Starting over, what would I buy?

I'm often asked the ole "what should I buy" question. The answer is simply not straight forward. To begin with, when you are first starting out, I would suggest you buy into a system and not a camera. What I mean is you should carefully consider what brand you want to buy into. I once had an entire Sigma kit, and when I changed to Canon, I took quite a loss selling all my Sigma gear, and re-buying the Canon equivalent.

The two biggest fish in the sea are Canon, and Nikon. They both have a wide array of lenses and bodies to choose from, and you can't go wrong with either. As I am most familiar with Canon, my recommendations are based on what I know. If you are interested as to what the Nikon equivalents are, contact me and I'll be glad to help you.

Knowing what I know, below is what I would buy if I were starting from scratch.

Under $1000:

• Body: Used Canon 30D
• Lens: Tokina 28-75 f/2.8 and a Canon 50mm f/1.8
• And a 430 EX Speedlite

Under $500

• Body: Used Canon 10D
• Lens: Used Tokina 28-75 f/2.8

There is nothing wrong with buying used gear. of the 5 DSLRs I've owned, 3 of them I bought used. More importantly though, don't get wrapped up with gear. Just shoot with what you have.