School me on Dig SLR's

I know nothing about Digital SLR’s or cameras in general. I am going to get one for a Christmas present for my girlfriend. What do I need to know when shopping for one. She wants one, photography is a hobby of hers but it’s also part of her school. I want to know I am getting her the best, but I really know nothing about them. School me.

Nikon is good. I had a d40 and its was the fucking bomb. I know there are much better camera’s out there, but for the price and the quality pictures i was taking for being an amateur, you can’t beat it.

If she’s doing it for school, she may want a better camera (try and find out what her teacher recommends or other people have). It’s like showing up for school the first day and being the only kid that didn’t get new shoes.

I don’t know a whole lot about them myself, but I got a Nikon D40x and I freakin love it! Set everything to auto and click away. It has a zillion features for someone with a lot of photography knowledge but it’s also simple to use for a beginner.

I have a non-VR (Vibration reduction) lens, but I would really suggest you get one that has VR in it. They do cost a lot more but it is worth it.

I’d go with the D40, Def stay nikon though. Im assuming based on the fact that your buying her one, that she has little to no experience on a DSLR, that being said the D40 is more than enough for her to learn on and have plenty good results, I’d say thats the way to go, plus all the new nikon lenses are interchangeable between bodies, if you buy different lenses even when she is ready for an upgrade they are all still compatible.

Whats your price range?

BJ’s wholesale club on Transit has the 8MP Canon Rebel reduced to $293.Good camera for the price.

Minus the cannon part, LOL Id never buy a cannon DSLR, never liked them

Meh, I have been using a cannon 40D and its a pretty good camera, but I’m a camera noob and this is the first slr I have used

To be honest, I tend to like the picture quality of Canons a little more than Nikon. However, the durability of Nikon cameras far outweighs that. Once you get into higher end cameras, it’s nearly a wash, though.

Meh, Cannons are more difficult to use and its been proven many times that a nikon 6.1MP camera has much better clarity at high res than even a 10 MP cannon SLR. Its seems as though the focus on throwing a bunch of less useful features at you before perfecting the basics. Just my .02

When I was shopping for mine I did a lot of reading and the general consensus I got was both the D40 and Rebel XTi’s were great cameras but the basic 18-55 kit lense the Canon is total garbage. Going with just the Rebel body and an upgraded lense put me $150 more for basically the same Nikon setup. I got the D40 kit and love it. Since then I’ve added the 55-200vr lense and a tripod. The memory card, camera bag and cleaning kit came with it. My next purchase will be an exteral flash, probably the SB-600.

Everyone raves about Nikon reliabilty. Someone, maybe it was even on here, posted they could beat someone to death with their Nikon dSLR and then use it to take pictures to the body.

I saw several ads in the last couple weeks with the D40 kit for $449. I wouldn’t be too worried about getting VR on the 18-55 but it definitely helps on the higher zoom lenses.

HaHa Nice, the nikon is def rock solid , if it comes down to such small details (it does for me) It just feels great in your hand. I am a bit disappointed that I’ve seen relatively no price drop at all, I paid 499 for my D40 kit back in june, anyway its a great camera and I’d suggest it to anyone who isnt “highly skilled” for just amateur shooters i see little need for anything more. I’ve always been able to yield great results for mine :tup:

Haha, that was me.

10 threads with this exact same question in the past 6 months… Is it too much to ask to search?

Why do people get so upset when a thread has been discussed before? I like talking about cameras and stuff. It’s no big deal to answer some questions (again), it’s not going to harm anything, geez.

But yeah, if you do a search there are some other threads with similar info on them.

Anything I should stay away from?

I have a D60 kit with 2 lenses I’ll get rid of at the cost of the D40.

PM me about this, it is all in the details man!

So I’m looking into getting a digital SLR. I’m going to be selling my goalie equipment (back is too hurt to keep doing it) and have always wanted to get back into photography just never thought I would.

My roommate and my buddy have canons so I’d prefer to stay within that to utilize the variety of lenses available. So what can you guys tell me about the canon line? please no canon vs nikon debate here.