Photography questions, any help?

[caseball2051]

i've had 200$ that I owe my gf put aside for her for a rainy day. Well she's always talked about getting into photography, so I talked to her about it the other day and im going to get her a camera with the money I owe her. That way she doenst have to spend any "real" money on one of her own in case she doenst like it as much as she thought.

She uses cameras mostly on the go, so I bought her a decent point and shoot for christmas. Now she's interested in getting into SLR/DSLR type of deal. Cameras are not my specialty.

Im looking to buy her a 2-3 yr old nikon/canon. that way she can get used to using this type of camera and see if she likes photography now that she actually does it.

am i being realistic with wanting to get a nice older camera in that range (with at least one lens)?
what models should i be on the lookout for?
is there anything else I should look for?

Tahnks in advance!

 

[Vaporisateur]

I think it may be hard to find a 2-3y.o. used DSLR for 200$ with a lens. I looked quickly on Kijiji for a "Canon Rebel XTi" or the older model "Rebel XT" and they come up at about 300$. I don't think it would be any different with Nikon's.

But if I was to recommend a unit based on my experience, I would say a Canon Xti or Xt would be a nice purchase to start experimenting DSLR. But I've been sold to Canon for many years... and never owned a Nikon myself. I'd say that pretty much any Nikon or Canon dslr you choose in that price range will be good to start experimenting anyway.

However, be carefull, once you choose a family (Nikon or Canon), it's hard to switch afterwards...

I'm sure you will have other opinions on this, but look on Kijiji or local classifieds. Compare the kits/prices and you should start to see what you can get for the price you want to pay.

Happy shopping!

 

[crawdad]

a bit ago i picked up that last rebel xt (silver base) at an office max (or something similar) and it was a floor model and the xti was just coming out, got it under 300. it takes wonderful pictures for the standard portrait and landscape shots as well as very close up. refurbs seem to be in the 300-350 range and new in the 400 range. i think it would be difficult to get a really good camera (other than standard usage) in the 200 range but best of luck, lots of canon accessories for their cameras, as im sure nikon has as well...i think if you spend enough on either of those two companies you wont be upset.

 

[finchrock24]

Rebels are okay cameras. As soon as your take pictures in .RAW though and really try to fine tune the files, the quality of the pictures degrades rapidly. Lots of chromatic abboration and some pixalation and overall graininess from the Rebel line. Low light shooting is really not fun with the lower end DSLRs like the Rebel and trying to take a picture at night is almost easier with a point and shoot.

However, Rebels are fairly druable (although it is a plastic body, the metal bodies start at the 20D line I believe, but your looking at +$500 on a good day) and they took good quality pictures on low ISOs and if there is adequate light. I have noticed my Canon stuff to work very nice and I have yet to have a problem. I own a Rebel XT and its always functioned like it should. Something to consider is that Nikon uses mini SD cards (at least on their D90, which is a VERY nice platform) and those cards run cheaper then the compact flash that Canon uses. Also, Nikon .Raw foramt doesn't seem to play nicley with Adobe Camera RAW (which is the program to use, IMO) and that is something to take into consideration.

I will dig up the link to my Flickr account and you can see what a Canon Rebel and some minor post photo adjustments can do. I spent only a few minutes on each picture just doing some basic white balance, color correction, and level adjustments.

Try this out...if you don't see about 60 or so pictures, then let me know.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/640214...5828859179/in/set-72157626953217168/lightbox/