What is the best currently available SLR for amateur photographers?

I am now thinking about export a digital SLR. The two top brands, Nikon and Canon, is unquestionably excellent. Nikon D40 is a cheaper introductory DSLR compared to Canon Rebel XTi 8MP. The review from www.dpreview.com listed some limitations on both. Is there any preference for people here for each brand?
What about all the other brands e.g. Olympus, Pentax?

Answer by veito da costa
The Pentax Kx is an EXCELLENT camera and is a fantastic price also.
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/pentaxkx/

it is doubtless the only make that has IS built into the BODY, and not the lens like other makes, so you wont have to buy expensive lenses.
The auto focus motor is ALSO in the body, which again, makes additional lenses cheaper.

Answer by Shoopit
I prefer Canon, but both brands are excellent. As for the other brands, the camera quality is about the same, but it may be harder to find parts and accessories for them later on. As for purchasing the camera, instead of going to a camera shop and dropping a grand on a new camera setup, I would recommend that you look on ebay and craigslist. You will end up getting a much nicer camera for a lower price. Just make sure you read the full descriptions of items and question any questions you might have about the quality of an item. I finished up getting my Canon Rebel XT with the stock lens, and nice zoom lens, a case, and a buch of other accessories for $ 200 from a guy on craigslist, who never even used the camera. If I had gone to Ritz Camera, that setup would have cost me over $ 1000.

Answer by Jens
@veito da costa:
Not only Pentax but also Sony and Olympus use sensor shift image stabilizators.

Answer by coutouly
I bought my Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT about a year ago, and have only excellent things to say. I bought a 1 GB sparkle card and can take close to 300 pix on a single battery charge by the integral sparkle about 1/2 the time. I reckon it’s auto settings and focus are superb, but I can adjust it for any special illumination situations I need. I also liked the fact that all of my EOS lenses from my Canon EOS film camera work, but I mostly use the digitally coded zoom lens that I bought with it.

Answer by joedlh
You have to realize that when DPReview says that an brilliant camera has limitations, that those limitations will be hardly noticeable to a user of the camera and viewer of the images. They are also limitations judged against the top-of-the line professional models.

You can get any entry-level model from any of the major manufacturers: Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus, Sony, Sigma, Fujifilm, Panasonic. I doubtless missed one or two. They are all brilliant. The limiting factor for a very long time will be your skills as a photographer.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

Rain Challenge at DPreview

Image by orb9220
Placed 16th out of 76 entries. On Challenge #5: "Rain"

Original Here.
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First house I shot for is dpreview.com or Steve’s Digicams. In either case the Fuji S700 is not there. Can’t find it under Fujifilm. Any Website that has all specs of cameras?
The Fuji S700 is a camera my friend just bought.

Answer by Morey000
er… the S7000 came out in 2004.

that’s a heck of a lot of time in the digicam industry.

you just didn’t look far enough down the list at dpreview

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilms7000/

Doah. Sam’s right (below). I estimate my eyes are going and I added a zero.

Answer by Dr. Sam
The S700 is also renowned as the S5700. See the 7th box down on this page: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Fujifilm/fuji_finepixs5700.asp It’s not the same as the S7000, Morie. I only found it because I had one in my hand when I was looking at the pictures.

I stumbled crosswise this as I was researching the camera for my brother – after he already bought it. Your friend already bought his/hers, so YOU choose if you want to share my opinion. “For what it is,” it seems okay, but it is what it is.

My canned answer:

My brother bought his Fujifilm S700 (aka S5700) on an impulse, figuring he’d try it out and return it if he developed buyer’s remorse. He was pleasantly surprised with the results. He likes the relatively compact size (compared to an SLR) and he especially likes the double-shot mode everywhere the camera takes one picture with a sparkle and one without with one push of the shutter button. It saves both and you can choose which one you like better later on.

See a review here: http://www.steves-digicams.com/2007_reviews/fuji_s700.html

See also:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_post.asp?method=sidebyside&cameras=fuji_finepixs5700&show=all

Steve says, “The only downfalls I found were the above average amounts of purple fringing, and the fact the LCD blacks out in between shots (when shooting in a sequence not burst mode.)”

See here for a sample of the purple fringing he is talking about. This will occur in a high contrast situation and in this sample, you can see it clearly around the wheels and any chrome trim. This is ISO 64, too, everywhere you would expect the very best image quality. Click on “All sizes” and then “Original” to see it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/899705078/

What do you reckon? Answer below!