A Little Help For the New Guy

[More Cowbell]

Hello all. I bought my wife a Canon Xti a few years back and now find myself using it more than she does. Well apparently my wife wants her camera back (haaaa!) and would like to buy me a camera for Christmas.

My first thought went to the Nikon D90, however, since we already have a few Canon lenses, I thought maybe the 50D would be a better choice for me. We are from the US and on a 3 year assignment in Belgium, so we have been touring Europe as much as possible We also have a three year old daughter whom we love taking pictures of. So the camera I buy will be used for landscape, portrait, and for outdoor sports photography.

We don't want to spend more than $1300-1500, am I heading in the right direction? Part of me says to hold off and pick up a used 7D, but video is not important to me and I don't think I would see that much benefit from the added features of the 7d, being a casual shooter. I figure I could pick up the 50d with a kit lens, grip and flash for the price of a 7d body, but want to make sure I can grow into the choice I make.

Hope I didn't leave anything out, any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[More Cowbell]

By the way, here are a few photos so you can see what kind of pictures I am taking. These are early photos, so still learning as I go

[Goontz]

Like you already mentioned, it's going to be a lot easier (and probably cheaper) for you to stick with Canon since you already have lenses that can be shared. I'm a Nikon guy so I can't offer a whole lot of advice on specific Canon bodies, but I think you're on the right track and would be plenty happy with a 50D, which is still a nice upgrade over the XTi. Welcome to TPF.