Want to buy a digital SLR - which one?

between expensive cameras and road bikes you must piss money, hippy.

between expensive cameras and road bikes you must piss money, hippy.

I piss blood.. but that's just my designer drug habit..

Im going through the same decision at the moment, then came across this tonight.
205 is very tempting... but i understand the camera lacks a few features.

The excellent Nikon D40+18-55 kit
http://www.digital-cameras.com/xpp-nikon_d40_lens_kit.html

Price on the website - £276.99

15% discount knocks off £41 (Code - 123)
you get £30 cashback for this camera from Nikon
brings down the price to £205 + delivery

I've been looking for a dSLR for years and have eventually decided that I'll just wait a few more years. I've got easy access to one if I ever need one as my girlfriends dad has a Canon 350D that he only uses on holiday. I've used the majority of Canon's range excluding the 1D series.

I can say that:

The 300D is a bit big.
The 350D and 400D are very similar.
I've not tried the 450D but I'd imagine it'd be quite similar to the 400D.
The 20D and 30D are similar as the 350D and 400D are similar.
The 40D I've not tried.

If I was you I'd look at getting a 20D with a kit lens and a 50mm f/1.8 II. It's a fast prime and is about £70 new making it in most peoples opinion the most value for money lens you can buy. You can always upgrade your zoom when you know which end you use most often and know if you want speed. The 50mm f/1.8 II will always be useful indoors and in many cases can remove the requirement for flash which makes your photographs much more natural.

I suppose what I'm saying is. Get the 50mm f/1.8 II because it's cheap and fantastic and get the 20D because it's old enough to be cheap and is a lot nicer to use than any of the 350D/400D/450D bodies.

"EOS 400d don't have spot metering so if you are taking photo with a light back ground... your subject will be all dark"

absence of spot metering is irrelevant unless you know how to use it, multi pattern or center weighted metering is fine for most situations.
only when you understand that a meter is trying to expose the subject at 18% grey (the average reflective value of Caucasian skin) and that the exposure for a black cat is supposed to be the same as a white horse (under the same illumination) will it become of use.

understanding a histogram and exposure compensation will be more useful than a spot meter.

My black cat, Dave - using spot metering (Nikon D80)

(the eye photo is a crop at 1:1 - from the top photo)

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/413/dave2ye4.jpg

Colours on the Nikon D80 (and I presume the D40x - D60 etc) are very good right out of the box - here are some flowers in my garden.

I reckon you will do pretty well with any dSLR from the 400D onwards - I would also recommend having a look at the canon G9.

If you are set for a dslr, great otherwise I would also recommend the Canon G9.
I know it don't look PRO but you are more likely to have it with you.
Like most things its about operator input..

If you are set for a dslr, great otherwise I would also recommend the Canon G9.
I know it don't look PRO but you are more likely to have it with you.
Like most things its about operator input..

+1

What he said.

+1 to what both said,
g9 is just excellent.

I've been looking for a dSLR for years and have eventually decided that I'll just wait a few more years. I've got easy access to one if I ever need one as my girlfriends dad has a Canon 350D that he only uses on holiday. I've used the majority of Canon's range excluding the 1D series.

I can say that:

The 300D is a bit big.
The 350D and 400D are very similar.
I've not tried the 450D but I'd imagine it'd be quite similar to the 400D.
The 20D and 30D are similar as the 350D and 400D are similar.
The 40D I've not tried.

If I was you I'd look at getting a 20D with a kit lens and a 50mm f/1.8 II. It's a fast prime and is about £70 new making it in most peoples opinion the most value for money lens you can buy. You can always upgrade your zoom when you know which end you use most often and know if you want speed. The 50mm f/1.8 II will always be useful indoors and in many cases can remove the requirement for flash which makes your photographs much more natural.

I suppose what I'm saying is. Get the 50mm f/1.8 II because it's cheap and fantastic and get the 20D because it's old enough to be cheap and is a lot nicer to use than any of the 350D/400D/450D bodies.

I've used a 20D briefly and really liked it. Photos seemed amazing too. How's about this on ebay?:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CANON-20D-DSLR-CAMERA-BODY-CANON-35-80MM-ZOOM-LENS_W0QQitemZ320242519708QQihZ011QQcategoryZ31388QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

i like my D80 lots, though the flash will not stay down now... its going to the nikon dealer tomorrow

These are brilliant...

Like ras says, it's all about the lenses, here is my 50mm/2.8 in action with a 20p coin: (obviously the Jpeggery screws up the quality)

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/56/20pjz4.jpg

Since we're posting photos of coins. Here's a test shot for a job I was doing two years ago. It's taken with a Canon 350D, Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM and a Canon MR 14EX speedlight

I wish 2p coins were that big in real life.

Yeah that'd be cool. You could really knock someone out with it. And maybe even serve small tapas on it.

Yeah that'd be cool. You could really knock someone out with it. And maybe even serve small tapas on it.

A coin of nuts please bartender.

Been messing about with SLRs since i was a nipper.. Just managed to get the cash together to be able to pick up a Nikon D300 with a 18-70mm lens. It arrived on Friday and have had hand glued to it ever since. Yes its a commitment over and above a point and click and if your after instant gratification then go for a Canon G9. My misses has one and the quality is phenomenal @ 12 megapixels, and she has the ability to do most of the manual stuff i can on the D300. Photography sites will have all the details on why a D300 is what it is and a G9 is what it is; apart from the obvious price differences.

As an aside it took me over half a hour to work out how to put the strap on my D300..... Pretty complicated bit of kit.

i bought a g9 on recommendations from this forum from the last thread. its very nice.

NIkon are great... got my D80 6 months ago...
the 18-200 lens is not the best lens in the world but it does an ok job in every situation!!

For anyone joining the G9 club this is an excellent deal:
nice price

Other than that, this ebay store sometimes has good bargains:
camerastore

Little test of some clouds in my garden shot on my D80.

(not sure what happened here, usually Vimeo is great quality but this looks sub-youtube !? might try and upload again . . . )

http://www.vimeo.com/923781

For Canon try :
Fixation , 250 Kennington Lane, SE11
020 7582 3294

Better quality D80 clouds (I hope!!?)

http://www.vimeo.com/923842

I love my Canon EOS400 its the dogs... the stock lens that comes with it is shoddy but useful while gathering funds i got a lens (18-200sigma) from ebay this user... he gets his lenses from Taiwan. AKA cheap...he has more on than he shows.
http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/hldigitalbestbuy/