Hi there,
I am new on the forum and actually, this discussion kind of summarize my current dilemma.
Indeed, I want to acquire my first digital DLSR. I am kind of an enthusiastic user, still quite naive, planning to take lessons, I like to shoot animals (birds, insects and... my kids

), etc.
As a kind of a geek, and with a budget around 3k$ (for body + lenses), what should I go for ? Long ago I had a Canon, so my first idea was to go for Canon. Then, the Nikon D7100 impressed me a lot, with many interesting features. On the other hand, I plan to buy nice gears little by little and Canon's seem better.
At my level, I think that the sensor matters little, it will probably outperform what I need and the gears I will buy initially. Solidity is important. Some features of the D7100 seem ideal for birds, etc (AF, crop factor, speed of shutter, high ISO quality). From what is announced, Canon novelties will either not provide the same built as the D7100 (70D) or will be much more expensive (7DII).
I plan to buy my camera at the end of the year, hence I will have time to see what happen until then. But if I had to decide today, I would probably go for D7100 since it is approximately the same price as 7D, but more recent and with some interesting features.
So I was wondering if you experts think that my thinking is correct or not (and yes, I know that a D7100 or 7D is probably too much for me, but they are appealing to me !).
I am also curious about your opinion on this matter: is Canon loosing some new potential enthusiastic clients by not improving enough their camera ?