Advice for re-entering hobbyist...

[rwwright]

i was an old film person and absolutely love the conversion to digital. would not even consider using a film camera again for any reason.

that said, it sounds like you were a fairly serious amatur at one time. Also it is all about money. What can you reasonably expect to spend.

If money is not a large issue, I think you should consider a d300 with an 18-200 lens and a 1.8 50mm lens. If this is not in your future, consider a used d200 or a d80 as a minimum. you will want to get as many features as you can, because you will miss not having them once you get started using cameras again. I know it sounds like a reach, but a used D2X is really cheap (relatively speaking) and is an amazing tool. Reserve money for a minimum of two 4gig cards, maybe an 8 or 16 gig. dont forget software and computers. at this stage, I would consider the minimum software to be lightroom and photoshop elements. And a computer fast enough with enough ram (2gig) so you dont go crazy setting at a computer. and a epson photo printer.

Of course if money is really not an issue, get a D3 (or the soon to be released D3X), two 8 gig cards, 14-24 zoom, 24-70 zoom, 70-200 zoom, 200-400 zoom, new computer with 4gig ram, full photoshop, lightroom, and polarizing filters. (you really dont need any other filters). course thats 20 or 30 k.