My first D slr, lots of questions

[xion911]

I am considering the move to a digital slr and would like some advice. Being my first one, and that I am on a budget I am looking at the canon 350d, olympus e-510,sony a100 and the nikon d40x.
1. Do you have any suggestions or experience with any of these cameras?
2. Is the focus by wire on the olympus reliable/fast?
3. Is the image stabilizer on the sony worth the higher noise levels?
4. I have 3 canon fd lenses, is it worth getting an adapter to use them on a canon dslr?
thanks for your help.

[tinysmall]

I can't really speak for the others but the Nikon D40x is a cracking little camera. I used one for a while before I upgraded and still use it as a back up once in a while. Plus with them being discontinued, you should be able to get one with a couple of kit lenses for a good price.

edit: Try here http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350064803907&tGUID=4d99923711a0a0aad2b05360ffd06abb
or here http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Photography_Cameras_Digital-Cameras_NIKON-D40X-SLR-DIGITAL-CAMERA-18-55mm-LENS-4GB-5-BONUS_W0QQitemZ270241896415QQptdnZDigitalQ20Camera sQQddnZPhotographyQQadnZCamerasQQptdiZ2101QQddiZ38 28QQadiZ4362QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item270241896415&_trksid=p4295.l1308
depending on what you're after.

[Pabloverdes]

Hi

I'm a Canon user and have been for a number of year so would always favour that brand. I don't think you would go far wrong with any of the top 4 manufacturers possibly Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sony......... They all appear to be feature packed and made to a good quality. In the end it does come down to personal preference.

I've got three FD lenses for which I have an EOS adapter mount. When these are attached to the camera body(400D in my case) every thing is manual although the camera metering works which can take some of the guess work away. Manual, that is not a big problem as with digital you can take a number of experimental shot to set up the camera and lens. If you do go down the route of an adapter mount ensure you get one with a lens in it as this lens is a correction to enable the FD lenses to focus to infinity.

I'm not sure what you mean by focus by wire but if you're referring to Auto Focus then 90% of the time this will OK but where focus is more critical then the AF can be switched off to enable manual focusing.

I've also got an IS lens and the noise is almost unnoticeable, i.e. it is not a major factor but the addition of having IS will benefit your across the range hand held image quality

Enjoy your photography

Paul

[Chris Hawkins]

Some sound advice here from Tony:

http://www.photography-forum.org/showthread.php?t=16680

[OnceDown]

Hi

I'm a Canon user and have been for a number of year so would always favour that brand.

So am I but I have to say, after being INCREDIBLY disappointed with the 400D, I was tempted to switch to Nikon for my next purchase.

Having said that, the 5D has restored my faith. Although I probably wouldn't have bought it without the cashback offer and the lenses I'd already invested in.

The 350D, from what I've seen, is actually better than the 400D. The 400 underexposed by about 2/3 stop constantly, which was irritating to say the least - took back 2 camera bodies before I realised that was just "what they do". Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

[Pabloverdes]

So am I but I have to say, after being INCREDIBLY disappointed with the 400D, I was tempted to switch to Nikon for my next purchase.

Having said that, the 5D has restored my faith. Although I probably wouldn't have bought it without the cashback offer and the lenses I'd already invested in.

Never the less you stuck with Canon. 'Yer pays yer money and yer take yer choice' I've not experienced the underexposure you mention and this is the first time I've heard of it.

Paul