Looking for decent/older DSLR recommendations in the $500 range.

[lieforalie]

Hey guys, I'm new here, but hopefully I can make this a regular spot of mine. I recently started fooling around with an old Minolta SRT 101 that I inherited. This was my first experience with an SLR camera, besides fooling around with my friend's DSLR, so that tells you that I'm obviously an amateur (moving pictures is more my thing). The thing is, I fell in love with it, and my shots were coming out surprisingly great, and I decided that I want to invest into a decent DSLR so I don't have to keep paying for the film/film to get developed. I'm an amateur for sure, but I feel like my experience with film cameras has given me a good eye for taking photos. I'd prefer something that is really high quality, but maybe a few years older as to get a better price. I don't mind buying a used camera, but I just need to know what to look for. I know practically nothing about SLR/DSLR cameras, besides how they work and how to use the main features (ISO, Focus, Aperture) Feel free to suggest something past my suggested price range if you feel it's something I might like. Tell me what I should want in a camera. I'm looking to get pretty serious into this. I'm planning on finishing my degree in film, so I'd like to get familiar with photography, as well. Just know that I like having the ability to manually control the features that I listed above, but I don't know if that is standard for all DSLRs, or if some do them automatically (which I don't really like). If I missed something using the search feature, then totally point me in the right direction. Thanks so much!

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[subscuck]

$500 is basically going to get you an older consumer grade cam (Canon Rebel XT, XTi, maybe XSi or XS) + kit lens, or a much older prosumer body (Canon 20D or 30D). Any of them will allow you full control of all available settings, and any of them will be fine to learn on. You want to look for the lowest shutter actuations you can find, and obviously it's a good thing if you can test it first. If going e-bay, make sure the seller has good ratings and a good return policy should there be a problem. There are similar offerings from Nikon as well. If you can go up a couple, three hundred $'s you can go with a new Canon or Nikon consumer model + kit lens. Best bet is to look around on e-bay for pricing, I'm not real current on used prices.

[lieforalie]

What are the differences between "consumer models" and I guess what would be called the pro ones, if someone doesn't mind elaborating for me.

[subscuck]

Consumer= entry level, Pro is self explanatory, and prosumer is in between (a step above entry level with some pro features). Typically, consumer will have a smaller plastic body, while a prosumer or pro will have a magnesium alloy body. Pro and prosumer will also have better control lay out with dedicated buttons for the things you change on the fly most often, as well as better weather sealing.. IQ will be better as well. Prosumer is geared towards the serious amateur who generally can't justify the expense of a pro body, but needs something better than a consumer body.

In the Canon family, consumer bodies would be Rebels and the 60D, prosumer would be 10D-50D, 7D and 5D. Pro would be 1D and 1Ds.

[bentcountershaft]

For $100 or more you could be in Canon 40D or Nikon D90 range, which are both quite nice.

[dakkon76]

My XSi is a good example of a decent consumer grade camera - it performs great for pics of your kids and anything holding fairly still... but in low light it sucks, and trying to maintain autofocus on a moving subject is next to impossible. Great starter camera for taking most pictures, but it definitely has its limitations. This camera can be had, with a kit lens, within your price range if you look on eBay. Even new they're pretty competitively priced since they've been out for quite a while now.

[lieforalie]

My XSi is a good example of a decent consumer grade camera - it performs great for pics of your kids and anything holding fairly still... but in low light it sucks, and trying to maintain autofocus on a moving subject is next to impossible. Great starter camera for taking most pictures, but it definitely has its limitations. This camera can be had, with a kit lens, within your price range if you look on eBay. Even new they're pretty competitively priced since they've been out for quite a while now.

I decided to check on craigslist, and I'm seeing these for around 300 w/ the OEM lens and everything included, so I might just go this route. I'm also seeing d3000's for around 400.

Edit: I'm seeing a few D40's, as well, for even cheaper. Would this be an alright choice? I'd rather put the extra money to some lenses, and I don't care about video.

[lieforalie]

So, I can get a D3000 from Amazon for $429, and add a Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED IF AF-S DX VR [Vibration Reduction] Nikkor Zoom Lens
for $150 more with a coupon. Should that be good?

[MTVision]

So, I can get a D3000 from Amazon for $429, and add a Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED IF AF-S DX VR [Vibration Reduction] Nikkor Zoom Lens
for $150 more with a coupon. Should that be good?

Get the camera. Save the 150.00 and put it toward a better lens. You can get a 35mm f/1.8 for 200.00 or a 50mm f/1.8 for a little more. Unless you really need a zoom. I bought a 50mm and it hasn't left my camera.

[subscuck]

So, I can get a D3000 from Amazon for $429, and add a Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED IF AF-S DX VR [Vibration Reduction] Nikkor Zoom Lens
for $150 more with a coupon. Should that be good?

Do a little more research on the baby Nikons. Not all of Nikon's lenses will auto focus on the entry level bodies. Nikon doesn't put AF motors in the entry level bodies, and some older, but still in production, lenses don't have AF motors. They'll work, but they'll be manual focus only. That may or may not be important to you. All canon EF and EF-S lenses have built in AF motors and will AF on all canon bodies.

[Infinite_Day]

I would spend a bit more and look for a good used D90. If you say you intend to stick with this you're going to want a bit more feature wise pretty quick over what the D3000 has to offer. My dad has a D3100 and, while it's a nice little camera for him, I wouldn't want a body that doesn't have a top LCD to show settings. I love my D7000 and if I couldn't have afforded it I would have gone with a D90. I even really like my old D50 - it has less MP than the D3000 but it has the built-in AF motor, top display and pretty good control lay-out for the level it is.

[Mike_E]

D200 gives you metering with the older (cheaper) Nikon lenses- AI and above.

Not as good of a low light performer as the newer ones but as long as you expose properly it works very well. Look it up.

[jake337]

D40 also has a 1/500 flash sync.

[bazooka]

It kind of depends on how much money you want to put into this in the next few years... I'm tempted to say save up for a 40D but then you wouldn't have anything left over for a decent lens which will run about the same price as the camera unless it's one of the 50mm (1.8 or 1.4). I got into this hobby with my 40D about a year and a half ago and have grown right into it. Feature-wise, I don't feel like I'm missing anything and I love the camera. If I were to upgrade, it would only be to get a full frame which would be better for landscape which is what I like to do the most.

[lieforalie]

AF isn't something that I care too much about. The only time I feel like I'll need that is when I'm shooting action shots, but when I'm doing that, won't I have a lens with AF anyway? Well, let's say my max price for a good lens or two and camera would be $1000, and I don't care about video capture or live view. What would I want? The only reason I'm looking at the d3000 is because it lacks those features I mentioned that I could care less about, which I'm guessing makes the price lower. I figure if I can get a good deal on a body, I can buy decent lenses and then upgrade the body to a nicer Nikon down the road. Also, I see myself putting several thousand into this as I progress. It depends though, as I don't know what kind of lenses I will need yet. But this will be a pretty serious hobby of mine. Thoughts?

edit: Did some more research, and found that the D90 basically adds video, live view, and has better ISO settings, so I could get a D80 and be happy with that since it has everything I should need, including auto-focus? (I decided AF is something that is pretty standard and that I should have it) Any reasons not to get this, and go for a D90 or a 40D instead? Something like http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nikon-D80-10...item2567c919ed