Photographers: entry level DSLR recommendations
 

Photographers, I'm a little bit of a photography enthusiast (non-adult), have used a Pentax analog SLR in the past but have later been confined to smaller digital cameras. I do like to play around with all kinds of camera settings and will not solely rely on "automatic" presets.

I'm now in the market for an entry level digital SLR. I'm completely inexperienced in this market. The Canon EOS 450D is heavily being advertised here and I've read some favourable reviews. The much cheaper Nikon d40 is rather old, but seemingly not too bad either, apart from a much lower resolution. Without doubt, there must be a plethora of other good options.

Does anyone have recommendations?

Canon Rebel is how I got started in photography. Even got a photo published in Playboy magazine from it.

Interesting option, not least because it's significantly cheaper than the Canon 450D. The latter seems only marginally better to me.

bump bump

doesn't really matter which system you choose, canon or nikon. they both have their */-'s. I would consider the 5d with 24-105 F4 that canon is selling right now... 3K. full frame, good resolution.

if you get a 'kit' that's comes in around $700-$800 you are going to be very frustrated down the line.

-bmb

The problem with the cheap kit cameras is the low end lenses. Without a good lens you will be very frustrated as bm said.

Pick up a body in your price range and a lens separately. Have fun!

this is an issue right here: Nikon Multi-CAM530 autofocus module, with slow glass and this focus model you're gonna have a shit life grabbing captures. I shoot a d80 sometimes with CAM1000 and I have to grab focus as much as 5 times before I can recompose. trying to deal with CAM530 is something I would not want to deal with under any circumstances. -bmb

The 5D still rocks... full sized sensors make for amazing grabs.

As already stated though, optics optics optics.... makes all the difference

yea, but the "kit" lens is like $100, if you get bored with it, you can just replace it with something nicer, no?

If you like pentax k200, it's awesome