ajkramer87
TPF Noob!
Forget all this camera body nonsense (seriously they just love a good flame war they do :lmao. This has caught my eye in your comments.
Anyhow, I mostly shot "macro" and with my current lens (18-70) I also crop my pictures a lot, just to get as close as possible without massivly ruining the quality of the picture... yes, I'm also planning on buying a macro lens, but first comes the camera.
When it comes to choosing the right camera system its not all about bodies - infact because they upgrade and fall out of use so fast in comparison to lenses the bodies are of secondary concern mostly - its the lenses you want to look to. Canon and Nikon have very diverse ranges (both high and low cost options) whilst some companies like sony have a good pro range, but can sometimes lack in cheaper options in some areas - and vis versa. (edit forgot that sony took the Minolta lenses which greatly increases the lens market for them! )
Anyway since you say you shoot a lot of macro already I'm going to say go for Canon - not because their macro lenses are any better than Nikons, but because of the chance that you might get into high magnification macro work and for there canon has one unique lens - the MPE 65mm macro - its specailist and tricky to use, but a very good high magnifiaction lens.
I don't recomend that you just jump right in aiming at this lens and I would say get a 100mm macro (the original or the new L version) a Tamron 90mm macro, Sigma 105mm, 150mm etc.. (they vary by budget and features and its a slightly different discussion; but are all optically sound and sharp). And then play around and move toward higher magnifiaction before jumping for a tricky and expensive lens that you might not like.
So you've got friends you can shoot with who like canon - you already like the canon body from looking at it and you like macro - time to go Canon :mrgreen:
I have to agree with overread about the macro. I really wish I had gone with canon just for that mpe65. But at the time I didnt know Id really like macro. But Im still in love with my d90. Its better to look at the lens setup of each brand. The modern dslr bodys are all going to give you good results.