Yes I am saying that the camera with in body image stabilization will perform as well, it does for me anyway! And yes you are right, if image stabilization goes wrong in a lens you are left without a lens. if it goes out in a body you are left without a body. If you are going into photography professionally you better plan on replacing tons of bodies, and hope to not have to replace your $2,500 L lenses very often. Bodies come and go but good glass lasts and lasts, why decrease the potential lifetime on it by stuffing circuitry and moving parts in there rather than integrate it into the body where it will be replaced periodically. I didn't come up with the idea that IS lenses are less reliable
www.theimagingresource.com did.
Do you understand what ACR or Lightroom or aperture do to your RAW files? They apply the white balance and sharpening etc to the image. The 400D or any other camera save the Pentax K10D relies on you to use one of these programs to do so. But with the K10D you can capture a RAW image, then later that afternoon if you decide you want to process it, you can use your camera to do so. You don't HAVE to use your computer if you don't want to. I use this feature to free up space on my card when I'm in the field and can't dump it. With other cameras you can capture a RAW file, a jpeg, or a RAW and jpeg simultaneously. You can not however process a RAW into a jpeg in camera.
The pentax Kit lens is an all metal lens and is regarded on the other photography forums as being by far the best kit lens on the market, and worthy of even professional use. I'm net even sure that the Canon kit lens has even a metal lens mount.
Of course the vast majority of users will not buy the absolute top level high-end dSLRs... not now and not ever. They will stick to cheaper bodies and probably cheap glass as well. But a lot of them will still, for no good reason whatsoever, think that they are doing it better if that equipment says Canon or Nikon. You see this mentality when someone asks what brand to buy into and they are told "You'll look more professional using a Rebel", despite such comments being clearly ridiculous to us. People will say "Canon and Nikon have been in optics for decades", as if the Asahiflex never existed! It's ridiculous... but people will swallow such comments if there's no-one around to correct them (which there often isn't on C&N-dominated forums)... they are told that within a year they'l need to have an "upgrade path" or the ability to rent lenses, and often they'll accept it without thinking.
You can call me cynical, but honestly there are a lot of people of spectacularly weak will around. They see reviews, they see comments on forums, **** they watch CSI and notice what cameras they use... and so there's this mentality in place which is fairly hard to beat. It's not only on the internet either, I see it all the time in shops. Sometimes it's the sellers themselves, but more often it's the first-time buyers who come in with preconceptions
Canon is now not the only company with a dSLR that has a full-frame 35mm sensor. It's now a list of two, and that list is Canon and Nikon. Yes Canon and Nikon, of "Should I buy a Canon or a Nikon?" or "You'll be alright as long as you buy Canon or Nikon" fame. Internet posters and marketing have successfully made many many people think that there are only two companies making good dSLRs. Now they both have the full-frame sensor advantage... even if you don't accept that 35mm sensors have any practical advantage, they do have an advertising advantage. Advertising and perception is all-important, as Canon knows in putting Image Stabilisation in their cheapest, crappiest kit lens. IMO it's going to become even easier for Canon and Nikon's volunteer salesmen all round the world to push their myths and put people off buying anything else.
And by the way you should really check this out, I think it sums the 1Ds III pretty well
http://www.photographybay.com/2007/08/18/nikon-d3-press-release
Pentax caters to the entry level crowd, they have the K100D for that. It's more like the XTi
But if one really wants to learn photography, they'll benefit from not having those "fudge" settings
SLC