I'm about to buy one of the above, but can't decide. I'm moving towards the Nikon. Any positive/negative views on either would be appriciated.

Also, does anyone know of the photography club near Mosborough.

if this is your 1st slr, both will serve u well. Be aware the 40x has a much smaller second hand lens market as i think nikon the 40x is one they removed screw drive for af.
The sony a100 ip also worth looking into...this is the one i went for 6 months ago when i went through wot u are now.

Before I say anything I should say that I use Canon...

I would go to a local photographic shop and get the feel of each body with the first lens you are thinking of buying, that may make the decision for you. You may straight away feel happier with one body than the other.

As for image quality Canon tend to give less noisy images, whilst I feel that the Nikon images look more natural.

Don't just look at the body, look at the system offered by each manufacturer.

We have the 400D and it's a sweet little thing. More than capable.

Though we were biased into getting it because I already had a Canon body.

I agree with Grinder, go into a shop and play with them both. Then play with a Canon 1D MkIII, buy it, and give it to me as a birthday present. ;)

I agree with Grinder, go into a shop and play with them both. Then play with a Canon 1D MkIII, buy it, and give it to me as a birthday present. ;)

You wouldn't want a mkIII with all those faults ;)

I went through the same dilemma a few months ago for me there were two things that made me go for the Nikon 1) handling, the Canon just didnt fit my hands 2) Out of the box JPGs, the Nikon in my opinion produces better looking shots. My decison to by the Nikon was made even though I had two lenses and a flash that would have fitted the Canon from my film SLR, now sold on ebay.

I think every new DSLR user goes through this dilemma - just check out the posts on dcresource or dpreview.

For me it was 400D or D80. In the end, I went for Canon mainly because they have a wider range of lenses and I felt the future upgrade possibilities were greater. Having said that, every time I go abroad I wish I had a Nikon with an 18-200 VR lens :(. Maybe some day Canon will spot the gap in their line-up.

ps As far as I can tell, very few people regret buying either make. Apart from having slightly different bells and whistles, they are both very good.

I was looking at a new camera 2 weeks ago and was trying to be open minded and looked at both Nikon and Canon as I've only ever had Canon. I ended up with a Canon again as i love the layout and prefer Canon 400d to it's Nikon equivalents.

I chose a 400D canon camera recently and I am really pleased with it.

I bought it on Ebay from a chinese dealer who sells from Manchester at a great price.

Check him out, his Ebay advert for the camera gives an excellent spec sheet and right up which is worth a read even if you decide to buy from elsewhere.

Hope this helps.

Happy days