Wilsons Sandbox

Jeff, Saw your post and thought I'd respond from a professional photographers point of view. It's hard to recommend a camera without knowing the type of use the camera's going to receive but I'd spend my money on the Canon. I can say that, without even owning a Canon camera..... I shoot with Nikon F100 cameras and Contax G2 cameras but many of my colleagues use Canon systems and are totally happy with them. Why the Canon over the Minolta ?? The main reason is the system. Canon has one of the best systems around... You can get almost any piece of equipment you can think of for Canon cameras and you can get most of it thru the mail order houses. Canon is a widely recognized camera system chosen by a number of pros. The service dept. at Canon is top notch from what I've been told but hey, Im a Nikon and Contax guy. If you decide along the way that you'd really like to learn more and get more involved with photography you'll have a camera that you can upgrade fairly easily and also rent accessories for. Rent accessories ?? Yep, you can actually rent that super long 600mm Canon lens to shoot closeups of your favorite sports hero at the ball park or one of your KLR buddies flying through a mud hole on a pipe line. Minolta, forthe most part, doesn't have those options. There systems aren't as comprehensive and are geared more to the amature, not that there's anything wrong with that, just restricts future use. If you're just shooting snapshots of the family and have no plans of doing much more than that with the camera, don't give yourself a migrane, almost any decent camera will do the job. Best Wishes, Steve Rawls http://www.steverawls.com