DSLR entry-level digital camera under $600

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  peeetah on 14/12/2010 - 15:52

  Try your local Teds camera shop to see if they have the 500 dollar deal. My local one at Northland Shopping Centre in Victoria has the single lens kit for $500. The other is the nikon 3000 at officeworks for 500.
  There are varying opinions on these cameras but go try one out for yourself. See if you like how it feels when you hold it and take some shots.

  OR
  Get the best of both worlds and get something like a sony nex 5 or olympus pen e-pl1. Its like a dslr and point and shoot camera put together. i recently just got my olympus pen e-pl1 instead of upgrading my dslr and i love it :D

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  janeymac on 14/12/2010 - 17:00

  I have a fuji finepix from target, less than $300, cheaper on sale. Takes good photos, has manual over ride if u want it. I would recommend as cheap first dslr.

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  dukeman on 15/12/2010 - 05:11

  I've got a pentax *ist with a few lens's I'll be selling shortly.Be looking to sell for around $450..

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  mxyzptik on 07/01/2011 - 14:46

  Hi @dukeman, my 17yo son is looking for an entry level dslr (none of us know anything about photography!) … pennies are short but your package may be good for him. He was recommended a Pentax k200d or a Sony a550 but both models have been superceded and are more than his budget. I don't think he realises how much all the additional components cost.

  (Wow these Google Ads guys are good … my ozbargain pages are already filled with fancy ads for cameras!.)

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  llama on 07/01/2011 - 15:18

  "Also, after editing photos, how does one save photos in high resolution? After editing with Picasa or similar editing software, the pictures save in such small KBs"

  Not sure what Picasa is (an online editor?) but any even 1/2 decent image editing software will give you the ability to change the resolution (pixels)and choose the format (file type), and quality (lossy compression) level. The last 2 are done within the Save-As dialog box.

  If you want best quality, you'll need to save in RAW, TIFF or PNG and the files will be MASSIVE! 99% quality JPG's at full size will be good enough for most people, however each time you open and then save you will get a further loss of clarity.

  Re: software, if you don't know anything about image editing then Photoshop is probably not a good program to use due to it's massive complexity and very steep learning curve. If you want to do simple editing and photo adjustment, then the likes of Paint.Net will be good enough… still accepts Photoshop plugins too, so you can build on it. GIMP is another one to look at.

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  mr_nismo on 07/01/2011 - 16:22

  +1

  Can I give u a piece of advice ? If u are serious about getting a DSLR then u really need to get an external flash additional lens and a tripod. Otherwise u may as well get better point and shoot. The flashes on DSLR's are pretty much rubbish (also if u change the lens to a zoom or wide it will block half the flash), plus u will most likely want a wide angle lens and zoom lens. it all gets kinda pricey. So basically I'm just saying that u can't really think that the whole deal of DSLR photography is going to stay cheap. Just a freindly warning :)
  Best bang for buck base dslr is prolly the Nikon D3000, lens are usually cheaper on Nikon. Good flash Nikon SB600 or 800 off ebay for around $300 and u wil be sweet :)

  Oh and like the guy above said about software … maybe use photoshop elements first instead of normal photoshop. it cuts out all the stuff u most likely wont need.

  Good luck :)