[ejbpesca]

Very good points indeed. I am thinking now maybe I can stay with my cheaper cams as they work but get a better way to show their stuff...say an Ipad. What I wonder now...new topic is how to edit photos on an Ipad vs. laptop.

Yep..f stop is 4 or 5 at lowest on x90...it does a fine macro and with luck a fair zoom shot. I think I will hang tight till the old Rebel breaks. I've lost one to I guess wearing out...a Canon s1..my first digital but what fun to be set free of film and the dark room. Those chems about killed me. It is a digi world for sure.

Thanks all.

Heading for a shoot in the Hoh rain forest and up the Columbia River today. How cool is that?

[jstevewhite]

canon if you want to go with the 5dmark2, i think it's probably the best value for a FF camera I've seen.

Pentax best camera (bang for the buck) is probably the k-r, I feel the K-5 is a bit over price producing similar IQ as the D5100 and the A58 (both are about 400 bucks cheaper).

not sure what you're looking for, in fact most DSLR will produce nearly the same IQ from ISO 100-400 (yes even my 200 dollars sony A330 toy body). The rest is dependent on lens quality and light control.

The d7000 *also* produces about the same IQ as the K-5. For around the same price as the K-5. No reason to match the K-5 "down", as it were.

[clockwork247]

The d7000 *also* produces about the same IQ as the K-5. For around the same price as the K-5. No reason to match the K-5 "down", as it were.

the reason why I didn't list the D7000 is for the same reason, I also feel that it's over priced.

[labnut]

The only feature I want to improve is clarity of shots either electronically or from better glass. I'm still in the downside of what I can afford...less than $1,000 for cam and lens.

do they produce about the same clarity for no more than an 8x10 photo?

To answer your second question first.
Right now I am looking at an A3 print taken on my old *istDS, an 6.3 Mpixel camera. The image is sharp and clear. So a 6 Mp camera can produce good A3 prints.

To answer your second question.
Image clarity is made up of two things, sharpness and contrast. They depend on, in order of importance:

• a good lens
• good photographer technique
• good image post-processing technique

A good lens.
The most important thing in improving image clarity is to get a good quality lens. Here the rules are simple. The fewer the lens elements the better the contrast. The less zoom the better the sharpness. (but there are exceptions) And the best results (usually) come from a good quality prime lens. Browse through the lenses on slrgear.com.

Good photographer technique.
More often than not we are the cause of poor photos. This comes down camera shake and poor focusing. So it is worth re-thinking your camera technique. In the modern quickly, quickly, point and shoot age we have lost sight of the fact that good images require a lot of care.

Good image post-processing technique.
Post-processing can improve sharpness, contrast and colour. A great deal can be done at this stage to further improve your photos but I won't enumerate the techniques here.

You have done all the above things but are there still reasons to change your camera body?
Two important reasons come to mind.

• Modern cameras/lenses have shake reduction. This greatly extends the range of your photography to low light conditions and smaller apertures for more depth of field.
• Modern cameras can take good photos at high ISO, extending your photography even more into low light conditions. And when you discover this you wonder how you ever managed without it. It is that big a deal.