I'd watch that absolute statement of "any".

Spend some serious $$ on an Nikkor ED lens and you'll have nothing to complain about.

But one isn't necessarily better than the other. All pictures are a matter of taste. Canon L vs Nikkor ED will give you a different feel for exactly the same photograph and settings.

the way i see it - nikon makes better cameras and canon makes better lenses. tough call, but i will probably keep the lenses longer than the camera body. hence i have a canon. sharp!

a co worker has a nikon d100 and i have a lesser canon xti, his camera "probably" captures more vivid colors...but is comparatively softer.

a canon L lens beats any nikor lens - in my opinion.

D200 primary
D70 Backup
Nikon 8008 - still in the bag. I shoot more digital for the economics of it. But a commercial shoot i'd still do w/ film.

I shoot both film and digital. There are some things digital can do that film cant. There are some things film can do that digital cant yet.

You have Nikkor lenses. Stick with Nikon.
Dont buy any DX lenses. They're all manufactured keeping the sensor crop factor in mind (1.5x). Soon enough Nikon will release a full frame sensor and you'll have to throw away the DX lenses.

Always buy lenses which are both film and digital.

My lens bag :

70-200 mm VR f/2.8 Nikkor
28-70 mm f/2.8 Nikkor
50 mm f/1.4 Nikkor
50 mm f/1.8 Nikkor
TC1.4E teleconverter.

Starter DSLRs : D80 or D200 (same camera but better weather seals). Skip the D40 or D50. Too limited.

PS > Canon ? You said you wanted to buy a real camera, right ;)

If you have the Nikon then go for the Nikon D80. Just because i am pretty sure u have Nikon lenses.

We all know either Canon or Nikon are great camera makers. For Canon i would say get the Rebel XTi(aka 400D) I have this camera and its wonderful.

Check out some of my pics from it if you like at flickr.com

if you have any other offline questions msg me @ baraynavab @ gm ail.com