Help! Stuck at a crossroad.

Evergreen · Aug 17, 2005

Hello all,

This is my first post here. I look forward to reading all these great posts.

I am an amateur photographer. Sure, I have been taking photos for years and have a good eye, but I have yet to make the leap to knowing tons of stuff. I like shooting in the outdoors (sporting events are my favorite).

Anyway, back in the old days I used a Minolta 400si w/tele-photo and around 2001 I upgraded to a Olympus E-20.

Fast forward to today. I am stuck between two roads.

Road One: Pick up the tele-photo lens I want for my E-20 (ebay around $325), plus a couple filters I want and commit to Olympus.

Road Two: Get a different camera that will grow with me. I don't like how the Olympus is stuck on lenses. I was looking at getting the Nikon D100, which is now affordably priced.

Can you help? I am trying to figure out if going to the D100 will be a good size increase in quality and ability. There are some 40 nikon lenses for it I believe and it is a 6.1 megapixel camera (E-20 is 5).

Also is the D70 better to get than the D100? It seems like it is a slight upgrade, but the body is not as good. This correct or?

Thanks!

Big Mike · Aug 17, 2005

Welcome to the forum.

From a quick search, I see that the E-20 appears to be SLR-like...and not really what most would consider a true Digital SLR camera. Most notably the sensor is only 2/3 " (8.80 x 6.60 mm). Also, does your camera have a fixed lens? When you mention a telephoto for your camera, do you mean an adapter for the front of your lens?

If you check the sensor size on any of the true DSLR cameras, Nikon D70, D100 or Canon 20D, D350 etc. Those cameras have significantly bigger sensors, which gives better image quality and a lot less noise at higher ISO settings. With these cameras, you can remove and change the lens...which would allow you to use just about any of the great lenses made for their SLR cameras.

I think that getting a camera that will grow with you, would be a good idea. Of course, it's going to be expensive. But the good news is that lenses for a DSLR will probably hold their value much better than cameras like your E-20. They will even be useful if you ever upgrade the camera body down-the-line.

There are quite a few members here that have the D70...most seem to love it. I don't know how much better the D100 is...if at all. (I'm a Canon guy)

Welcome aboard.

Walt · Aug 17, 2005

I've been shopping around for a digital system to replace my Canon film gear with and so far I'm leaning to the Olympus E-300 Evolt kit with the 2 lenses. The reviews are all good and it's by far the best priced.

Evergreen · Aug 17, 2005

I looked at the Oly E-300, but feel the D70 is better overall.

The think I despise the most on my E-20 is the save time. It really hurts when I need to shoot shots at a good rate. The que of a few pictures fills up and then I have to wait for a couple minutes to shoot.

It is nice for slow shooting, IE you need 1 picture of an item.