Your advice please

NCHornet · Oct 22, 2008

I need to purchase a DSLR camera that will be used for family portraits, b days, holidays, and probably weddings at our church. I need a camera that will perform well in all of these areas. My budget is $1500 max. The cameras I am looking at are as follows.
Nikon D80 and D90
Canon XSI and 40D
Sony A350 and A700

I will be enlarging a lot of prints to 20 x24 maybe even larger so I need a camera that will maintain clarity at these sizes.

I am really leaning towards the D90 or the A700. I understand Sony doesn't have a big following and that is a factor with me as support on the net from other users would be greater with the Nikon. Is the D90 that much better than the D80? Will the extra megapixels be obvious in portraits this size. Also what would be a good flash to use for low light conditions?
Please just don't say Nikon, I would like to know why you would recommend them. I sure appreciate those of you willing to share your knowledge on this forum.
Thanks
Kevin

NCHornet · Oct 22, 2008

Also have any of you delt with this company? There prices seem very reasonable, almost to good. Are Nikkor (Nikon) lenses any good? Sorry for all the ? but I really need some help.
Thanks

http://shopdigitaldirect.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=8122

Johnboy2978 · Oct 22, 2008

http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Shop_Digital_Direct

They sound pretty dodgy. I would keep my money with B/H or Adorama. I'd also throw into the mix the Pentax k10d or k20d. In the end you'll have to decide where to spend your money. Go to dpreview.com and do a side by side comparison and decide what features are most important to you. The main thing to keep in mind is that you are buying into a system of lenses. Yes, the body is important, but the bulk of your cash will go to lenses. You might investigate the price/quality of the line of lenses and that help make your decision. I went w/ Pentax personally b/c they really do have some world class glass out there and haven't changed the mount since the 70's. You can really get some good deals on MF lenses. The type of flash will be dictated by the brand you buy into unless you look at 3rd party like Sigma et al.

Pure · Oct 22, 2008

I used the D90 last week for a few hours, and the quality of the images are really nice. And after reading a bunch of reviews, the D90 is a lot better than the D80, and is worth the extra $.

The D90 is body-only @ $999, but you can get it cheaper online, and good lens will cost a fair amount too.