[Indian Butt Magic]

For my professional photo work from the age of film I have a Canon AE-1 with 4 lenses including a wonderfull telephoto. Tripod, 2 flashes, and a very good bag.

I was told that I could use the lenses from the AE-1 with an adapter ring if I bought a Canon DSLR. Which of course would be nice since I have those old lenses.

Since I only have $1000 to spend I have picked out the following:

OLYMPUS E-500 Black 8MP Digital Camera w/14-45mm & 40-150mm Dual Lens Kit
$779 with $100 mail in rebate making it $669. I don't know much about this camera's image quality.

NIKON D-50 with 18-55mm lens with free 1GB SD card $621.99
I know people with this camera and have taken photos with it. The D-70 may be better but it is a bit out of my price range if I need to buy another lens.

Canon Digital Rebel XT (body w/ EF-S 18-55mm Lens) $769 with additional $100 rebate. My AE-1 lenses are not compatible with this camera to my knowledge even with an adapter ring.

Canon EOS 20D w/EF-S 18-55mm lens $1169.99
Its a better camera and a bit outside my price range but from what I know can use all my old lenses with the adapter ring. Does that fact alone make it worth the extra money?

[Phassetus]

I just bought the Nikon D50 kit with a 1GB SD Card.

What I can recommend for that budget is to go with the Nikon D50 body + the Sigma 18-200 lens, or if you can stretch your budget the D50 + kit lens 18-55 and the Sigma 70-300 APO lens.

Canon could be another good route, altough it wouldn't be mine

I wouldn't recommend Olympus as I havan't seen a lot of good lenses being build for them.

Alsways remember, 1st look for the lenses then the body, not the other way around.

Regarding your older lenses, some people might say it's worth it, I won't, I have older Nikon and Tamron lenses here and I simply don't use them on the Nikon, I prefer the newer AF lenses.

My recommended kit

Nikon D50
Nikon 18-55 Kit lens
Sigma 70-300 APO
1GB SD Card
a good bag

[xT0U3UGh]

I wouldn't recommend Olympus as I havan't seen a lot of good lenses being build for them.

I hope you mean third party lenses by that.... which is true as right now there isn't alot available with 3 Sigma's currently available and another 5 to becomes available on the Four/Thirds mount latter this year. However Olympus does have some of the most amazing lenses available right now for any camera system.... its just to bad these same amazing lenses cost so much. Hopefully things will change latter this year with the availability of a Panasonic Four/Thirds camera and more lenses from them.

Since i'm already an Olympus owner i'd be a little bias to the E-500, however I also tend to love Nikon cameras... I would definately be a Nikon owner if I wasn't an Oly owner. The D50 is a great camera and Nikon has some amazing glass!

[Leaters]

I hope you mean third party lenses by that....

Yes, Sigma is way behind with it's devellopement of lenses for Oly. The Oly 500 sure is a nice camera but IMHO the goal of having a DSLR is having access to a large amount of accesories, if you don't need that a Bridge would be the way to go.

[Bounce]

tough call dude. You plan to use the camera body for a long time? I think the xt is a great bang for buck deal. Get that as cheap as possible, get a 50mm f1.8 canon for ~75 bucks, and save up for a 70-200f4 from canon or save and wait and go for the f2.8. SLR equipment is expensive, but you get what you pay for and you can make huge mistakes by getting crappy equipment that you replace later. Save and get teh good stuff upfront, otherwise you will waste more money.

[occafeVes]

but you get what you pay for and you can make huge mistakes by getting crappy equipment that you replace later. Save and get teh good stuff upfront, otherwise you will waste more money.

That is SO true ....

[imporesweemo]

I have the D50 and I love it, I have also used the Canon 300D and 350D on several occasions and the D50 has the best ergonomics out of the lot. There are only a few things that set the D50 and the 350D apart technically, try both out and see which one fits your hands better.

Here are some pics taken with my D50

http://www.futuremark.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1307

[Gofthooxdix]

What exactly will you be using the camera and lenses for?

I would also look into the Canon 30D which is very new, a successor of the 20D. I am not sure about it's price though.

Nikon has next to the D50 also the D70s which is an awesome camera as well. A bit bigger, a bit more expensive but also more professional with more options when it comes to color adjustment, ISO setting, better Flash Sync (up to 1/500) etc.

Have you considered selling your current equipment? Photographic equiment is very price stable especially the older film camera equipment. You could check out the possibility of selling eveything and getting very good digital equipment.

[weluvjessicaalba]

I'll be using it to take photos for catalog work. Mostly all shot in the studio. I'd like to get my company to pony up the money for the D-200 but they told me it wasn't in the budget.

Yet they will pay $1000 for a photoshoot where I get unusable photos. Good old LA where anyone outside of LA is an untallented hack. Which is why I need to purchase the camera on my own hence the lower budget.

The guy we used last time had the D50 and I got very good photos with it. My only concern is the 6.1 pixel sensor. Sometimes I need to blow up images for large posters. The Canon Rebel XT seems to be a better buy. I'd have to wait for the $100 rebate but I've used Canon film cameras forever. The D50 seems to be older tech even though it is the best old tech out of the DSLRs.

The E-500 from Olympus may be a great camera but it looked like it had the worst noise problems out of the ones I picked out. A lot of times I get pictures with a lot of noise that look like crap in the catalogs I design. The Rebel seemed to have the least noise. Although I never liked the Rebel body and lenses. they just felt cheap even though they work fine.

Its either the

Nikon D-50, Better lenses lower pixel count
Rebel XT, higher pixels crappy stock lens

After the rebate the difference will be $80 for the Rebel. Plus the $50 for the 1gb memory card I get for free with the D-50.

[AndrewBoss]

Ugh. Can't make up my mind. This is why I haven't bought a DSLR yet. I just use my AE-1 and scan the images if I need to take photos myself. If it was a point and shoot I wouldn't be banging my head on my desk.

The 350D lools like it takes much better photos from scanning the internet. The D50 comes with better glass which is almost as important as the camera itself. For the $100 difference I could buy another lens for the D50.

Right now I'm leaning towards the Canon since the body is more important in the long run from the initial purchase. I've always liked the ergonomics of Canon over Nikon.

[flower-buy]

nikon d50 17-80 kit lens with 50mm and 28-200 is the best choice.

[jaydicassdhy]

Ugh. Can't make up my mind.

Ok ill do it for you.
350D body - $579.95
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...ughType=search

50mm f1.8 -$79.95
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...goryNavigation

that leaves you with $ 340 to get another GOOD lense.

[baxodrom]

Ok ill do it for you.
350D body - $579.95
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...ughType=search

50mm f1.8 -$79.95
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...goryNavigation

that leaves you with $ 340 to get another GOOD lense.

Thats about what I'm leaning towards. I'm going to have to keep the body for a long time. The 350D just seems like it has a longer life than the D50. Also I know what to expect and how to shoot with Canon lenses. If it was a year ago and between the 300D and the D50 I would have gone with the Nikon.

The extra $100 is nothing compared to kicking myself if I'm not happy with the end result.

[sportbos]

Thats about what I'm leaning towards. I'm going to have to keep the body for a long time. The 350D just seems like it has a longer life than the D50. Also I know what to expect and how to shoot with Canon lenses. If it was a year ago and between the 300D and the D50 I would have gone with the Nikon.

The extra $100 is nothing compared to kicking myself if I'm not happy with the end result.

I was in the same position a year and a half ago. It was between the d70 and the 300d. I spent a long long time deciding between the two and ended with the canon becuase the body means nothing... its in the investement in the other stuff. Bodies come and go, but lenses are huge investements. I was happier with the Canon lineup, and to top it off the quality from the 300d was better due to lower noise. I think the 350 is a steal. It is just about at the 20d level (in terms of performance, not talking about the body design, etc...). Far more so than the 300d to the 10d.

[agracias]

Just to let you know, the FD to EF convertor, to use your old lens is quite rare and from what i have read, degrades the image quality of the lens. So it isnt worth it, using your current lens on your new DSLR.

I went for the 20d last christmas because i liked the line up of lenses that Canon offer. I chose it this one over the 350d because the 350d felt too small in my hands.

[arraxylap]

I went for the 20d last christmas because i liked the line up of lenses that Canon offer. I chose it this one over the 350d because the 350d felt too small in my hands.

That's the reason I went for the D50, the 350D feels to small, and I didn't trust the kit lenses of Canon, they felt too "plastic and light", but that's just a feeling, I might be wrong.

Either way you'll make superb shots when any of these camera's [yes]