Looking for a good (but not extremely expensive) beginner SLR camera for fast, sports action.

Question

Ive always owned point and shoot digital cameras, but want to move up in the world. Without spending an insane amount of money, I want a beginner's SLR camera with fairly high fps for sports action (mainly motorsports). My budget is only about $600, and I know that for something real nice Id have to spend a lot more than that, but Im hoping Id be able to find something to meet my needs.

Also, can someone explain SLR lenses to me. I simply dont get it.

Say I were to buy a kit and it included a 18-55mm lense. Can I get away with only that lense, or is it no good?

Answer 1

Stay away from the 2 top brands, Cannon and Nikon, even if looking for used. You will get far more bang for the buck with brands such as Konika, Olympus and Pentax. About a year ago, I got a Pentax SLR kit for $500 and a $100 mail in rebate because it was the end of a modle run and they had just came out with their new $700 modle. It came with an 18x55mm lens, but no card and no batteries. Cards are cheep (a 1 g now is less than $15) and though old news, (compaired to the new very expensive lithium cells) still use 4 MHz batteries that now have mA/hr ratings of at least 2500. 4 cell chargers are also less than $10. Unless you plan to do poster work, a pikel size between 5 to 7 will do fine for your type of work. I covered the last 2 (07 and 08) air shows and parades here in Dayton with mine and have excelent photos to show for it. Since I got mine, I have added a wired remote ($11 on-line) a 75x300mm lens, a lens filter adapter for the 18x55 lens (as I am able to use my UV and polarizing filters from my Miranda 35 SLR), and a UV filter for the 75x300 lens.  The 18x55 lens is a good all around lens and due to the 1.5x factor of a digital to a film SLR gives the same results as a 27mm wide angle to a 82.5mm telephoto. Over time you will want at least the 75x300mm lens and doing the math on that gets you up to a 400mm telephoto.  

Answer 2

In the price segment you're looking at all cameras have between 2.5 and 3 frames per second.

As for lenses, the 18-55mm is a good walk around lens (indoor, street photography, etc.) but for motor sports you'll need a lot more reach. The 70-300mm will do. It´s not the perfect lens for the job but is pretty inexpensive.

Consider dropping from the D60 to the D40 (6 megapixels, 2.5 frames per second). The D40 with the 18-55mm costs about $450 at BeachCamera.com and they throw in a memory card. The 70-300 (without vibration reduction) costs $135 at B&H. Total $585.

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Argh, c**p. I knew something was wrong. The 70-300mm that I mentioned won´t work properly on the D40. There´s a more expensive Nikon 70-300mm that will ($480 for the lens) or you could get the D40 as a kit with the 18-55mm and a Nikon 55-200mm lens for $600 after a rebate

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/53...

You won´t have quite as much zoom, but for under $600 it´s probably your best bet.

Canon can´t match this setup for under $600 - Nikon and Canon both have great stuff, but this is really bargain hunting. I´m not too familiar with other brands.

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Megazoom point & shoot cameras will give you a bit more zoom and megapixels for your money. Here´s a review for the P80 http://www.steves-digicams.com/2008_revi...

For motor sports this might actually be a better camera... so long as you can anticipate for the 0.1 to 0.8  second delay between pressing the shutter button and actually taking the picture! This shutter lag is a major drawback of all point & shoot cameras. For every other type of photography the D40 will blow the P80 out of the water. So it´s a tough call. Personally, I´d get the D40.

I had a megazoom point & shoot myself before I upgraded to a dSLR. The point & shoot took great pictures under perfect conditions but it´s limitations drove me crazy. I was used to a film SLR though, so maybe I was spoiled.