DSLR for £250?

oliver2601 · 14 Feb 2012 at 23:56

I'm looking to do some photography here and there and thought I might as well get a DSLR as I doubt I would be upgrading for a long time.

Is £250 unreasonable? I think I'm going to buy used which should mean I've got a retail budget of around £320-ish?

Anyway, would be nice to hear what people recommend...

Btw, had a search around but couldn't find many recent posts.

Cheers,
Oliver

EDIT: I'm a complete beginner apart from using other people's occasionally.

Dunks · 15 Feb 2012 at 08:31

Canon 30D or a 40D if you're lucky, one going in members market for £250, extremely good price.

Beasty · 15 Feb 2012 at 10:01

Sold my old d3000 for £200 without a lens so I could see one with maybe the basic 18-55 going for about £250.

AHarvey · 15 Feb 2012 at 10:02

I'd honestly look at the second hand market as you'll get some nice bargains then

Lunawolfy · 15 Feb 2012 at 10:08

Dunks said:
Canon 30D or a 40D if you're lucky, one going in members market for £250, extremely good price.

This. I bought a 40D (upgraded from a 400D) about 2months ago on the MM. Best purchase I've ever made on there =]

a1ex2001 · 15 Feb 2012 at 16:33

30/40D is your going canon. Lens wise try and get hold of the 18-55is Kit lens from a 40D rather than the non-is form a 30D that and a memory card will see you taking some great pictures.

oliver2601 · 15 Feb 2012 at 20:33

Thanks guys, I'm leaning more towards the 30D as I can't justify spending the extra money for a 40D, but that's just me. I'm going to go down a local camera shop later on this week so I can hold them, because I have to be comfortable with it.

cokecan · 15 Feb 2012 at 20:37

keep an eye out ont he bay. a friend of mine has just bought a 400D for around £69 off there (no lens, just body)! it is in damned good condition though we are just trying to work out how many shutter actuations it's done, so that may be its downfall yet.

Gave it a try with my 50mm and it was spot on

oliver2601 · 16 Feb 2012 at 02:40

What about an A200 for £150 without a lens, that would give me a bit of money to buy a better lens? Would you recommend this?

Dunks · 16 Feb 2012 at 09:00

While a nice DSLR, personally I'd stick to Nikon or Canon purely for the availability of lenses for those systems compared to Sony.

eddyc · 17 Feb 2012 at 15:26

Might be worth thinking about Pentax.

You can get K-r bodies for around £300 or K-x for £250. Both decent cameras and if you don't mind shooting manual focus there are loads of very decent older lenses available.

oliver2601 · 19 Feb 2012 at 15:47

Managed to pickup a A200 with 18-70mm lens for £160 including P&P, good buy?

VeNT · 19 Feb 2012 at 20:20

sounds good to me, if you're not going to get loads of lenses then really does it matter?
I'm looking for a DSLR and was thinking D60 or D40x but working it out from most places it would be about the same (like £80 diff) as a new D3100 or D3000!
problem is most sites sell the body only 2nd hand and the lenses are £100+ on top even for the most basic ones!

Lunawolfy · 19 Feb 2012 at 22:11

VeNT said:
sounds good to me, if you're not going to get loads of lenses then really does it matter?
I'm looking for a DSLR and was thinking D60 or D40x but working it out from most places it would be about the same (like £80 diff) as a new D3100 or D3000!
problem is most sites sell the body only 2nd hand and the lenses are £100+ on top even for the most basic ones!

Lenses are an expensive habit and will single lenses alone will end up more costly than your body, especially second hand.

I'm trying to save for a 70-200 L lens and a sigma 30mm 1.4. Both £400 each, body was only £250

oliver2601 · 19 Feb 2012 at 22:38

VeNT said:
sounds good to me, if you're not going to get loads of lenses then really does it matter?
I'm looking for a DSLR and was thinking D60 or D40x but working it out from most places it would be about the same (like £80 diff) as a new D3100 or D3000!
problem is most sites sell the body only 2nd hand and the lenses are £100+ on top even for the most basic ones!

Fleabay is always a good place, and always bid if you're buying something expensive as you can sometimes save more than 20%

K.C. Leblanc · 21 Feb 2012 at 12:14

VeNT said:
sounds good to me, if you're not going to get loads of lenses then really does it matter?
I'm looking for a DSLR and was thinking D60 or D40x but working it out from most places it would be about the same (like £80 diff) as a new D3100 or D3000!
problem is most sites sell the body only 2nd hand and the lenses are £100+ on top even for the most basic ones!

The D3000 is very similar to the D40X & D60. It's biggest advantage is 10 point AF, instead of the D60's 3 point system. I think they also removed the IR sensor (for IR remotes) and the sensor that turns the screen off when you put your eye up to the view finder. The D3000 is warmed up leftovers.

The D3100 however is a big improvement.

As for lenses if you look around you can often get kit lenses fairly cheeply.

VeNT · 21 Feb 2012 at 12:43

yeah but my point is that if you get get a brand new D3100 +kit lens for £80 more than a D60 and a kit lens second hand, how do they sell?

oliver2601 · 21 Feb 2012 at 15:20

Photo I took with it and 2 minutes editing.

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