After much deliberation and research, I have come to decide that Nikon D80 will be the better camera for my needs. Yes, I pay almost $300 more for it in comparison to D40X, but the list of small extra features that D80 has adds up to this verdict. Now, here is another good tip that I came along in my independent investigation for truth: there are a bunch of good lens kits out there, most typical being 18-135mm. In order to avoid having too many lenses to haul around everywhere I take the camera, I will probably get a prime lens (probably 50mm) for portraits and casual everyday stuff and either a 18-135mm or a 18-200mm lens to cover the whole range. Oh yea, and add to that a polarizer filter.

Reasons for not getting the other two cameras: Pentax K10D - Needs to much configuration for simple casual every day shooting. Sometimes I want my DSLR to just take casual pics without too much fiddling. Nikon D200 - The price was just not right.

My main source for research: imaging-resource

PS. I just noticed the number of visitors to this blog increased by a factor of 5 (who would have thought)…and top search terms that led to this blog:

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