Canon XSi or Nikon D60???

[ANDS!]

Okkkaayyyyyy

Nikon - yes wide range of lenses from over 50 years.
Canon - smaller range barely 20 years.
Pentax - wide range from over 35 years PLUS 100% compatability with M42 ( via approved adapter ).
Sony/Minolta - similar to Canon really.
Olympus - Hampered by 4/3rds.

So in fact of all the main brands the ONLY one you can use that argument with is Olympus. ALL the others have extensive ranges of lenses and accessories with Pentax and Nikon probably having the largest ranges.

I said nothing about available accessories. A quick flip through BH product manual shows the range of options a person has. IF they want to buy new. You'll notice I qualified my statement in my response. If however the OP isn't timid about purchasing second hand equipment, his options are greatly reduced. Its simply a matter of WHAT is out there, and what is out there is Canon followed by Nikon in terms of used gear. Period. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

[LarryD]

Get the Canon..

An excellent sensor and a few more doo-dads on the body itself..........:thumbup:

 

[Katier]

Rotten Tomatoes said "TAKEN" was garbage, but that movie kicked all kinds of ass (a sentiment those who had seen it echoed). Sometimes, you really do need the personal experience of users to SELL you on a product, not just a litany of buzz-words and technical goobledygook tossed your way.

Movies are very much subjective and down to peoples tastes. We've all likes movies that have poor reviews and ditto disliked oscar winning films.

A piece of equipment however is slightly different. Reviews will often highlight genuines flaws in hardware or similar. Let's take the D60 for example. At least one person today has said "Love mine, lovely camera".. BUT we know from reviews that in fact it's a bad choice due to poor/limited AF options.

Similarly the AF issues highlighted by dpreview may put of a purchaser of the 450D.

Similarly I would be more than happy with a K200D BUT if live view mattered then I'd probably have to look elsewhere.

 

[sultan]

Similarly I would be more than happy with a K200D BUT if live view mattered then I'd probably have to look elsewhere.

But it doesn't. 99.9% of the time, live view is practically useless when you've got a proper viewfinder. Small and dim view, makes the sensor hot (spoiling your high ISO performance), and smells P&S, I wouldn't care about it ay all.

P.S. I would recommend the K200D - other than its below average JPEG processing (just shoot RAW), it's better built (bigger, tougher, water sealed), has built in SR with all lenses, and works with all Pentax lenses (all lenses from ~1980 and onwards are 100% compatible, and all Pentax SLR lenses (even the M42s from the 1950s and 60s) mount and mostly work. Try saying that with canon. Nikon has good lens availabilty but because of the endless lens variations and exceptions, only a fraction of the Nikon lenses made in the 2000s will be 100% compatible with the D40/D60 (rest won't be 100% compatible as they won't AF). Oh yeah, one more thing - the Pentax shoots in open standard DNG raw files, compared to the proprietary, planned obsolescence RAW files from Nikon and Canon.

 

[Katier]

But it doesn't. 99.9% of the time, live view is practically useless when you've got a proper viewfinder. Small and dim view, makes the sensor hot (spoiling your high ISO performance), and smells P&S, I wouldn't care about it ay all.

I just used Live View as an example, short of the JPEG minor problem I was struggling to find a con with the K200D that actually matters.

Oh yeah, one more thing - the Pentax shoots in open standard DNG raw files, compared to the proprietary, planned obsolescence RAW files from Nikon and Canon.

Good point, I usually shoot in Pentax RAW but yes the adobe open RAW standard is fully supported also.

 

[ANDS!]

Nikon has good lens availabilty but because of the endless lens variations and exceptions, only a fraction of the Nikon lenses made in the 2000s will be 100% compatible with the D40/D60 (rest won't be 100% compatible as they won't AF).

Any lens that will mount on a D300 will mount on a D40/60. The only limitation is in the AF/AF-D lenses. That is still a LOT of lenses, and for the intrepid user, mf'ing can be as fast as AF'ing. I still wouldn't use MF over AF (except on a macro lens), but just saying.