DLSR WARS!!!

There are a lot of choices nowadays when choosing a DSLR, among the contenders are :

*Nikon
*Canon
*Olympus
*Pentax
*Sony Alpha (used to be minolta)
*Fujifilm S Pro series
*and.. I cant remember the rest...






































Each of the above have their own strengths... The nikons and canons are considered the giants of the industrie but the others like Olympus and Sony are really catching up.

I prefer nikons better than canons mainly because interms of digital sensors the crop factor on a
nikon is a bit wider at 1.5x compared to canons 1.6x. If you are wondering what crop factor is all
about, its the actual frame size whether wide or telephoto that you would get when compared to a 35mm film camera format. For example 35mm is standard view less than that at 24mm-28mm is considered wide and for telephoto 70mm is 2x zoom (2 X 35mm) and 105mm is 3X zoom and so on and so forth.

So comparing kit lens like a 18-50mm on a nikon DX you would get an equivalent of 27-75mm but on a canon you would get an equivalent of 29-80mm less wide but a bit more zoom.

Olympus has really good colours maybe from thier liveMOS sensor. If you are mostly shoothing
telephoto then you might appreciate that the sensor has a crop factor of 2x. so if you get a 50-200 zoom lens, you are actually getting a 100-400 equivalent zoom!!! Olympus also have the outstanding lens quality if Zuiko although a bit expensive. Some olympus bodies have an Image stabilizer built-in.

I have not tried a pentax but the advantage that pentax has against other rivals is the lower power consumption technology making pentax DSLRs able to use standard AA size batteries. You can get a good pair if NiMH AA batteries and chargers for a really cheap price. and if you are in the field and if you battery runs out, just pop in some spare Alkaline AA's that you could get at 7 Eleven.

The sony Alphas are priced really competitively and armed with the latest technologies such as built in steady shot and Live view with tilted screen for crowded photography. The new Sony Alphas A200-300-350s have come a long way since the A100.

Other DSLRs out there are the Fujifilm S Pro, Leica, Panasonic, Samsung. FUjifilm S Pro uses nikon F mount lenses, Leica's are really expensive, Panasonic uses leica lenses and the olympus 4/3s format. while the samsung DSLR is just a Pentax DSLR with a Samsung Badge.