Buying an entry-level DSLR camera, any tips?

[Tyche]

My wife's P&S died this week. She's been wanting a really nice camera for awhile now, so I thought I'd dive in and get her an entry-level DSLR. I was pretty set on getting the Canon 1000D EOS XS, but I've read good things about the Nikon D40 as well. It'll mostly be used to shoot kids, maybe some random outside shots.

Any tips on what I should be looking for in an entry-level package?

[Firedemon]

I love my Nikon D40. It's a great camera for someone who is starting off in the DSLR department. It's simple to use, and a big kicker for me was how it held in my hand. My ex-girlfriend had a Canon Rebel at the time, and she recommended that, but the way it felt in my hands didn't seem right. I use my D40 mostly for outside shots or at martial arts, and they're really amazing pictures.

[Tyche]

Upon digging a bit deeper into some reviews and photography forums, it would seem the D60 would be more comparable to the XS, and the XS is lightyears ahead of the D40. I'd be willing to go up to a D60, unless the Canon is still a better camera. Other than ergonomics (which is surprisingly brought up a lot, including here), I find very few complaints about the entry level canon DSLRs. I'm definitively becoming more bias toward the canon because of what I've read, so please, someone take me down a peg if there's a reason that I shouldn't steer toward the 1000D or 450D.

[Tyche]

Gonna abuse mod powers and move this to general cuz I'm not getting any hits =/

[Rockstaru]

I'm very partial to Canon myself - earlier this year I bought a Vixia HG20 HD Camcorder which was leaps and bounds better than the Panasonic HDC-HS100 I'd been using prior to that. Shortly after, my parents bought a Canon Rebel XSi that takes really excellent photos (but you might want to invest in some additional lenses). Then earlier this summer, I went to buy myself a still camera - not an SLR, something lightweight (I was doing a lot of traveling). I ended up buying a Powershot SX110, and it takes some very excellent photos as well - unusually good quality for a P&S. I have no experience with the Nikon, but in my experience, Canon makes some damn good cameras.

[deshende]

I've been happy with my Nikon d60.

I'll link my flickr page: Flickr: Deshende's Photostream because pretty much everything on there was taking with the d60.

[Mizango]

D60, hands down.

[Mizango]

Bearofscience is into photography if you want to shoot him a tell. One would say that he is clutch..

[Tyche]

I know the D40 doesn't have a focus motor, and you have to buy new (very costly) lenses for the auto-focus. I was reading a flikr discussion that says the D60 doesn't either. I was under the impression that it did. Does it not?

[deshende]

My d60 has an auto-focus, but that may also be lens dependent. The lens that I got with it (18-55mm) and the one I purchased later (18-200mm) both auto-focus fine.
(I don't know much about the inner workings on where that focus part comes from sorry haha).

[Vigilia]

I don't know what you're talking about either, my D60 auto-focuses just fine with the bog standard lens that came with it. And yes it's full of win, I love it. I'd link pictures but meh, I'm such an amateur with it still. My younger sister used a D40X which is more or less the same thing and took some lovely pics with it:
Pixbox: vegaemilias album "West Ireland"

[noblemountain]

What is your budget for this? That will have a ton to do with reco's. The d60 is nice and it does have auto-focus, dunno why they said it didn't. I wouldn't waste the money on a d40 honestly, they're an upgrade from any point and shoot...but any other DSLR destroys them. I own a 40d canon and absolutely love it. I bought mine online for 550, body only, then bought a few lenses from a friend who worked at Best Buy and got me his discount...which was substantial. I paid 300 bucks for a 900 dollar macro lens and paid 150 for a 400 dollar 75-300 zoom lens. You can get really good deals if you search around, my camera cost 1500 bucks at any box store I looked at...yet 3 minutes of searching online I found it for 550. I just bought my fiance a Rebel XS to play with at work. I won't let her take mine into the habitat to get stepped on by an elephant. She seems to like it, I honestly haven't played with it much besides the introductory "oooh new thing" when we opened it.

[thebearofscience]

If I had to choose I'd go with the D40, but since you're already willing to get the D60, you might as well go for that. It's easy to just whip out and grab some good quality shots. (Since it's for your wife and you said she would like to take casual pics). Not really all that bulky. There's a lot more adjustments available for it too incase she ever considered getting more into photography.

[Casty]

I used a Nikon D60 for my Digital Photography class, it was a pretty decent camera. However, if you have the money I was playing around with the Nikon D90 and it took way better pictures.

[lovehatehero]

Personally I love the nikons. I have my D90 i have now i love it and i have had a D60. They are great cameras imo. Whether using them for stills, motion, low light, or just for plain old P&S. If she ever decides to use it more for then a P&S there are a lot of attachments lenses and such, and its a pretty easy to hold camera as well. Id recommend it.

[Brien]

Don't just look at stats, and such, feel the camera. Do you like a heaver Nikon or lighter cannon? How do you like how the buttons feel, and ergonomics etc. Lens Selection and Price. I'm a nikon man myself, but take everything into account.

[Tyche]

I've been doing some research ont he D60 since I'm being pulled this way. Found this nugget, can anyone confirm?

If you try to use a lens on the Nikon D60 that does not include AF-I or AF-S (internal focusing motors) autofocus won't work - you'll have to focus manually.

So the focusing motor isn't build into the body like the Canon if I'm reading correctly. The D90 does have an in-body focusing motor. What that means, is if you use a 3rd party or a Nikon lens without the focusing motors (and the ones with the motors are quite costly), then the AF will not work. On the plus side, the lens included does have that motor, however, not all the Nikon or 3rd party lenses do. That's a pretty big deal since we'll be doing a lot of moving shots and we're pretty amateur. A guy at the camera store was trying to speak to me in lamens and said that if I'll be shooting any moving or action shots, to take the canon. If landscape, take the Nikon. I suppose that's why.

[noblemountain]

I've been doing some research ont he D60 since I'm being pulled this way. Found this nugget, can anyone confirm?

So the focusing motor isn't build into the body like the Canon if I'm reading correctly. The D90 does have an in-body focusing motor. What that means, is if you use a 3rd party or a Nikon lens without the focusing motors (and the ones with the motors are quite costly), then the AF will not work. On the plus side, the lens included does have that motor, however, not all the Nikon or 3rd party lenses do. That's a pretty big deal since we'll be doing a lot of moving shots and we're pretty amateur. A guy at the camera store was trying to speak to me in lamens and said that if I'll be shooting any moving or action shots, to take the canon. If landscape, take the Nikon. I suppose that's why.

I honestly didn't know that about the d60. I bought my camera for taking pics of my fights and practices, so I wanted a really good shutter speed and FPS. I think most of the base model DSLR's are 3 - 3.5 FPS. The 40d is 6.5, so it was really a no-brainer for me. Not being able to use any lens would be a deal breaker for me. It is so easy to go to pawn shops in bigger cities or warehouse sales and find really nice Canon lenses cheap. I just got a 70-200 L series lens for 75 bucks at a pawn shop in Nashville. I looked it up online and cheapest I could find it for was 1499.

[Quixon]

I've got the D60 and it's awesome.

I use it mostly for macro shots of my salt water reef tank. I'm a complete amateur though, and prefer to stay that way lol.

[Senji]

Tyche, your a smart guy are doing your research, but choosing between the D40 and D60 if your not going to the 90, you want the D40 actually. In how the D60 is designed using some of the same parts from the 40, it actually leaves some things less than ideal, resulting in an experienced photographer being able to take better pictures with the D40 in certain situations, equal in everything else.

Basically unless you really want the larger file size for blowing things up, you'd be far better served by getting the D40 and using the extra money toward a better lens. This may sound strange now, but once you start using it more, and even test our some other glass, you'll see how much things can improve from the stock kit ones.

The ideal way to go would be to buy the D40 body only and a nicer general purpose lens. Then when you've got some things down, maybe pick up another lens to cover a different area if some of your interests lie outside of your firsts ideal. Getting really into it, buy a D90, and you can very easily sell the D40 body for a good price to someone else getting into it. Also you can rent glass from many photo places for very cheap to test out different things.

I'm far, far from a photo snob, I just know some pro model and cycling photographers and this is the same advice they gave me. Jist of it, when they go on vacation or to just get away from work, its the D40 they relax with. I'll dig you up some good reading or links when I get another free min if you want.