Looking for new DSLR

[Feelslikeanut]

I am looking to get back into photography after a number of years. I have been doing some research and have eliminated the field down to 2 cameras that I like. 1) Canon EOS Rebel T3i 2) Nikon D-5100
My previous experience with a SLR was with a Pentax K-1000 to give you an idea how long I have been out of the scene. I would like be able to sell pictures for extra income. I have some older pictures listed on Flickr. If you want to look at them here is the link....
Flickr: Feelslikeanut's Photostream

[dlambert]

Both of these are fine cameras. I guess my advice would be to look at this as a "platform" decision rather than a "camera" decision. In other words, right now, you might think you're *just* buying a camera, but you're really buying into a brand. You're going to start accumulating accessories and lenses for this camera, and pretty soon, you're going to be pretty well hooked on that brand because of your investment in equipment.

Over the lifetime of your photography career, it's likely that you'll spend more money on lenses than camera bodies, in fact, so it wouldn't actually be a bad idea to look at the lenses you want to end up with and figure out how that affects your purchasing decision -- even if you're not going to buy all of the lenses right away.

[OsmosisStudios]

Go try them out. You may find that you cant stand the controls or handling of one, or that you prefer something about the other

[inkista]

Just a thought, but do you have a lot of Pentax lenses? Or any pro-quality ones? Because to me, if you do, the obvious dSLR route would be to upgrade to a newer Pentax dSLR. The K-5 in particular is pretty damn impressive, but the K-r ain't bad, either.

Is there a specific reason for the system jump?