Group newbie asking for advice......

[Bonhomme Richard]

I used to shoot wildlife with a nikon FE-2 camera which my son had stolen out of his school locker a number of years ago and I haven't replaced it. I couldn't justify spending the money at the time.
My wife wants to get me a new camera and we were looking at the canon eos rebel xt as the replacement. I'm not familiar at all with the digital cameras and was wondering if that is a good direction to go or would the 20D or Nikon D70 be a better value for my money? Can I use my old nikon lenses on the D70?

Or would I be better off just hunting down a FE-2 body on ebay and sticking with what I know.
Willing to spend $600 to $1,000 for a basic digital kit.
Any other suggestions are also welcome.

[ET Awful]

1. The old Nikon lenses will work on the D-70.

A manual focus lens won't magically become auto-focus if you have any manual lenses, but they will work.

The Canon 20D has some better features, but if you already have Nikon lenses, that's a pretty big chunk of change to just toss away and switch systems.

All of them will give you wonderful results (whether you get the Rebel XT, the 20D or the D70).

I personally have a D70, and am very happy with it. I'm actually considering upgrading to the new D200 when it becomes available next month simply to get the more rugged build and the water sealing so it's more usable in bad weather.

Since you have lenses already, I'd probably go with a Nikon. If you didn't, I'd encourage you to look at the Canon.

One more you might want to check into is the Minolta 5D. The Minolta digital SLR's have a built in image stabilization that works extremely well.

[Touchdown]

2. What ET said.

I have a couple of friends with Rebel Ds. One is an older model, and another bought the XT recently. They are solid cameras, and feel good in the hands.

I'm getting the D200 myself, since I've got some Nikkor and Sigma lenses I want to keep using. It'll be my first D-SLR. I've got an advanced Nikon Coolpix P&S right now, but I see it has it's limitations. The advantages of a DSLR over even the feature heavy P&Ss is mainly the larger size of the CCD, which allows in more light, thus shooting in higher ISOs allows for less grain.

Keep in mind, that between 6mp and 8mp there's a 14% improvement in detail, translating to 2 lines of pixels horizontal, and 2 vertical. That's it. The noticeable differences in picture quality will be negligeable at best. My advice is to hold both, move your fingers around the controls, and pick the one that feels best and most intuitive in your hands. Nikon's AF slrs do have a different feel than their manual cousins.

[Bonhomme Richard]

3. Thanks for the reply and I took a plunge.

I was still on the fence about film or digital and decided to stay with film for now. I ordered the nikon N80 from B& H. My problem is that I'm not sure if I will get into photgraphy like I did in the past and didn't want to invest the money required in order to get a decent digital so I opted for a decent amatuer nikon. I fiqure I can still use my lenses and as I build lenses I will be able to use them if and when I decide to go digital.