UKC

I have had a succession of digital compacts that I have produced some fairly good photos with. Over the summer months I had the opportunity to have a go with a friends dslr while he was not using it.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good quality, value for money DSLR, preferably storing on sd cards as I have them coming out of my ears.

budget of about £350-400

I will probably wait until after Christmas before buying through as the sales have always been good to me.

In reply to kjw1991:

Anything current by nikon, canon, sony or pentax is going to be good. Seriously.

People will pop up with their preferences (personally I like nikon kit a lot), but you can't really go far wrong these days.

In reply to kjw1991: Nikon 3200 or one of that lot. People will say buy a good lense and an ok body. It's true but with your budget you don't have the luxury. And dslr is good and if you know what you are doing you will get good shots.

But if you're a crap photographer and don't know what you're doing it will be like polishing a turd

In reply to kjw1991:

And look at second hand

- and Micro Four Thirds

- and large sensor Compacts

Have a look at a Canon Rebel - 450D, 500D, 550D, 600D, 650D according to budget...

In reply to kjw1991:

You can pick up a 40D body for around £250 now. Good body, well-built, and if combined with decent glass, perfectly usable.

In reply to TryfAndy:

This is well worth considering. I got a second hand 20D back in the day, and replaced it with a new 40D about 4 years ago. The x0D series tend to shoot faster and have more focus sensors than the xx0D cameras, and are only a little bigger and heavier. For anything actiony, getting their mid-range cameras is a good idea.

I don't think 400 is enough if you're moving up from a good compact (200 ish).

I think you should look at the price for 1 or 2 good lenses plus a body.

In reply to Shearwater: Agree with a 2nd hand X0d, although that'll mean buying some CF cards rather than the preferred SD ones mentioned in the OP.

For me, I'd say 2nd hand lens or two and an older 2nd hand body (my first was a 450d and it should be pretty cheap by now but it'll take photos as good now as it did then). That's me and Canon, but fel free to substitute with any of the other brands as mentioned above - they pretty much all do the same things these days.

Have fun!

In reply to kjw1991: For £400 you'll get a used 40D with a canon 17-85 IS USM lens. Pros are good auto focus, better view finder than the XX0(0)D series bodies, faster burst rate, slightly more weather sealing.

For the same money new you'll get a new canon 1100D with the basic kit lens.

For a not too serious review look at this youtube.com/watch?v=ujAwXVF_X-E& though bear in mind in that video the 40D doesn't have the benefit of the better lens you'd get if you bought it yourself.

The extra megapixels don't do that much difference in reality, the lens is far more important in that price range.

In reply to kjw1991:

Any dSLR that you buy will exceed all your expectations irrespective of which badge is on it.

Personally, I'd go second-hand and I have done this with my last two purchases, one compact and one dSLR.

You can pick up some bargains in the second-hand market as people rush to upgrade to the latest and greatest in the shops. On the whole people tend to, treat their dSLR's with kidd gloves so most will be in excellent condition.

Either way, go for a basic body and some good glass as you will out-grow the kit lens sooner than later.

I can only comment on Nikon but that does not mean that they are the best it just means that I took an initial punt on them and chose to invest my money in lenses for their cameras.

In reply to kjw1991:

I had a 500D for hill days until it sadly died (Jake's Rake, torrential rain, forgot to shut the dry-bag properly...). It was a cracking little camera for the money.
This is a bargain, if it's still around by Xmas http://www.lcegroup.co.uk/Used/Canon-EOS-500D-+-18-55mm-IS_62192.html

In reply to kjw1991: My wholehearted recommendation is a Pentax K-5 or K-30....waterproof....bombproof....I've used my K-5 in downpours regularly.... and the best picture quality of any current APS-C DSLR....they're just a bit more than your budget, though you may find a bargain in the classifieds or Ebay....I got one for £520 with waterproof kit lens on Preloved 4 months ago. It's well worth it!

In reply to kjw1991: mate, this has been done a gazillion times on this forum. You are a prime customer for all of the manufacturers i.e. first dslr purchase, entry-level model. They all fight fiercely over this market segment because the brand that you first buy is likely the one you stay with for life. Therefore, there is not much to choose between the entry level models.

MY opinion (slightly controversial) is that you have two options:

1. Buy a Nikon or a Canon brand new

2. Buy a 2nd-hand Nikon or Canon (probably a slightly older model) plus a nice prime lens (35mm or 50mm).

Go and hold some Nikons and Canons in a shop to see which style of grip you prefer. And that is it really. You don't need to make it anymore complicated than this. Amen.

In reply to kjw1991: Got some great shots with my Nikon D3100, perfect to start with. By the time you reach its limits you'll know what you want next!

In reply to The Lemming:

Could I ask how you went about the purchase? Did you go to a dealer or Ebay etc.
Have found dealers to be a bit on the expensive side and Ebay well they kinda worry me when a couple of hundred is at stake.

Also, a number of people have suggested a camera as a beginners or starting out camera. What does this mean other than the cheaper price. Do you at some point think I need this missing feature?

About to pull the trigger on a Nikon 3200.

In reply to Indy:

The cheaper cameras generally are smaller, more plasticy, have worse view finders, worse auto-focus systems, use SD rather than CF cards, have lower burst rates and burst lengths, worse noise in pics and quite a few lower megapixels, worse weather sealing, sometimes smaller sensors, some missing features in the menus etc. Don't think that one of the cheapo DSLRs is bad though, its just that there are better cameras out there. Cameras are a bit like climbing kit, there's always something better out there and the price goes up exponentially for the next step up in betterness.

In reply to Indy:

I bought my 20D (~£250 at the time), a 28-135mm lens (~£200) and a 100-400L lens (~£900!) from ebay. In all cases I've had no problems; just use a little common sense, and only buy from people who actually write their item pages instead of copypasting from a manufacturer's site, who have photos of the item in question, and who have a decent amount of feedback, etc.



It made more difference back in the day. Your D3200 will probably perform better than my mid-range 40D does, simply because the design of the 40D is 5 years old and therefore ancient in dSLR land! The only (minor) drawback of going for a cheap Nikon instead of a more expensive model is that you won't be able to use really old Nikon lenses (see http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/compatibility-lens.htm ). I doubt this matters to you at all. Go for it.

In reply to kjw1991: Off topic.. that's funny my initials are kjw, born in in '91. Assuming that what your username is about

In reply to Indy:


Good choice that you won't regret.

As for second hand cameras, I bought a compact from somebody on this site and I bought a dSLR as an impulse bid off eBay. I put a single bid of £100 for a Nikon d40, body only, last year and won it.

In reply to kjw1991: hey mate i just bought a canon eos 1100d with 18-55 wide angle vand tamaron 300 telephoto lens for 313 pound brand new. jessops messed up the ad online go on and look at the single lens deals look under the description in the small print for kit included it says tamaron lens telephoto.you might be lucky and its still there.