| Re: Best digital SLR for beginners?
Firstly you need to get your hands on them and try them. MY first DSLR was a canon 300D. The reason I choose the canon was because it felt better in my hands than any of the rival makes and the controls seemed more intuitive to me. You will also hear the same from Nikon, Sony users etc.
Having decided what make of camera you want you then need to decide what features you need. Do you want/need video capability? Do you want live view capability?
Do you know what sort of photography you are interested in. With DSLRs there is no one catch all lens like with a bridge or a compact. For landscapes you may want a wide angle, for birds a long zoom, for insects a macro etc. If you're not sure your best to choose a kit with a decent lens included and you can then decide which direction you want your photography to take (or like me you end up with lenses for everything although if I had to choose just one lens it would be my 100mm macro).
It's also worth getting hold of some reading matter to learn how to use it properly. All the time I had my 300D I bought various books but really couldn't get my head round the various settings and ended up putting the camera back into the auto modes. I might as well have had a point and shoot for all the use I got out of it. When I got my 50D earlier this year I decided it was time to learn how to use it properly. Looking at the various books I had bought they were all too advanced for me. I had never had any form of SLR before so didn't understand the basic settings. I went out and bought a book called "teach yourself photography" by Lee Frost. It starts right from basics and doesn't contain any fancy pictures, just black and white line drawings. This was the turning point in my camera usage, once I understood the basics the rest just fell into place.
Mike  |