Canon? Nikon?

My brother is asking me to buy him a dslr. I do not know what is the best bang for my bucks. Can our shutterbugs help me out please? My budget unfortunately is maximum of $1,500. The cheaper the better.

Oh by the way, my bro is a beginner so definitely it should fit in my budget. Thanks!

Anyone? I posted a month ago and had no one suggest still which brand of dslr to buy? Anyhow... I took a look around and it seems like canon has the best bang for my buck. So... I am going to buy at the end of the month already. Mods kindly close this thread. Thanks!

Awesome sauce, the thread is open again! This reply is heavily biased, being that I'm a Canon guy myself, but it is good to see that you're edging (or decided on?) a wee Canon beastie.

To be slightly more objective, any of the big brands these days that make the lower-end digital SLRs do a good job of it and so long as you carefully weigh up the features, reviews, pros and cons of each individual camera (even within a brand, quality varies) it's difficult to go far wrong.

One thing that I would be asking though is precisely what kit you're going for? How likely is it that your brother will expand on the kit in future, is he "into" photography or just looking for a good point-and-click which can do more if/when he wants it to? Finally, have you taken the time to go try out the cameras yourself in a store: it's all well and good having strong technical specifications but if the menu system, hand-feel, etc. is funky then it will really detract from the experience (though, reviews help in this).

Wow a response! LOL. Thanks, Salathe. My brother is thinking of making it into a serious hobby that might even earn him money someday...so that probably means expanding on the kit? Sorry. Not so good with the terms. LOL. I am more your be-in-front-than-behind the cam person.

So, that being said.. which one should he start with? Not too basic.. point and shoot but not too high-tech-ily expensive.

For your price range (or less!), you can get very good low-end dSLRs like the Canon 550D with a couple of kit lenses (good lenses are very expensive, but the stock/kit lenses are plenty good enough for even a serious hobbyist) and some accessories (a good camera bag, cleaning kit, tripod, more batteries, memory, software licenses , etc.).

If you want to spend less, look for models that are a couple of years old --- heck my favourite (cheap dSLR) is my Canon 300D (Rebel XTi in Americaland; it's around 6 or 7 years old now)... it is much bigger than the newer cameras, and may seem woefully underspecced (6 megapixels!), but its larger size/weight makes it a nice camera to lug around (and since it's old now, to bash about a bit and not care too much about replacing). Those run for maybe a couple hundred dollars.

Anything in between, really, would be fine for an introduction into digital photography; though shiny and new always seems more attractive an option!

yes, also being a Canon photographer my opinion is also a little bias as I tend to know a bit more about them myself.

Salathe makes some valid points, also to put into perspective, would he be interested in the HD video features? If so looking into the T2i for a budget around $800, or going a little higher end for the 7D but that may be a bit to pricey at least to buy brand new.

But for beginners check out the XTi or the T2i.
if hes not using video which is kind of the selling point of the T2i then go for the XTi or even XSi.

If hes into Nikon, I believe the D90 would be the Nikon equivalent of the T2i but you may have to look that part up haha.

Good luck on your search for the camera, hope we weren't to late in responding!

Keep us updated.

Canon is the best way to go. They have quality product, a wide range of product for any price range you can afford. It's all I use.

This may be old but if your budget is $1,500 and he's a beginner than I can not stress how amazing the Canon 550d is for him! It costs roughly around $800 including the start kit lens from 55-88mm and it's what I use.

In my honestly opinion Canon is the way to go and is user friendly for beginners.

I am a Canon shooter BUT this is not a Biased answer. Like many other large purchases you need to look at your plans on what your going to do with it, with it in the future, how much to spend etc. etc.

Nikon has an amazing lighting advantage over Canon with their Flashes the way they work and trigger etc w/o having to buy extra accessories. So great for a person who is going to be a traveling studio photographer. Nikon also produces a softer image, also good for portraits (usualy associated with a traveling photographer). But this of course not to say you cannot get the same with Canon. Nikon does however fail at entry level cameras. They over simplfied the process into a camera that is all menu operated and not button operated.

Buttons Buttons Buttons! Are very important they are like hot keys, actually they are hot keys but easier to remember. You want lots of buttons!

Canon on the other side has great entry level cameras and lenses. (Nikon lenses are the same at each level just price differences). Canon also has their L series lens for the pro's great thing to invest in when going pro. Canon's are great for every type of photographer, as mention above you will pay more for traveling based rigs. Studio wise you would be paying the same for strobe receivers etc. But thats all future proofing.

I recommend canon for beginners and because of the next piece of advice they wont switch.

Once you have your first body start investing in Lenses. Bodies will change over time and very fast, but Lens technology moves at a much slower pace and lenses last longer than the bodies. Now once you start investing in lenses it makes it very hard to switch to Nikon.

So in short
Nikon: Traveling Portrait Photographers, Nature Freaks, Ad-Ons and Goodies Freaks.
Canon: Everyone (Ok that part is a lil biased