Lumix Fz100 or Nikon D3000?

[agustinnn]

Hey everyone! I've been into photography a lot lately and decided to buy a new camera. I have a small budget, around US$600, so it's not that I can get the best DSLR camera out there.
I really want to go with the Nikon D3000, because well, it's nikon and it's an actual DSLR (I heard that it had some tecnical issues sometimes but I can live with those, I'm not a professional), but then there's this Lumix Fz100 which records full HD and is pretty awesome as a still picture camera as well.
I guess I could start making some little works for family or friends with the DSLR, which I don't know if will be possible with the lumix. I also want to begin a course of Photography to get more knowledge about the different settings of the cameras. I'm really clueless about this, have no idea what to do! Any suggestions?

 

[SLRJoe]

Well, my personal opinion is if you're really wanting to get into SLR photography and experiment with different types of lenses and shooting styles, it's probably best to go for the SLR as that'll be more versatile and gives you the option of trying lots of different lenses. I also heard that photos taken with the panasonic at ISO levels of 400 and upwards tend to be overly grainy.

So I think really, it's a question of how seriously do you want to get into photography, and let the answer to that dictate which camera to go for. You could always buy a HD Flip to do video recording, I recently bought a refurbished Panasonic HD camcorder and am very happy with it and it didn't cost much.

 

[jake337]

save an extra 100 bucks and pick up a used d90. Their prices on used have been dropping. Check craiglist. I've seen a few with lenses for $700-750. I only say d90 because you can use more lenses(with metering/af) than the d3000/d5000 and lighting options.

 

[PhotoXopher]

D3100, not a D3000... Having shot all the baby Nikons I can say that the D3100 is incredible, and actually does a lot better in low light than my D300s and the D90 I had.

 

[agustinnn]

Yeah the problem is cameras are more expensive in my country and there are definitelly no used ones on sale, so it's hard to get a variety to choose from. I think I'll go for the D3000, though, thanks for the advice!