I am seriously thinking about getting Patty a new camera for Christmas or her birthday (Jan 25th). She has been talking about Nikons. Right now her camera is a Canon EOS Xs with the 75-300mm lens.
I want to upgrade her to something better and I HOPE I can find something better (Camera and lens) for about $1000-1200 dollars. Most of her pics are between 20-300 feet, some of course farther and a few shorter.
What would be a good Camera, NIKON first and then Another Canon with lens recommendations?
If she has more than the one Canon lens, I recommend staying with Canon. Sell the old body, get a new one and continue the lens collection.
If she only has the one lens, sell both the lens and body and get a Nikon if that is what she is set on.
If the budget you mention, $1,000 to $1,200, is for a kit (body and lens), you cannot go wrong with a Nikon D7000. Check out a review
here.
With a bit of searching, I just found a D7000, 18-105mm lens and tons of other goodies in a kit for $1,250. You can probably find it for less with just the lens and body. The 18-105mm lens will be a good starter lens as well since it has a wide zoom range. But, you give up a little on the aperture - 3.5 is the largest hole it'll make. There is also a kit with a 70-300mmm lens, which should make the transition less abrupt. It is probably the better one too, since she does a lot of nature photos.
The D90 is a small step down, but you can save a few pennies with it. I used to have one, and loved it. I got rid of it to change formats not because I had any issues with it.
