Lurker:

drewK:

After I left Lurker I shot this today

Next time, we can wander, swap stories, and shoot people places and things.

Good idea...

Drew, you said that you were interested in a Nikon.

Check out this offer: http://directcameradeals.com/d5000/?lid=d5000_21_1029aM116&add_offerid=593344&addomain=ileadsoffers.com&addomain_id=6

If it sounds too good to be true, carefully read the privacy policy and the terms and conditions. The free camera will end up costing you more than if you bougt it from a reputable dealer.

I checked out the price of the D5000 at B&H Photo (I only trust B&H and Amazon.) Canon's prices are going up, Nikon is going down. The D5000 with two kit lenses is a really good deal.

I'm going to just hang on to what I got.... Someday, maybe when I saved up the money for a new camera, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

drewK:

I'm going to just hang on to what I got.

What you've got is good. My 40D is basically the XTi with an alloy body, and a few extra bells and whistles that I never use. I'm hard on my equipment, and need tuff stuff. It shouldn't be too much to ask for this camera to last the rest of my life. I'll never be able to afford another one.

Some of those bells and whistles are basically worthless anyway.  I probably end up using only 20% of what the camera can do.  These cameras do the job so investing in a new one, other than one day my camera decides to explode on its own, I don't see the dying need to spend the money.

I manually set the shutter speed aperture and ISO. I set a single focus point, but use autofocus -- it's a lot faster and more accurate than my manual focusing. It's also set on auto white balance. The 40D has live view capability, but I never took the time and effort to figure it out. I got a dslr so I could look through the lens. My viewing screen sucks. Shots always look out of focus on the screen, but perfect on my monitor.

I went a little crazy on lenses. I've discovered that the really sharp lenses only make a difference if you're going to make really large prints. At one point, during the bad camera karma days that began when my 10D and I stepped off of Pier 19, I was down to one lens -- the much maligned EF28-105 f/4-5.6. The autofocus died on it, and the focus ring was tiny, and had a gritty feel. Still, it did a good job. The sweet spot is  f/8 for most of the range. I got some good shots mof lizards, dragon flies, and spiders at 105mm @ f/5.6. I never tried printing them, and don't know how good they would have looked if printed larger than 8x10. My EF75-300 made good 8x10 prints.

I never had the EF18-55 kit lens. I've read a lot of bad things about it, but I've seen excellent photos taken with it.

One of these days, I want to make some really large prints, and maybe try to sell them. I have lenses that cover the range from 17 to 420mm. If I had to cut down to one lens, it would be the Tamron 17-50 f/2.8. If I had to cut down to two lenses, it would be a really tough choice on the second lens -- probably the EF85 f/1.8