Buying my first DSLR

[gsx r8ted98]

Budget

Would rather stay in the $700 range, but willing to go up as high as 1k

Size

I'm not looking for a huge camera, what I have been looking at, and am comfortable with are those sized similar to the Nikon D60

Features

10 neighborhood is plenty

* What optical zoom will you need? Not 100% sure, this will be a learning adventure as I go, so some versatility is a must.

* How important is “image quality” to you? 7

Do you care for manual controls? Same as 2 questions up.

General Usage

* What will you generally use the camera for? Sports, Personal, Car Shows, Car races.

* Will you be making big prints of your photos or not? No

Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos? Not a lot, but some yes.

Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos? Yes

Miscellaneous

Are there particular brands you like or hate? No Bias

Are there particular models you already have in mind? I have been looking at the D60 or the Sony A350

(If applicable) Do you need any of the following special features? AF and Image Stabilization.

Thanks in advance for the help everyone.

[speaklightly]

The Canon XS has received excellent professional reviews, and it is even smaller than the Nikon D-60. Olympus also has the E-420 model which is the smallest of the DSLR cameras now in production. An Olympus E-420 two lens kit (ZD 14-42mm lens, equal to 28 to 84mm in 35mm terms and the ZD 40-150mm lens, equal to 80 to 300mm in 35mm terms) would be well within your budget, like the Canon XS.

Sarah Joyce

[stabile007]

Hey just to help out with your search:
I found the best thing that helped me was I went to a camera store and tried out all the camera's I was looking at (My budget was similar to yours) and I found the camera I liked the most was the XSi (while the XS was nice I prefered the extra features for the XSi and at the time the cost difference was like $50) Paticularily I liked how light it was.

I spent like ~$700 on the camera body and lens in addition I spent lotsa of extra money on memory cards ($30), bag ($50), 50mm f1.8 lens ($90) and tax (too much) in the end the whole thing cost me around $900. So don't forget to factor in all those extra's in when you get the camera if you need those items. For sure you will want at least the bag and a high speed memory card with lots of space (I would at least get 4gb) I like the 50mm lens because I do a lot of indoor photography now and I don't like using flash unless I have to and this works pretty well for that.

[raven15]

My personal pecking order of entry level DSLR's goes like this, from most basic to most capable (roughly, depending on your needs):

Olympus E-420
Pentax K200
Olympus E-520
Canon XSi

These four seem to have the best feature and benefit to price ratio, the Nikon and Sony you mentioned don't, to my mind.

The XS is ok, but it is plasticky and lacks most of the things that make the XSi competitive with the others on the list.

The Sony A300 is ok, but its main point of interest is its live view. I don't think you'd find any advantage choosing the A350 over the A300 except a higher price and slower performance.

I don't know where the D60 lurks in this order, roughly with the XS probably. It is too disabled and consumery for my tastes. It might fit you better.

[speaklightly]

I happen to agree with Raven-

The Olympus E-420 two lens kit would cover everything from 28mm to 300mm, in 35mm terms. You would also increase you IQ a lot.

Sarah Joyce

[raven15]

Oops, hit I "back" and reposted the same thing. Ignore.