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Keith,
today must be my photo advisory day! I just completed email to my CEO who happened to also inquire about my thoughts for his dad who gonna do some shooting for his children (low-light dance performance events). 25Kb text in russian and I can hardly imagine myself putting it all into english :)
Pentax (yep, that's the camp that I belong to)
K-5 is a great body that natively hosts those numerous excellent pentax primes. Built-in image stabilization so every single M42 lens (and others either adapted via leitax adapters or from other vendors) becomes stabilized. Go pentax if you like pentax (or asahi-takumar) glass.
K-5 features quite quiet shutter and mirror box (almost as quiet as a rangefinder).
Nikon
Should you need the best class AF then go Nikon. The best flash system. Inexpensive Tokina lenses (designed together with pentax for models after 2008) have the same focus ring direction when the infinity is on the left and MFD is on the right. D7000 is a great APS-C body and they're going to release intro-FF D700 replacement shortly (though this has been going on for the last year and nobody knows when they're finally done with that).
Image stabilization is done in the lens only (Nikon glass isn't any cheap at all and VR versions are even more expensive).
4/3 (Oly, Panasonic/Lumix)
For me this system is just... They give you relatively inexpensive bodies where you can attach those (old or not) Leitz/Leica or Voigtlander or whatever glass you own. Oly will give you in-cam stabilization (while Lumix will not). Contrast AF only, but these babies are small and cute!
Sony
If you like Zeiss or Minolta then go Sony. And it's the Sony that supplies its sensors to Pentax and Nikon who put them into K-5 and D7000 (as well as A580 and mirror-less prism-based A55 DSLR).
Built-in image stabilization.
Leica
Damn cute! Boutique expensive system.
Fuji
X100 is a very nice APC-S rangefinder cam though with 35/2 lens (non-interchangeable) only. If you're in love with Leica but low on funds - try X100 (it even has AF that Leica is missing; hybrid viewfinder - an outstanding idea!)
Canon
Brand #1 (that I don't like). Go Canon if you need the best world-wide accessory (and service) availability. Go canon if you think you'll try saving on original glass in favor of Sigma and Tamron. Go canon if you're scratching your right ear with your left hand (awful ergonomics, especially the user interface in menu system). But they are #1 and there must be something why they're #1
Image stabilization is performed in-lens only (in 95% it means x2-3 price tag).
Sigma
Go sigma if you like that Foveon idea of light sensing. But you'll be limited to Signa lenses only (probably Pentax lens can also be used since they share the same mechanical bayonet, but I'm not so sure on this).
If you like your Contax lens and would like to keep on using them then it's worth trying Pentax or 4/3 (micro4/3 since they're giving up 'big 4/3'). But note, that lots of lenses that are perfect with film are not that good with CMOS/CCD sensors: the latter does care about the angle the light strikes in (film doesn't) and film doesn't reflect that much light as these digital gizmos do. You'd also keep in mind the crop factor (x2 for 4/3 and x1.5 for P, N, F, S; x1.3-1.6 with C) that affects both focus distance (range in a case of zoom lens) and effective aperture (in terms of DOF, Depth of Field).
Zig
P.S.
Whatever system you pick up it'll still be you who makes it, not the equipment (in 98.5% cases).
posted by 77.37.1...
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