Thats a nice set of lenses.. I would say get a D300 and the 16-85 VR the older D300 can be gotten for a good price second hand these days. you will be amazed how sharp the new Zooms are compared to the old lenses. and since you seem to be a guy who knows what a good lens is you will appreciate the 16-85.

I would skip the ricoh and the olympus 4/3. go either for micros 4/3 - panasonic is has some nice cameras, the new sony EVIL or stick to nikon. the best suggestion I can give You is to go to a camera shop and play with many different ones. When I was transforming from film to digital that was my solution, although in my case the transformation was much easier - from f100 to d200 (almost the same layout, size and weight).

"Best advice is to go into a camera shop and ask if you can try out a few of the newer cameras. See which ones you like in terms of size and weight, because all of them, short of the D3000 and D5000, are a lot bigger than the FM series of cameras."

Especially that bit. Wish I had!

Yeah, PB PM gave good advice, bring a compact flash card or a SD card and see if you like the results.

PB PM, thanks for the info.

Jake

You never got into using auto focus SLR cameras, so that makes a difference. Any digital SLR will be a big change, even if you only use the camera in manual shooting modes.

I suspect that based on the lenses you own now, and the fact that you like your lenses, that switching systems may not be the best idea. Even a crop sensor camera will be a big change, because the focal lengths that you are used to will not appear the same. All lenses will have a 1.5x crop (35mm is more like 50mm for example). That crop factor is even greater on 4/3s cameras (2x, 35mm = 65mm) like those from Olympus and Panasonic. The only way to avoid that is a big, expensive and heavy, full frame DSLR, which might not be the best choice unless you don't mind the price tag.

Best advice is to go into a camera shop and ask if you can try out a few of the newer cameras. See which ones you like in terms of size and weight, because all of them, short of the D3000 and D5000, are a lot bigger than the FM series of cameras.

I use a Nikon FM3A.

One thing to keep in mind, the only cameras Nikon sells today that meter your AI and AI-S lenses are the D300 and higher. The D90 is a nice camera, but you will manually have to figure out the exposure. That is fine if you shoot still subjects in controlled lighting, but otherwise it can be a real pain. I started using my older AI and AI-S lenses a lot more once I got the D300, which can be programed to understand the non-CPU AI/AI-S lenses.

What film camera did you use? If we know what film camera you liked using, then that may help in figuring out what digital SLR will be best for you.

I have not yet decided which DSLR camera to purchase. In the past I have used Nikon and I have old Nikon lenses: 24mm f2.8, 35mm f/1/4 (my favorite lens), 105 f2.5 (= I like prime lenses) and a AF Nikkor 24-105mm f 1.35 - 4.5D. All things considered I may stay with Nikon and go for a d90 or a d300s. However, my other option is to take the lost and move to lesser weighted system e.g. 4/3 Olympus e3 or e30 or digital hybrids or Ricoh GXR. Any comments pro or con?

Jake