geauxdux

“Courtland’s volunteer fire department received a call about a car on fire at 8:09.
They found Jessica down the road from her car. Although more than 90% of her body was burned, she had somehow managed to escape. They flew her to a hospital 60 miles away in Memphis, while she was still conscious. Later, investigators said they believed the killer had been in her car before setting it alight.
“Eric did this to me,” Jessica told medics over and over again in a raspy whisper, although no one knows whom she meant. (Authorities won’t confirm her last words on the record, but that’s what they told her father and a few potential leads.) Then, she stopped talking. She died in the hospital a few hours later.”

From an update to this story: LINK

Q: What kind of camera should I buy, Nikon or Canon?

If you’re not already invested in lenses, flip a coin.

Q: What kind of lens should I buy?

A: What kind of pictures are you planning to take?

Because here’s the deal: there is no magic pill that will reverse the effects of aging, remove unwanted pounds without diet or exercise, grow you an instant billionaire overnight by working from home. It’s the same thing with photography. There is no brand name or system (DSLR or mirroless or PAS or medium format or instant) body-lens combo that will deliver you the images you want. And there is no single lens that will work for every situation, every job. (Although, there are some that come close; but again, that depends on the "look" the photographer is trying to achieve, and that's not something anyone else can answer for you. I have a 35mm f/1.4 from a German brand that they will pry from my cold, dead fingers, and it's on my various digital bodies 90 percent of the time. But that's me.)

Buy the best lens you can afford, because lenses are investments; a digital camera body depreciates. Don't buy a kit lens (the crappy zoom/variable aperture lens that camera manufacturers and stores package with a camera body and sell to people who have no idea how important the lens is in this transaction), you're better off shooting with a phone camera than a crappy kit lens, especially if your main subject is indoors. The glass is where it all begins. It's not the phones that are taking good/bad images; it's the (especially Zeiss) glass in the newer smart phones making that imaging difference. It's all about the lens.

Lots of pros are unloading their DSLR systems so you might be smart to pick up a used system right now rather than buying new (especially as the market for selling DSLR gear later is shrinking.) LINK

Look at Fuji's X-T1; the lens lineup won't be anything to write home about until Q2 2015, but the "pancake" lens (27mm f/2.8, which is the equivalent of a 35mm SLR lens) is an affordable and favorably reviewed start and they're all on sale this week. If the X-T1 is more than you want to spend on a body, work down (X-M1) and spend more money on a good prime lens. LINK

Hope this helps. Giving camera buying advice is a lot like setting friends up on a blind date. LINK
:banghead:

fwiw, the flare is the best part you gave us to work with.

enjoy!