Digital SLR help.

[stormbind]

Oh yeah and you can find the thread here: http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34766

 

[Unimaxium]

A common expression I hear is that Nikon has better lenses than Canon. This isn't entirely true, but I see why people can often think that. I believe this idea comes from the fact that Canon cameras come with piece-of-crap kit lenses (from what I've heard), while Nikon actually packages decent-quality lenses in their kits. That said, I'm a Canon guy, but I got my camera without the kit lens. So I think if you go for the 350D, then you should buy it body only and purchase a 50mm f/1.8. The lens is very cheap but is darn good quality. Starting with a 50mm will give you a good place to begin a collection of lenses as well. It will make it easy to determine whether you want a wide-angle or a telephoto as your next lens purchase, and it will give you a motivation to invest in higher-quality lenses with more limited zoom ranges than if you just had a low-quality 18-55mm that covered all of your focal lengths. If that makes any sense.

If you go with Nikon, I think you could get by better with the kit lens, from what I've heard of its quality. But I think it is still a good idea about getting a 50mm prime.

 

[303villain]

just to throw another stick in the fire, heres my story:
i purchased a minolta 7d and my clutch blew up(stock VW clutch+too many mods= dead clutch!) and in m despiration i sold my camera to a co-worker of mine(and almost cried!) but then my parents surprised me with an olympus e-500 2 lense kit!
that being said, its about 800usd so a little more, but i like it much more than my friends d50. the images are great. the 2 lenses that it comes with are to my liking(except the max aperture). people will tell you that anything above 400 iso gets noisey, not so true from what ive experienced. the only iso i dont care for is 1600 which i rarely use anyway.

so theres another option for you, but dont get me wrong, d50 is great, just my preference

 

[Dave_D]

After reading your post again and seeing where you state "full on metal", I had a thought. Depending on what your demands are as far as specs, you may want to consider buying a used pro body that is within your budget. Like you, I shoot with metal framed cameras ( a pair of twins Nikon F4s) and don't particularly like the feel of the light weight plastic digi's. They seem very fragile. The pro bodies feel a little more substantial in their construction. My friend just got a D50 and can't wait to get the extra battery pack to make feel more like he's got something in his hand (which is also another option).

 

[Rose]

yes thats true about the weight but the 50D nikon feels better than canon 350D for sure! id compare it to the canon 20D (almost), and as mentioned here before, the nikon kit lenses are better i have heard.

 

[hot shot]

ive got a 350d and its hard as nails just done a entire season dragracing and normal something on the camera give up but the cannon just kepts on shootin. In my oppinon is a very good camera.

On the weight issue for me the lighter the camera the better because it gives my the abitly to throw it a round and compose the shot before the rails are gone and at the other end of the track with out being hard work, but thats just personal oppion

Have also stood around in the rain for about 6 hours no stop with the camera in non water proof bag and just got it out cleaned the lenses and the exces water off and carried on shootin.

just givin my 2 pence worth

 

[Rose]

one of the olny things thats keeping me from buying the nikon 50D as opposed to the canon 350D is the fact that the nikon only has 6.1 mega pixels as opposed to 8 with the canon....

 

[dsp921]

one of the olny things thats keeping me from buying the nikon 50D as opposed to the canon 350D is the fact that the nikon only has 6.1 mega pixels as opposed to 8 with the canon....

Don't judge simply by the mp count, there are things far more important than how many mega-pixels a camera has. Lens quality, sensor size, etc.
Read this: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/mpmyth.htm, it'll save me some typing...