Digital SLR Camera

[Jonathan Taliani]

I'm considering getting a nice entry level SLR for Christmas. I'd like to stay near $500-600 range. Any recommendations? I'd like to get one that is fairly easy to learn on but also gives me a bit of room to grow.

[HS101]

Check out the Nikon D3000

You can never go wrong with Nikon

[Tiny Warrior]

I love my Nikon D90.

Getting nice lenses, make sweet pictures too

[9supercomp]

+1 on the Nikon D90

[AzShooter]

I always buy Nikon. Never been unhappy.

[Jonathan Taliani]

So far it looks like Nikon is the way to go. The D90 appears to be nice but is more than I'm looking to spend right now. Hopefully there will be a good Black Friday sale. Otherwise, the D3000, 3100, or 5000 seem to be good options.

[Yargne]

I think any slr will produce better pics than the point & shoots. Its the lense that makes the difference. After you get the slr do you plan to buy more lenses, they can cost more than the camera body. If you plan on buying factory lenses you should compare prices before picking which body. Your lense legacy will keep you with one brand when you upgrade the body.

There is one thing that I hate about my slr.... It shows how ulgy you really are, every pit, mark, pimple, etc shows up.

[sfinney]

Nikon D3100 is the new model and is vastly superior to the D3000 in every spec, plus does 1080p HD video. about $200 more than a marked down D3000, but worth it imho. They are at Amazon for less than $649 shipped, no tax. It was $699 plus tax at Best Buy when I looked.

The D3000 is now definitely their entry level, and if you look at the specs the new D3100 is actually nicer than the D5000. (Guess there will be a D5100 out at some point?)

A comparable non-nikon camera to the D3100 would be the Canon Rebel T2i which usually sells for about $800 to $900 in big box stores.

Consider paying a little more now and get a "package" - I got the camera ($649), extra 55-200 lens w/ VR ($200), Nikon bag with instructional video ($50), shipped for about $705 total. When you add on the extra lens to a camera purchase, it comes with a big package discount.

Edited November 24, 2010 by sfinney

[G-ManBart]

I'm a Canon guy, but like Nikon as well. Right now, Canon has packages on the Rebel XS for $599 with two lenses. It's not the most current model, but it's a really nice little camera for the money, and has more features than most folks will ever use. R,

[jid2]

I also like Canon, the Rebel series should do you right.

I had a bigger budget and have been using a Canon EOS 5 film camera for years - so I just got a Canon EOS 60D DSLR with a nice 17-55 f2.8 lens. I"m really happy with the setup. I like having a lens with a nice big aperture for creating depth of field in the image.

Hot off the new camera.

[Jon Clayton]

I am also camera shopping after a few years owning an Olympus E-410 DSLR. After much research I have narrowed my choices down to a Canon XS or T1i, or a new/used Nikon D60. My advice would be in what ever you do try to stick with Nikon or Canon as they are the mainstream and therefore there is good availability of used lenses and aftermarket parts. I am very happy with my Olympus, but I bought it without thinking about ever wanting additional lenses and such, since Oly is not mainstream in the SLR world, I am limited only to Olympus lenses and even those are hard to find used, so in other words I am stuck at a minimum of $400 per lens while my canon/nikon friends are picking up nice used glass in the 100-200 range not to mention 3rd party flashes, cable releases, etc are easy to find.

I have also read pretty convincing info stating to avoid the D3000-D5000 nikon cameras. They are pretty good units, but in order to pack in the video features Nikon skimped on some other features such as sensor quality and ability to really control off camera flashes.

As others have said, the D90 is awesome, but it is pretty high end for an entry. I would seriously look at a d60, or XS and not worry about the video capabilities. For video, the Flip HD's are readily available around $100 and do a better job.

[Guest eddieanton]

There are some digital SLR cameras on the network to guide a considerable depth. Every one of my digital SLR camera guides, presented in non-technical manner. No map, no maps, silicon chips for sound and color without deep thinking capacity.I like the Canon 40D digital SLR camera for the article. Because these photos will appear in the camera to them, and I intend to step through each camera. You will see how each camera's light meter works, how to reproduce the colors, and how it can focus on moving targets.