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Originally Posted by Roy C
Start with the lenses and then buy a body to suit.
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Without adopting that approach specifically, I realise thats what I've just done. I sold my Film SLR kit (Contax 139/Tamaron 28-80 & 70-210/Vivitar 400) and have been using a Minolta A2 for just over 12 months. That has been a good camera and packs a lot into one package but I've been wanting improved low light focusing accuracy & speed and reduced noise at higher ISOs so I decided DSLR was the way I'd have to go. I looked at the 18-55mm kit lenses supplided with a number of DSLRs and concluded that while I'm not particularly a wildlfe photographer, a) the zoom range would soon leave me wanting more and b) a number of write ups commented on the image quality not being as high as some of the manufactures other lenses.
Admittedly Nikon offer an 18-70 which gets v good write ups from the quality point of view but I was still looking for greater zoom range. Their new 18-200 VR looks quite an attractive proposition but I wonder what the image quality would be like at the extremes on a 10x zoom. This lead me ineviatably to the Canon 17-85 IS as the ideal main lens (for me) with the option of adding the 70-300 IS when funds permit so that the two lenses give a 35mm equivalent range of 28 - 480.
That then reduced the choice to 350D or 20D and while there is about £250/300 difference with the kit lens, with this lens the difference reduced to ~£150. From what I've read there is v little to choose in terms of image quality and I felt that the 20D handled better with this lens and to me, that, and the (slightly) improved speed/feature set, were worth the extra.
It arrived yesterday and tomorrow evening will be the first opportunity to have a real play. Hope the weather improves before then
