What Is A Good, Entry-level Dslr For Long-term Use?
September 18th, 2009 | 
Author: I am a beginner, amateur photographer who is looking to make his first purchase of a DSLR. I have done some research on the available cameras in the market and have come up with some options for myself namely: 1) Sony A350; 2) Sony A700K; 3) Nikon D90; 4) Nikon D70 and; 5) Canon EOS Series.
I understand that most reviews will name the Nikon D40 as the best choice for beginners but another factor influencing my purchase is usability over a long period of time. Thus, I will need a camera which allows me to use a variety of compatible lenses and accessories over a period of time. Also, I feel that the D40′s relatively low MP resolution will not serve me well enough for my future endeavours.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I’m currently leaning towards Sony’s as I’m comfortable with their user-friendly products and their built-in-body image stabilisers and up-and-coming range of lenses. But I am willing to hear out cases for other cameras as well as other brands i.e. Pentax, Minolta, Olympus.
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Hi kicky
OK, you seem to have a budget of around one thousand dollars. And, for one thousand dollars, i suggest you get the Nikon D90. It has something none of those other models have: the ability to record videos. You may think to yourself, is this important? It might not be, but surely it will be something you are going to use. HD video, how can you ignore it?
Ignore that the Sonys have more resolution, in practice, the difference is not noticeable. Also, it’s been proven that the in-body stabilization isn’t nearly as effective as the image stabilization Incorporated into the lenses. Also, you can see the effect through the viewfinder. Also, you will find that Sony only has expensive lenses. Which isn’t very logical, because they don’t have VR, here’s Nikon’s 50mm lens, and Sony’s, so you can see the difference in price:http://www.amazon.com/Sony-50mm-Alpha-Di…http://www.amazon.com/Nikon-50mm-Nikkor-…
And don’t get started with the Telephoto lenses. Trust me, the Nikon really is the best choice. Also, you will laugh at Sony’s top status LCD screens, they are very inefficient. Here’s a review of the D90:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hRTyE8Fe…
If you want camera that good for long period I suggest you should get Nikon D90 Fast – focus, frames per second, and card access
First DSLR to have video.
Will you be making very ver large priints. If so the 6 Mp may limit you but I have made A3 prints with the output from the D30 with no problems and know people that have done larger. Remember as you make larger prints you can actually reduce the DPI from 300 as people will be looking at them fron further away. Its a well built durable Nikon. No the shutter is not recommended for as many activations as the D300 but you pay much less also. Its a good camera that will last you a long time
If you do want to go more the D90 is a great camera that is getting rave reviews for high iso perfomance, color reproduction and its movie mode. The D90 is also getting great reviews on its ability to use faster memory cards like the Extreme III. Here is what popular photography says
“The D90 is the first camera that can take advantage of SanDisk’s new 30MB/sec Extreme III SDHC memory cards. In our lab tests, it captured 54 full-sized Fine-quality JPEGs in 12 seconds for an average of 4.5 fps, just as Nikon claims. Shooting RAW, we got 9 frames in 2 seconds before the buffer filled up, again verifying Nikon’s 4.5- fps spec. And with this new card, the D90′s buffer clears so quickly that the burst is like the Energizer Bunny — it just keeps going and going”
Canon and Nikon chose to put the vibration reduction in the lens rather than the body. Somefolks put it in the camera and make of that. Yes that means you get stabilization only on lenses with that feature built in. In the body in theory it would work on every lens. But in fact image stbilization in the lens has proved to work faster and smoother with a lower impact on focus times than image stabilization in the body/ One problem with in body stabilization comes from the fact that the sensor would have to move different amounts for different focal lengths. A canon white paper says an in body system would have to move the sensor 1/4 inch to account for movement on a 300 mm lens.