Digital Camera advice

[MrMon]

I think pros always went with Nikon equipment in the past because of the superior lenses. Don't ask me what made them superior, but I knew a guy who said Canon was great for the serious amateur, but that Nikon was the gold stardard when it really counted. (The exception being Zeiss lenses, but most pros weren't willing to put up with the camera bodies that mated with the Zeiss lenses.)

I never could afford Nikon equpiment in the 35mm world, and used a Canon AE-1 and A-1 which I loved, but now that the price is nearly the same, I use a little 4 Mb point and shoot Nikon. Amazing what it can do and even the kids can use it. If I wanted to move up to the SLR, I'd definitely pick up one of the Nikons, but wouldn't cry if I had to settle for a Canon. Either one should be great.

[codewarrior]

Canon's optics research is top notch. My big telephoto is one of the L-series with image stabilization, and its performance is superior. Not that there is a thing wrong with Nikon. It's a matter of preference.

The average amateur won't be able to tell the difference between a high end lens and a Quantaray budget lens.

Re: burst photogrpahy

I don't know about other cameras, but how many photos you can burst has more to do with the shutter speed than the speed of the memory - the burst is stored in internal memory (in my camera) and written to the card when finished.

[KSPD]

I'm a professional photographer. My camera is the Nikon D2X - step down is the D70 which is in your price range.

You get FULL automatic and FULL manual capability. You also have compatability with all Nikor lenses.

$ for $ this is probably your best option for your full budget.

[onthebutton]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know about other cameras, but how many photos you can burst has more to do with the shutter speed than the speed of the memory - the burst is stored in internal memory (in my camera) and written to the card when finished.

[/ QUOTE ]

Partially true. With my D70 and high speed memory (Sandisk Ultra II), I can essentially snap at 3 frames per second until the memory card is full. The memory buffer is huge, and if I remember correctly this is an area where the D70 is clearly superior to the Rebel XT. However, if I use some cheap and slow memory, I see drastic slowdown (probably down to 1 fps or so) after 6-8 shots. The buffer fills because the write speed of the card is slow, and can't dump to the memory card fast enough. To me, fast memory is just a cheap way to really improve the performance of a relatively high end camera.

No matter what camera you go with, Canon or Nikon, spend an extra $20 and get some quality memory. You'll definitely notice a difference.