buying a camera

[mrjbeam1981]

hey all.

im interested in buying a digital SLR camera close to xmas time. does anyone have any suggestions. i think the highest i'd go up to would be $1200.

[Wedgie]

heya jim beam,

There's some great value around now, I only have a normal digital but with a 12 Optical Zoom (Panasonic FZ20) but if I was to get a SLR would probably get a Canon. The original EOS has come down big time in price since the 2nd series was released about 6 months ago and would be my recommendation for value for money, was $1800 earlier this year but you could probably pick one up close to $1000.

Here's a link to the best camera site around with both reviews and forums on each camera type. This link is to SLR reviews:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/cameras_digpro.html

[stan]

If you want to do any editing with the outputs then make sure that you have a capatible software and hardware to handle the device.

[Dissident]

Joelene, depends on what you want. Are you interested in photography? The "megapixels" means stuff all really, it's all about buzz words. My Olympus is a 4 mega pixel camera, in fact it was the first one, yet it kills many new "8" mega pixel cameras. You pay more for a better lens, better CCD etc. The features are also added, whether you wanna mess with aperature, shutter speed etc.

Check out what sort of media they use and also what sort of power.

There's some nice examples of amost cameras (with details) at dpreview.com

[Zorro]

I recently purchased a Pentax ist DL with a Sigma18-50 lens, with accessories for about $1100.
This has 6.1megapixels which is common for SLR and is more than enough. From my shopping experience, the major price varations occur with the lenses.

[mrjbeam1981]

ended up getting the Canon EO5 350D. can't wait to start using it...

[Wedgie]

ended up getting the Canon EO5 350D. can't wait to start using it...

Excellent choice jb, I'm looking forward to your photos, once you master that camera they'll be rippers which will put mine to shame!

[mrjbeam1981]

i am absolutly blown away. doing only small stuff around the house, cats, animals an it it truly amazing!

[Wedgie]

Make sure you look after it!
I recommend a Lowepro camera bag if you haven't got one already.
Might even be worth considering a hard case for a camera like that.
Always depends on how many lenses you eventually plan to fit it out with of course.