The lens on the Dimage A1 is a permanent lens, it does not come off.... the camera is not a DSLR, but a prosumer level digital. The lens is permanently attached to the camera with a zoom of 28 - 200 mm. These other cameras all have their own lens mount specifications and you cannot interchange Canon lenses on a Nikon or vice-versa. You can however use third-party lenses from Sigma, Tamron, Quantary, etc, but you have to buy it with the proper mount. If you buy a lense from Sigma for example you need to make sure you buy it with the Nikon mount for a Nikon camera, again with a Nikon mount it will not work on any other camera but the Nikon. I can't give you advice on which is better as far as DSLRs but I've used Canon for years and now use Nikon, both are excellent and have fine reputations. What it all boils down to is which suits you better. And then building up that system that works for you. It would be a lot cheaper if you already had lenses for a particular brand and then you could just stick with the brand for the lenses that you had, but if you starting fresh, it's a big investment.....

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