Need help!!!

outdoorlife3

hey guys I need some help here. I am looking for a good quality SLR camera. Any recommendatoin will be greatly apprecated and can you please give me a reason why. The camera will be used in family/friend events, hunting harvest pictures, snow boarding pictures, and wildlife pictures. The two companies I have it down to is Nikon and Sony. I am looking at the Nikon D40, D80 and D60 or Sony Alpha A200, A350, A300. If you have any other recommendation let me know. Thanks guys.

ziggy53

outdoorlife3 wrote:

hey guys I need some help here. I am looking for a good quality SLR camera. Any recommendatoin will be greatly apprecated and can you please give me a reason why. The camera will be used in family/friend events, hunting harvest pictures, snow boarding pictures, and wildlife pictures. The two companies I have it down to is Nikon and Sony. I am looking at the Nikon D40, D80 and D60 or Sony Alpha A200, A350, A300. If you have any other recommendation let me know. Thanks guys.

Outdoorlife3, welcome to the Digital Grin.

Feel free to look at Canon, Olympus and Pentax as well. All of the major manufacturers have entry level cameras of similar quality in good light. Olympus and Pentax are very good values and their "kit" lenses are often considered a cut above the rest.

Do remember that with a dSLR you are buying into a system, so look at the possible combinations of lenses and flashes that you might use within the system.

Amongst entry level cameras I do have some reservations in the Nikon line in that they only support AF-S and AF-D lenses with autofocus. Worse, many will not support older manual focus Nikkor lenses with auto-exposure.

In the Sony line you are somewhat limited in flash availability, since Sony uses the proprietary Minolta flash mount system.

Olympus and Pentax tend to have a very good number of advanced features in their entry-level cameras, and Pentax will even support lenses back to the oldest manual-focus M42/screw-mount lenses (with a simple adapter.)

Canon entry level cameras do tend to produce the lowest noise levels at very high ISO. Canon cameras also tend to have the best selection of used lenses.

Honestly, they all have some very desireable features and all will take wonderful images in good light or with appropriate extra lighting.

Tee Why

Do you have a budget and some type of lenses in mind as well?
I'd say for the uses you describe, most entry level dslr with the two kit lens (18-55 and 55-200mm or so) from all the makers should serve your needs fine IMO.

LifeandLens

The Nikon line of entry level cameras is excellent. Read independent reviews and you'll see the Nikon line is outstanding. The problem with asking a vague question as you have is you'll get opinions. Canon shooters will tell you Canon. Nikon shooters will tell you Nikon. So please plan to do your own research.
At the end of the day, an overwhelming share of the market buy Nikon or Canon for good reason; complete systems, great glass options, tons of accessories and third party compatibility.
I strongly recommend buying into the brand of camera you intend to use in to the future. As you wont want to have to sell your lenses. flash, everything, for 50cents on the dollar when you change to another brand.

hope this helps.

- LifeandLens