I have a Nikon D40 and my co-worker has a Cannon EOS and Cannon 40D, the 40D destroys my Nikon, but my Nikon beats out his EOS in noise and over all performance.... like everyone has said, it's all up to person preference because it's like Pepsi and Coke.... Now that I have a D-SLR, I'll never go back... although it doesn't hurt to have a pocket sized point and shoot because hauling around a big camera with lenses gets heavy after a while if you aren't trying to take professional pictures.