More camera advice needed

[MonkeyLove]

Right I went in to Jessops the other day and I want to buy a new camera, ideally not spending much more in total then £500 quid.

They have some seemingly decent package deals on at the moment all including a bag, 4 gb card etc... and Tamron 70-300mm which has been talked about a lot on here. All the camera's come with a standard 18-55 so I presume the Tamron would be a good long range lense to compliment it.

So basically the 3 different camera body's I am considering with the above package are:

Sony Alpha a330 (£500 quid exactly)
Nikon D5000 (£600 quid exactly after cashback deal)
Canon EOS 450D (£620 quid after cash back)

I am swaying towards the Nikon and although those are the internet prices I am sure it was down to about £550 instore. Any suggestions for the above or any other decent bodies for around £400?

I take it that they will be doing the deal with any camera so if the body was in the 400 range it would come out competative with the above.


Edit - Just seen you can get the Canon EOS 500D for £630 so another option!

[clyde]

did you have a hold of the camera's? and a little play about with them? if so then maybe go for the one which felt more comfortable, all 4 are good cameras but maybe could be picked up cheaper by having a look around online a bit, however with the extra's chucked in by jessops it could be hard to find a better deal.

personally i use a sony and iv'e said this on here before, the sony's are great because they are built using a minolta lens mount, meaning old minolta AF lenses and lenses built to fit old minolta slr's will work with the new sony body's and minolta slr's were extremely popular so there is still plenty of second hand gear kicking about on ebay etc....a lot of these lenses can be found for mega cheap on ebay, i have picked up a sigma 24-50mm, minolta 35-80mm and minolta 70-200mm all for under £100 delivered.

[MonkeyLove]

Originally Posted by clyde

did you have a hold of the camera's? and a little play about with them? if so then maybe go for the one which felt more comfortable, all 4 are good cameras but maybe could be picked up cheaper by having a look around online a bit, however with the extra's chucked in by jessops it could be hard to find a better deal.

personally i use a sony and iv'e said this on here before, the sony's are great because they are built using a minolta lens mount, meaning old minolta AF lenses and lenses built to fit old minolta slr's will work with the new sony body's and minolta slr's were extremely popular so there is still plenty of second hand gear kicking about on ebay etc....a lot of these lenses can be found for mega cheap on ebay, i have picked up a sigma 24-50mm, minolta 35-80mm and minolta 70-200mm all for under £100 delivered.

I had a feel of the Nikon & Canon - They didn't have the Sony in store.

I did like the feel of the Nikon D5000 - But they also had the D3000 for a fair bit less so would be interested if anyone has used both if their is any major advantages of the 5000 over the 3000

[Mercia Blackcat]

Originally Posted by clyde

did you have a hold of the camera's? and a little play about with them? if so then maybe go for the one which felt more comfortable, all 4 are good cameras but maybe could be picked up cheaper by having a look around online a bit, however with the extra's chucked in by jessops it could be hard to find a better deal.

personally i use a sony and iv'e said this on here before, the sony's are great because they are built using a minolta lens mount, meaning old minolta AF lenses and lenses built to fit old minolta slr's will work with the new sony body's and minolta slr's were extremely popular so there is still plenty of second hand gear kicking about on ebay etc....a lot of these lenses can be found for mega cheap on ebay, i have picked up a sigma 24-50mm, minolta 35-80mm and minolta 70-200mm all for under £100 delivered.

An advandage of the Sony's is that the VR is built into the body of the camera rather than the lens.

[not spavin]

The Nikon D3000 gets very mixed reviews, so I'd avoid.

The D5000 gets excellent reviews, though I believe that you pay a small premium for that fold-out screen. Could be useful mind, plus you get a great sensor, video recording etc.

Some useful comparisons here.

You'll notice a lot of reviews mention that the D5000 doesn't have a built-in autofocus motor. This is an issue, but not a dealbreaker - all it means is that you'll have to autofocus with some, usually older lenses. If it bothers you that much (and it probably won't in practice), just stick to the newer lenses - there are hundreds available.

If you can afford it or see a good deal anywhere, I'd pay the extra for a D90, or even look for a gently used second hand model on eBay. The D90 is a definitely the best 'bang for buck' Nikon available, and I personally would be happy to buy second hand. My first DSLR (D40) was bought new and my current one (D2X) was second hand - it's like buying a car really, only for mileage read shutter count. Buying second hand meant I could get a low-mileage Mercedes for the price of a brand new Ford Focus, to stretch that analogy to breaking point

The Sony is great value for money, but has the slight disadvantage of not having quite as many second hand lens etc. available for it. Not a massive deal, necessarily, and as Clyde says all the Minolta lenses work fine. I haven't used the Canon, but they're always good.