Help! Which one? Canon 10D or NikonD100?

[itsaraid]

Dear Friends-
I am completely stuck, I am trying to decide which Digital Camera to get based on my eyes alone. Heres the problem that never gets addressed in reviews, Im older, my eyes are older, I have the misfortune of wearing No Line Bifocal Lenses making it tougher for me to see.
Im looking at a 10 D with the Canon 24 to 70mm 2.8 L Lens and similar to the Nikon D100 with the same type(L) lens.

Does anyone have an opinion on the viewfinders and the situation I described above? Can you recommend any direction for me.?

So far the 10D viewfinder appears brighter to me than the Nikon, however I just had a war with my Optician as they messed up my glasses and tonight finally delivered the correct lenses for my eyes-

What do I have now? I currently own a Nikon N90s with a 35 to 70,, 2.8 AF D Lens, I believe I have sold it locally

I am going to Israel Next month with my 2 children, a trip of a lifetime, and I want to be happy with the Photographic Outcome of that trip.

When you go to the Photos taken by Phil Askey on his web site the Canon Lens used ( L Series) is spectacular, in contra to the Nikon Lenses Nice photos but not so spectacular.

Have always been a "Nikon Buff" and Im trying to figure out what to do. Im also a relatively smart person and try to maximise my purchases... The Nikon D-100 is almost 2 years old, thats not a bad thing, however the D10 is about 8 months old and now Sony has come out with a 8megapixal camera. If we draw a conclusion on directions as in past, Nikon is going to be "Hard Pressed for something New" Canon is beating them up with the D10, Sony is now out the box with a 8Megapixel whatchamacallit-

I understand that no one has really put their hands on the new Sony yet, however Sony usually doesnt market "Losers"
so question A is who wins between the D10 and D100, and then do I get a Sony instead and wait for Nikon to release the new toy which Im going to assume is going to light the fuses on the fannies of both Nikon and Cannon?

I recently visited a retailer who took some "In Store Shots" and processed them for me through their Fuji system, this was the first Ive ever seen with regards to the Digital Output available- they were 4x6 prints, The Nikon had a much reder toner but was sharper, the Canon was warmer and softer? does that make sense? Then there is the so called Focus Problem of the Canon 10D, Real or Not, I dont have $2500.00 to throw out-

I would appreciate apprecaite any help from the forum members and would appreciate any comments from folks who may have direct contact with the Cannon 10D and Nikon D100 as well-

Feel free to email me at ItsaRaid@columbus.rr.com

Thank You!

[bobtrips]

First, one probably shouldn't try to compare the Sony 818 with a dSLR. They are different type/different use cameras. The 818 might suit your needs quite well but it will be somewhat limited. You won't have exchangeable lenses and the pixels will be much smaller (more noise and lower usable ISO settings).

And the 818 isn't on the market yet, probably won't be for some time....

As for Nikon/Canon, perhaps the question should be Fuji/Canon. The Fuji S2 is generally regarded as a better camera than the D100 (and uses Nikon glass).

The 'red tone/sharper/warmer/softer' issue is probably not something with which to concern yourself. You can make the images into your own vision of the world in post-processing.

[curtisls]

... to consider.

There is also more to image quality than pixel count. The 8 meg Sony chip is still much smaller than those used by Nikon, Canon, Fuji, Pentax or Olympus. Other things to consider include dynamic range, noise, image quality to the edges, speed of operation, and much more. Since you are indicating that you will have to go for new lenses as well, it seems that all of these choices are available to you.

Good luck in your hunt!

Regards,
Curt

[andag1]

Wish I could help more than this, "itsaraid". I'm in the same painful hunt as you are. The 828 is an unproven product, as many have said. I had my eye on it until the endless delays sent me off to other quarters.

Currently I have my eye on the Canon 300D EOS Rebel. (Digital) It even comes with a lens in the box, which none of the other, to my knowledge, do. An all-purpose lens no doubt, but a lens all the same. I've been pretty impressed with the film-like quality that this camera produces.

Needless to say the more I look the more I constantly change my mind. But this Rebel has at least made it on my list of qualifiers. Sorry that I can't tell you about the viewfinder however. Dpreview has the best of the best as far as reviews go though. There should be something about that there. Good luck!

[tdpg]

I recently upgraded to a Canon 10D and would caution you that a dSLR is not like a newer, better 35mm SLR. For example, with all my previous digicams, I happily fired away at Large Fine JPEG and got excellent results. With my 10D, I initially thought the camera had a problem. All my photos seemed soft.

After completely changing my shooting parameters and workflow, I now get excellent results. I had to start shooting in raw, convert to TIFF, then sharpen in PSE. This is a PITA but the results are worth it.

Bottom line, I would be careful about buying any dSLR and expecting to get great results next month. Hope that helps.

[jseah]

I would have to agree with tdpg. To truly make the photos from the camera shine, you do need to post process your pictures. Yes, out of the box the 10D does shoot softer pictures than your typical point & shoots like the Sony (I have always noticed that Sony cameras many times leans towards the "too sharp").

I have still not dug in to spend the time to refine my workflow. For the most part, I still take mostly Large Fine JPEG for "snapshots". These I will print out at home on my Canon photo printer and the prints on 8x10 glossy photo paper truly rivals film. The built in "softness" helps with portraits. One of the things I have noticed, is that these Large Fine JPEG's (approx 2-2.5 meg in size per file), when printed without any post processing, looks beautiful in 8x10's, but when printed out on 4x6's, they do not print out as nice.

[ang1970]

Since we're on the topic of in-camera sharpening, I'll just give a quick shout out to this thread.