Team,

The allocated budget and prices I listed above are to just get me started initially as I want something decent to take os with me (lets face it - anyng will be better than my 5 year old ixus 7.5 mp point and shoot!!!!). So if I did opt for the 5d I would definitely get another lens for it sometime soon.

I didn't even consider the 5d until it was mentioned here - I really can't see myself getting into wildlife or sports photography (not until i have kids and they are old enough to play sport so that's a few years away yet - at least 8) as I mentioned my really interest is taking photos on holidays of arch / buildings / landscapes and probably 'people' shots now that I think of it (eg street stallers selling food). I also love taking photographs of things at night - not so much people but of things lit up, such as harbor bridge or the bright lights of Vegas.

I have not used an slr previousy - but in saying that, I plan to spend 3 hours a night for the next 9 weeks learning how to use it before my trip (to at least get the basics down) / not to mention every moment on the weekends going out and about taking 100's of pics.

I did consider the 60d with all it's set shooting functions and this would help me greatly, however, when I held it in the shops I found it very difficult to operate the rear scrolling pad - my fingers are too big for the inner buttons on it and it was hard to control. Plus with all the time I plan on doing photography I believe I will outgrow this pretty quickly. I had my heart set on the 7d as it has the 3 user settings which I could set up myself (black and white / landscape and something else) but it appears as though the 5d II would be more suited to my needs??????

So if you were me (and wanted to take pics of the above) and had 3k to spend getting started what would you do / option 1 (7d 15-85 / one of the 70-200) or option 3 (5d with 24-105).....I also like the look of the 17-40l for the landscapes / big views at the 17mm!

I really want to buy it this week so I can get started!


So now