Canon EOS-10D Digital Camera

An excellent camera, not the top of the range model but not that different to the EOS 5 except for the size of the sensor, and therefore the magnifying effect on focal lengths of lenses. Fast shutter speed of 1/4000 sec and wide ISO range although some noise at top end of range.

Accepts a range of canon add on options and lenses and is also well supplied by 3rd party suppliers.

All the features you need, simple to handle and a better build than the 300, 350, 400 etc. Good focusing screen, at 6.3 mega-pixels will cover most of your needs. Easy to use and produces excellent photographs, which can easily be enlarged to A3 on a good quality printer. The chip gives a magnification of 1.6 times, compared to a full frame 35mm camera.

You need to be aware that this will not accept EFS lenses from canon, which excludes some of the cheaper lenses available, but all the recent non brand lenses should fit.Adding the BG-ED3 vertical grip enhances the feel of the camera and makes portrait work far easier to achieve.

As a second hand proposition you cannot go far wrong. you don`t need much more than 6.3 mega-pixels unless you are blowing up to exceptionally large sizes or cropping heavily, and that is best done using the lens, that is the point of using an SLR after all. There have been various tweeks to performance on later models, and screen size has grown, and live view is available on the latest additions, but the cost difference is large, and what you really need to do is get snapping and leave some cash for a good selection of lenses.

I would whole heartedly recommend to anyone, and if you are a die hard film user, take the plunge, hold on to your EOS lenses and you will be amazed at how good it is.