“DSLR” The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread
Thinking of taking up photography as a hobby this year? Perhaps you just want a good quality camera for those family photo opportunities rather than the blurry or amateur photos you can get on your phone camera. Either way, you shouldn’t be thinking about the absolute top of the range models just now. Instead, here are some of the best DSLR cameras you can get that won’t break the bank. These cameras are within a sensible budget but will give you professional quality photos that you would be happy to hang in your house.
First of all a quick lesson; what do I mean when I say DSLR? Well it stands for digital single lens reflex and this means that the lenses are interchangeable, the sensors are larger than most compact cameras and vastly larger to phone cameras and they have manual control so you can adjust things like shutter speed and focus rather than letting the camera adjust it for you.
The budget for these cameras are all under £500, this may seem like a lot but considering that some are £3000 for the body only (meaning you need to buy the lenses separately) half a grand is reasonable.
One of the most common DSLR cameras around is the Nikon D3300. The reason is that it is one of the best. Its price for the body only can be around £350 but some places do a deal for the body and a decent lens for £500. Note that this model is not to be confused with the Nikon D300 which is the higher spec version with a price tag in upwards of £1000. The D3300 has many of the same features of the D300. However a camera at this level has some flaws, minor as they are. The only one I feel will be of note to a beginner is that it lacks Wi-Fi functionality. You can however buy a separate Wi-Fi adapter for an additional £60, meaning that all in all it is hardly the cheapest entry level DSLR camera on the market but in terms of quality it is rarely beaten. You could easily use this camera forever, only choosing to upgrade the lens and it would do perfectly well for occasional photos or photography based hobbies.
Next up we have a more marmite DSLR camera, the Sony A200. Having already shed £150 of the launch price it is starting to look more accurately priced at £300. The reason I have included it here is the sheer number of features that are available to you pre and post shooting which certainly rivals some of the higher brand cameras. However, in this regard it is a victim of its own success. Sony could have done much better with the control layout to make the dizzying amount of features more accessible to the layman photographer. Plus, the standard lens you get with it is pretty sub-par. But that is the beauty of the DSLR camera in that you can change lenses to improve quality. This camera is recommended now that the price is dropped, at £450 it seemed a little too much for what was delivered. However, buy it at about £300 and spend the money you would have saved on a better lens then you have without a doubt a superb camera.
If you are still unsure of your commitment to buying a camera like this then perhaps the Canon EOS 1100D is for you. I have seen it retail at £250 and with January sales about to slash prices even more you may even be able to pick this camera up for just £200. There is a more updated version of the 1100D which is the 1200D which retails at about £100 more but the two are interchangeable as entry level DSLR cameras. What gives Canon’s 100D a spot on this list is the amount you can get for your money. The image quality is good (although not quite as good as the Nikon) and it has a good layout with plenty of extras (but again, not as many as the Sony).
What it does have is the largest collection of dedicated lenses available. Unlike most companies which make lenses that will fit a variety of cameras, Canon have instead dedicated the vast majority their lenses to their own products meaning that with the money you can save on buying the body, you can invest in a high performance lens.
For under £500 you can do a lot worse than these three DSLR cameras, but you cannot do much better.