Originally Posted by Chefboiali
No matter which brand you get, make sure you get the motor drive attachment that holds the extra batteries. The extended bottom of the camera makes it feel better in my hands, and also has a shutter button on the bottom right hand corner. When you take a verticle shot, turning the camera counter clockwise in your hand, you'll have a shutter button in the same spot as when you take horizontal ones. You won't have to reach your arm around awkwardly.
On the bigger cameras I find that's kind of unnecessary. I used to have an EOS A2, now a T90. Either one's a good deal bigger than the Elan II or the 10D/20D. The T90 sort of has a halfway vertical grip built in, but it's so heavy I prefer to hold it by the main grip. The A2 wasn't too heavy so the vertical grip would have been tolerable, but I never had problems turning the camera.
Originally Posted by Chefboiali
The Canon community is a good one. I think you may be able to find more enthusiasts who can answer questions for you if you get stuck.
There's plenty of Nikon geeks online too. They'll put up a pretty good fight with the Canon geeks.
Originally Posted by H-Accord-22
thanks guys,
Rick - Those lenses are what came with the package, so I guess that they're pretty sucky then.
Oh well, then I'd go with the XT seems I'd have to invest in lenses sooner or later, and the D50's kit lenses aren't that great
Better to get one good lens than two poopy lenses. Here's some good lens choices.
Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM - $509
Tamron SP AF 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di II - $449
Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC - $409
Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC - $389
Nikon 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G ED-IF AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor - $339
The Tamron and Sigmas are both available in Canon- and Nikon-specific versions. They have faster maximum apertures (let in more light if you want) which helps with hand-holding in low light situations, and also helps you get that cool out-of-focus background look (called bokeh). The Canon lens has image stabilization which lets you shoot at a slower shutter speed while hand holding and also helps you work in lower light. The Canon and Nikon lenses have silent autofocus motors whereas the Tamron and Sigma make little motor whirring noises, and of course the Canon lens is not available in a version that will work on Nikon cameras, and vice versa.
Also, I haven't looked at prices lately, but a while ago if you wanted to buy the D50 and 18-70mm Nikkor, it was just as much as buying the D70 kit which comes with the 18-70. Not sure if that's still the case.
Canon has a better image sensor but they stick those crap lenses in the kit. I'd definitely go with at least one of those Sigmas for sure. The 18-50 is optically better than the 17-70 and also has a faster maximum aperture. They're both f/2.8 at the wide end but as you zoom the 18-50 stays at f/2.8 and the 17-70 shrinks down to f/4.5.