So we want a brand that makes good glass and has a lot of choices. IMHO that narrows the field down to 2 brands, Canon and Nikon. It's hard to go wrong with either one. There are a couple things that may help with the decision. If you already have a collection of Nikon lenses from a film camera, go Nikon. Almost all pre-digital Nikon lens will work on Nikon DSLRs (except for some of Nikon's cheapest entry level DSLR's). The same is not true of Canon. Very few of their pre-digital lenses will work on their DSLRs. Ask with your camera dealer when in doubt.