[K.B.]

If you have any worthwhile Minolta lenses you can probably find a 7D digital for 6-700 bucks. Minolta just sold out to Sony. Sony is now set to be a player. Minolta just had too many court cases where they lost and basically had to pay for copyright infringement of things they invented and didn't realize somebody had a coyright on them. It is anybodies guess as to what is to transpire next but Sony has said they will support the older AF lenses Minolta made. If your best Minolta lens isn't over $400 you might as well consider makeing a switch. The big 2 as stated above is Cannon and Nikon. Nikon gets skin tones better and Cannon has faster lenses for sports. If you are staying under $1500 total you have some pretty severe limitations. It depends how serious you are or if you plan to expand your collection of lenses etc. For motorsports I would figure a 300 or 400 prime, big glass, would be the cats a$$. We're talking $2k on up for the lens alone.

There are many Minolta addicts out there that will not switch over to Nikon or Cannon as they really like the knobs and dials that Minolta has instead of stuff burried 3 menus deep. Minolta glass is pretty good and has always been bargain priced too. A recent ebay auction for a 70-200 APO G SSM went for $2200 when it originally listed for $1999 and sold at B&H 3 months ago for $1749.

The next big phase for low end digital cameras may well be a full size CCD. Current lower priced digital models have a 1.5 or 1.6 correction factor as the part that takes in the light is smaller than an 35mm negative was. If CCD's are made full size you will use the full aperature of the glass you have mounted.

Figure whatever you buy, your camera will be out of date in 3 years or so, but the lenses will likely be fine for 10. The lenses can cost many times what the camera does.