Best Value in a Digi SLR?

[sunvalleylaw]

Can I hop in too? I used to be "into" photography in the 80s and 90s before kids, and still have my Nikon FE with a fixed focal lenght 28mm lens and a 70-150 zoom. I still like to pull it out once a year or so and shoot a roll of family pictures in black and white. I just use the Tri-x equivalent as that was what I was used to way back when. We used to "roll our own" from the bulk supply in my photography class in school.

I have looked at the Nikon DSLR's in Costcto, and have wondered about finding a decent "body" of a camera to use with my lenses. But it seems like the lenses that come with the Nikon would replace the ones I have. I don't know about the quality of the optics on the newer lenses vs. the old Vivitar lenses I have. The 3100/5100 seemed fine, but the Canon Rebel they had almost felt a little better in my hands. But then I could not use my old lenses. They all seem to have more bells and whistles than I know how to use. I like AE oriented auto. It is what I am used to. I passed up the Canon AE-1 back in the day as it had too many bells and whistles being both AE oriented and SE oriented, and seemed like it had more stuff on it to break. Also, I liked the feel of the Nikon FE in my hands.

So, I am not sure which way to go. Feels funny considering a nice DSLR from Costco! A year or so ago, someone was selling a couple Nikon DSLR bodies for about $275. Maybe I should have just grabbed one of those. But anyway, I would be interested in the opinions of the photographers here. The nice thing about a DSLR is that finally I could shoot all the frames I want to get the shot I want, and not worry about having to process all that Kodachrome or Fuji color film, (or Tri-x if I was shooting black and white).

[Ch0jin]

.... I passed up the Canon AE-1 back in the day as it had too many bells and whistles being both AE oriented and SE oriented, and seemed like it had more stuff on it to break.....

Sorry, but I had to have a little chuckle. I still have a Canon AE-1, as well as an EOS 33 (film) and EOS 20D (digi), and I used to pull the AE-1 out when I wanted to keep it really simple and not have all the bells and whistles I do know what you mean though, it was just funny that I saw the same camera in completely the opposite way.

Anyway, on topic, If I were to buy another dSLR today, it would be a Canon 7D. I'd love a 5D, but I'm a huge, huge fan of the canon 10-22 mm lens, and it wont work on a full frame camera like the 5D.

I also think if you are going to invest in a system (lens/flash etc etc) you are better off going Nikon or Canon. Not that the Sony's etc don't take good pictures, I have a Sony RX100 that is like a little dSLR that fits in your pocket and takes great pics, but Nikon, and to a lesser degree Canon, have demonstrated a willingness to stick to one lens format for many years meaning you don't need to throw everything away every couple of years.

As far as megapixels goes, my 8.3 Mp dSLR takes better pictures than my 20.1 Mp Sony. More pixels means larger images. Not necessarily better ones.

If you want all the hard core (and I do mean hard core) info on a camera, look for a review on dpreview. If you want to get a sense of the kind of results you can expect a normal person to get, go to flickr and use their "camera finder" to show you all the pictures taken with the camera in question.