canon 350d or nikon d50?

[mbt]

350D.

i intend to use this camera (which i will be picking up soon) as a walkabout camera, so i appreciate the significantly more compact form and lighter weight. i don't find it too small at all; with a larger lens like the 17-85 IS or 10-22 ultrawide, there's a lot of camera to wrap your fingers around comfortably.

#2: image noise. i'll be using an f/4-5.6 and an f/3.5-4.5 lens with this puppy, which means that for certain types of shooting, i'll find myself bumping up the ISO all the way to 1600. the 350D is significantly less noisy than the D70.

#3: lens choices (more with canon, plus the third parties). all the good nikon glass are ultra-heavy and are priced ultra-heavy too. on the other hand, canon has the relatively affordable 17-40 f/4 L and the 70-200 f/4 L as pro-grade lenses that are relatively affordable. there's also the new 24-105 f/4 L IS, which is simply an unbeatable range. there's also the 17-85 IS, which makes a great default lens. the 10-22 is an excellent ultra-wide (16 mm!!) for the 350D. for my purposes, nikon doesn't have much offerings to rival these versatile solutions. the standard 18-55 kit lens on the canon does indeed feel like a toy, however.

so i'm taking the 350D... but on the othe hand, the D70 offers wireless flash right on the camera, spot metering, 1/500 max flash sync (all of which can be very useful in certain situations) more buttons, and an LCD screen protector. so buy the one that suits your needs. if you're buying as a kit only (no additional lenses), the D70 is a better deal since you get the good 18-70 mm AF-S lens. the D70 has already been replaced by the D70s (which is pretty much the same camera). note that the D70 is an old model and will probably be replaced with a new model in the next few months.

if you currently own nikon or canon lenses for your film SLR, they'll probably work on the digital SLR too, so that can be a huge deciding factor.

lastly, think well if a DSLR is what you want or need. a top-end prosumer digicam, like the Olympus C-8080WZ, may be all you need. for a much lower price, you get a top-notch lens that would cost six-digit figures for an SLR, live preview on the LCD and an articulating LCD screen (a really useful feature sometimes). you'll buy an SLR for the shorter shutter lag and shot-to-shot speeds and for the low noise even at high ISO, and probably to a smaller extent, the availability of specialized lenses like ultrawides or ultra-telephotos. for the best of both worls, there's the Sony DSC-R1, which combines prosumer features with the large-sensor performance of a DSLR.