One of the great advantages of using a D-SLR, of course, is that the
length of your telephoto lenses is limited only by the size of your
budget. I shot the image of the great egret here (at the Merritt Island
National Wildlife refuge in Titusville, Florida) using a 400 mm Sigma
f/5.6 APO lens on a Nikon D70s body. Because of the cropping factor of
the D70s, the lens had an effective focal length of 600mm. If birds or
sports are among your favorite subjects, then being able to buy long
telephoto lenses is something to consider.
ProAm or "consumer" D-SLRs
Heres where the line between categories begins to show signs of a
slight Gaussian blur. While ProAm D-SLRs (the ones they market to
non-pros) such as the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT and XTi, the new Canon EOS D20
and the Nikon D40, D50 and D90 are true single-lens-reflex cameras
with many pro
features described above they are considered borderline amateur
cameras. So while pros (including myself--I own two Nikon D70s cameras)
rely on them on a regular
basis, they fall into that crossover zone between consumer and
professional cameras. If you ask me (and I guess you are asking me)
both the EOS Rebels and the Nikon D50 and D80 cameras are a super
bargain--nearly pro cameras at affordable prices.
Whats great about these bodies is that they provide entry into a
true SLR system at a very reasonable price. Both the Rebel and the D90
sell for under $1,000 (the Rebel comes with a lens for that price but
the Nikon D90 with zoom is about $300 more). They are also noticeably
lighter in weight (a Canon EOS 20D body weighs 24 ounces and its pro
sibling the EOS-1D Mark II is nearly twice that at 43 ounces.)
While offering almost identical sets of exposure modes and features,
ProAm D-LSRs lack some of the custom functions that more expensive
bodies offer--but by the same token they offer fast and fun
subject-specific exposure modes (portrait, landscape, close-up, etc.)
that are not included in most pro versions. I've been using a Nikon
D70s for about a year and I'm in love with it--though I will probably
replace it with a D90 in the near future. The reason I don't go for a
higher-end Nikon D-SLR, incidentally, is that: a) I think they're a bit
over-priced currently (the prices will come down) and b) I like to
upgrade about once every 18 months and that is easier to do if I'm
buying camera bodies in the $1,000 range. If I were a full-time sports
photographer or journalist, I would probably have a D-SLR with a higher
burst rate--so far the D70s has kept up with everything I've asked it
to shoot--but I'm feeling the urge to buy the D90 and I'm sure I'll buy one as soon as they are shipping.