Will This Be Mine?

I did wrote sometimes ago that I had been thinking of owning my first DSLR camera. There are lots of DSLR camera available and to choose the right one might be a hard decision for me to decide.

As for a newbie amateur hobbyist photographer like me, I guess I should select a good entry-level DSLR camera. I got my first advise by my friend asking me to consider of owning either a Nikon D40x or Nikon D80. He was mentioning that Nikon is a good camera for landscape while Canon would be good for taking portraits picture. From there, I started to read reviews from various sites and I put aside Nikon D40x as most of the sites aren’t giving this model an impressive review. D80 is now in my shortlisted list.

I also read about Canon Digital Rebel 400 & 300, both are the most popular camera in the flickr.com community. I get confused and lucky for me I accidentally met my long lost primary school classmate and he is now a freelance photographer based in Kuala Lumpur. I asked him about Canon and Nikon, he told me Nikon is the best. So, with this statement, I put aside both Canon Digital Rebel and sticking back to own a Nikon D80.

Last 3 weeks, I went to a camera store in Melaka just to get the idea of the pricing and I got hooked with Canon EOS 40D. The price is way much higher than Nikon D80 and I almost grab it home. I did not buy it just because the seller was advising me not to buy it as I am a newbie, so buying EOS 40D will lead me to a difficult and complicated learning process in operating and handling a DSLR. With that, I am again sticking back to Nikon D80.

Suddenly, I got this review (I can’t remember the web page) saying that D80 also is not meant for a newbie like me. It is not an entry-level DSLR, in fact it can be categories in the semi-pro category. Now, I really need to start again in looking for a right camera.

I contacted my friend again just recently and he told me that there is a good entry-level DSLR in town and he is also been thinking of owning it as one of his back-up unit. The camera is the Sony DSLR Alpha 200. After I got the recommendation from him, I read some reviews of it at various site and I think this will be a good first DSLR for me. Of course there are some negativeness points being commented, but can I say compared to D40x, Digital Rebel XTi and Digital Rebel XT, the Sony DSLR Alpha 200 is the best?

I will definately do some study again within this couple of weeks for this model and if everything goes right, I had decided to owns it latest before end of March 2008. The question now, if my first DSLR is a Sony, will I be sticking to Sony forever?