For anyone who's never been on the Dennis forums and for anyone else who's had their head buried in the sand, my Canon cameras have always had issues from a tape loading fault with my Canon video camera that disappeared of its own accord to £200 worth of repairs to my DSLR. The thing is, I'm off on my hols in the next two weeks and the last time I took my DSLR anywhere, it started playing up with the same fault that cost me 200 quid last time.

If it goes faulty on holiday, I have resolved to drop the thing from one of the convenient high places- or maybe I'll post it home, the end result will probably be the same and buy myself a Nikon.

I've had a quick look on the Jessops site- if only because their filtering process is better than some sites- and it looks like it would have to be the D90 or D5000.

The D90 looks like the one I would swing for if it came to it, as I would like to go one step up in price from my EOS300D and with prices having come down and technology advancing, I suppose I'd get a damn good camera in the D90 when compared with the 300D?

One more thing- I'll be in the US, so I don't know if anyone knows of any potential problems over there- apart from mains adaptors. Is there anything I need to consider before buying a model out there? Are there any important differences or different models?

At the moment, I hope I don't need to buy a new camera, but one thing's certain- I don't want to be spending my time as well as my cash looking for a new camera, I'd just like to walk in and lay my money down.

If the camera survives, I'll stick it out for now.

I'd say, if your heart's set on a Nikon, then buy one now.

Head over to Digital Photography Review, read up on the specs and what they thought on the models you have in mind, and then head over to the various online photographic resellers to get the best price. You might well have it by the end of the week, giving you time to learn what all the knobs and buttons do before you go away!

Warehouse Express may well have the best prices, and that would be my first port of call.

If you're more likely to buy in the US, then the only real issue will be the mains lead for the battery charging system.

I'm a Canon fan (at the time I made the decision, Canon was the only company offering a path to full frame sensors, but that's all changed now), and I have to say I've not had one hiccup with my 400D since I bought it. Then again, I tend to treat expensive electronic goods with a little respect - not saying you don't, just that when it costs me more than £100 I tend to look after things anyway.

Thanks for the links.

I am definitely not going to be getting one here, unless- I suppose I could just take the camera out and about and snap a load of completely disposable (and maybe a few good) photos over the coming week. I normally only take it places that I am visiting, but with the kit being so heavy and painful on the shoulder, I haven't even bothered doing that to some of the places I go often- such as Chester Zoo, so I haven't used it much since my short break in January when it last went belly-up.

I cannot bring myself to buy Canon again- four cameras, three repairs and one fault that came half way through our Mexico holiday and disappeared when we got home.

I do treat my expensive devices with love and care, but it seems that this is sometimes not enough. I used my PDA one afternoon in work a couple of months back and it was fine. Put it back in the pocket where it lives in a padded case and has done for more than two years. Came home and put it on charge, the next morning the screen is cracked

Perhaps I'm just unlucky, it certainly seems that way with Canon and if I did buy another one, I'd just be waiting for the I-knew-it moment whenever I used it.

WOW!

That has to be the most comprehensive review of anything I have ever seen! It makes me feel a little sad about being set on getting away from Canon or not looking at the D300, but the D300 is a few quid more (to say the least).

The pickiness in the D90 review comes from real professionals and even where I could see an obvious difference it was sometimes dismissed as nothing, given the harshness of their tests.

Certainly, if I go for a D90, I don't think I'll be disappointed.

Right, the sun's out and I'm off out with the dogs to see if I can break my 300D.

Why not save a little longer and get yourself a D3 or a little longer still and get a D3x? (8+)
You know you want to.

Mark

Or, a Mamiya ZD.

good things with nikons is that theyre indestructable ive (accidently) dropped my nikon D80 on hard concrete countless times and I check the camera and im like "wheres the dents/scratches?" fair enough now its got a few unnoticable chips but theyre hard as nails O_O, last time i dropped it I tripped over a cushion camera flew out my hand and tumbled quite a good distance bouncing all over the concrete, "oh f**k" was my reaction, the only damage that was done to it was the plastic protective display screen cover thing amazing

Please remind me not to lend you antything valuable.

As much as I might want to, this holiday is not cheap and I recently built a new PC because parts of that died and as soon as the financial situation picks up, I want to use money from my investments to get a Mini Cooper S.

So, when all said and done, a multi-thousand pound camera is not high on my list of priorities AND, would probably be wasted on me.

The Canon worked OK this morning, but two weeks of frequent photo taking will show if it's knackered or not.

I don't like handling other people's cameras for fear I'll break/drop them!

Edd

I handled a 5D MkII at the weekend. (8+)

Mark

I did back in December, very, *very* tentatively!

Edd

I was swinging it around with a big prime lens.

Mark

I know exactly how you feel Mr t_k. I have a Sony Alpha A100 and it's stripped the gears in two of my Sigma lenses (one of them twice). It's a cracking camera but I just lost confidence in it and won't even borrow my mates Sony or Minolta lenses for fear of the same thing happening again. I stuck it away in the loft and bought myself some Canon gear. The equivalent Nikon gear at the time was more expensive but I still spent £2.5k on camera, lenses and grip.

My feeling is that I would be happy with any gear until my mate recently went from Nikon to Canon. He reckoned the iq was better and also the autofocus (aviation so fast moving stuff). When you really look deeply at sports events, the majority of gear you can see is Canon but the majority of the remaining media use Nikon.

At the end of the day it's the user that makes the difference and unfortunately the majority of users cant afford, or are not serious enough, to keep changing equipment. Oh and Heather - my camera has an American charger and it's got the two flat prongs directly from it (and foldaway too). I shall post a piccy in the random piccy thread

Al

PS - I've dug my Sony out and am using it alongside my Canon 40D. Adjusting all the settings so that they're similar and shooting in RAW, the difference is quite amazing - I favour the Sony until it goes above ISO200 then it's Canon all the way.