Hi,
I am about to invest in a proper slr camera. currently i am using a bridge camera fuji6500fd.

deciding on which to choose, canon or nikon brand. if my budget around £400 - £500, which one shoul i choose ?

thanks

Hi,
I am about to invest in a proper slr camera. currently i am using a bridge camera fuji6500fd.

deciding on which to choose, canon or nikon brand. if my budget around £400 - £500, which one shoul i choose ?

thanks

I bought a Nikon D80 because it did what I wanted AND it felt right when I held it although it is quite heavy.
Others including the Canon didn't feel right and in the case of the olympus 410 it also had too small a viewfinder.
Try before you buy

i would perfer to have an external lcd screeon on the top for setting appeture etc. i guess only nikon has such function.

in addition, i perfer to take photo throught optical and not digital.is all slr has the same capability ?

thanks

yes all digital slrs have an optical viewfinder.
I should think that most have the aperture and speed shown in the viewfinder and probably a lot of other info too.
My Nikon has a manual setting where you can change speed and aperture and both are shown in the viewfinder as well as in the display on top of the camera.
Best thing is to have a look at a range of cameras in a shop.
I bought mine from jessops, you can buy from them on line and collect from their store which saves a few £s.
Although I could have bought on line cheaper I got such a lot of help from the assistant that I gladly paid the extra.

I would recommend you have a good read of the reviews on dpreview.com.

After that go to a local camera shop and have a look at the cameras which meet your budget, technical needs etc.

Once you have a held the body you may feel that one particular camera feels right and you can make a decision.

Don't rule out other manufactures or buying a second hand body, you may find that you naturally take to a Fujifilm SLR, although out of your range new, you could get one second hand.

I have Canon cameras simply because it was the first 35mm SLR I had (passed onto me by my Dad) and I am a creature of habit. Definitely handle them beforehand if possible. I find Nikons don't suit my brain now, though I am very comfortable and familiar with Canon. See if you could borrow one for a day, either from a friend or an outlet like Calumet if you have a bit of cash.

I have bought a number of cameras from ebay shops as refurbished models which have been excellent and considerably discounted. I had a problem with one (which I think was actually human rather than technical error in the end - oops) and the company replaced it within 3 working days and I have had no trouble since.

I've had SLR cameras for over 30 years starting with a Zenit and then through a collection of Minoltas, my last film camera was a Canon EOS, I then startred with digital having had various compacts and bridge cameras, earlier this year I took the plunge and bought a Nikon D40. I got the camera with the standard lens and a 55-200 zoom for £400 from Currys. I chose the Nikon simply because it felt comfortable to hold and was intuitive for me to use. Logically I should have bought the Canon, I already had two lenses and a dedicated flash that would have worked with the EOS400D but I just could not get on with it, it just was not comfortable to hold and non of the controls felt "right" so I bought the Nikon and the Canon gear went on ebay. I also made the decision to go with 6mp rather than be tempted by 8 or 10. Despite what the advertisers say you just don't need it, for me the advantages of lower purchase cost, more pictures on the memory card and the super clean jpgs straight out of the camera far out weigh the dubious advantage of more mp's. My advice would be to go and handle the cameras on your shortlist play with the controls and see how you get on with them. The way a camera handles is by far the most important aspect in your decision, more so than an extensive feature set that you will never use and more mp's than you will ever need. All the current crop of DSLRS are capable of taking terrific pictures, at the end of the day it's your money, choose the one that suits you and your needs.

hhi
thanks for all of your comment. i have a question. i pop into currys and they are selling d40 for £299 with £30 cash back. thye are also offering me a 55-200mm lense for exter £145.

howeever i pop into jessop and they told me that the lense currys is selling is not same as they are selling which cost about £245.

may i ask any particular thing i should look at for lense, i.e. AF, VR ?

thanks

You can get a D40 +AF-S DX 18-55mm kit lens for £289 from Jessops online + another £30 back direct from Nikon.

The Nikon 55-200mm come in at around £150 from most online resellers, so Currys are not really giving you a great deal.

I can only see one Nikon 55-200mm listed so Jessops are probably playing games.

Have a look here for competitive pricing:

http://www.camerapricebuster.co.uk

When you ask "which SLR should I buy" you will find that people who own a canon will say buy Canon, the same is true for all manufacturers. The only advice I will give is do as Grinderbloke says, go to a camera shop and hold some cameras, the one that feels right is the one for you. I went to Jessops thinking it was between Eos 350 and D50, I came out with a Sony A100!! it sat right in my hand and the controls were where I needed them to be. Take your time in the shop, get them to put a battery in each camera and focus, zoom and click the shutter, they won't mind, they're after your money, you'll know which one feels best, Its no good buying a camera because it is the best on the market only to find you can't reach the shutter button without taking your eye from the viewfinder to look where it is, remember a camera is a tool, a good photographer can get better photos with a compact than a bad photographer can with a SLR.

Dave..

...remember a camera is a tool, a good photographer can get better photos with a compact than a bad photographer can with a SLR....

I couldn't agree more.

Sometimes the technology gets in the way of the photograph.

If you buy into an SLR system, you are not buying a particular brand, you are buying into a system, lenses, flash, accessories etc.

Do I need all that additional cost / clutter? Do I need interchangeable lenses etc?