of his face.  I probably could have bumped up my shutter speed by 2 stops and still had a good image...