Digital Photography News

digital cameras? SLR? Nikon?

So, I love taking photos, and I wanted a Digital SLR camera. all I’ve used are those silly digital cameras:

http://www.nikonusa.com/Assets/Digital-Camera/COOLPIX-S220/ColorVariants/26150-COOLPIX-S220/Views/353_26150_S220_front.jpg

But I want to move on to something like:

http://www.nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Nikon/Digital-SLR/index.page

But I’m completely new with this so I need your help.
>It needs to be inexpensive.
>I don’t really understand the whole way it works like “D700″ not a clue what that means.
>It needs to be fairly simple to use.
> And What brand do you suggest. I personally think Nikon or Canon, cause I have some friends that are photographers, sorta and they usually talk about those brands.
So I need as much Information but in a way I can understand.
please and thank you!!
What are the lowest of the low prices, because even 400 is pretty high. anything lower?

Answer
First off, nowadays, most of the DSLR’s are really easy to use. I’ve had a Nikon D80 for a little under a year and absolutely love it.

I went around to local camera shops/stores and explained exactly what I was looking for and had conversations with the staff about the different cameras. Aside from this, I also did research on Nikon’s website.

As far as the “D700″ vs. a “D80″ (for example), Nikon’s website does a good job of explaining the differences. Each camera comes with different options and features and is therefore given a different title.

Basically what you need to do is deside what features do you need. Mine were:
1. 10+ megapixels (the amount of these affect the print quality)
2. Zoom (I had to buy a telephoto lens)
3. Had to allow me room to grow (although I’m not going professional, I do need it for school, so I need as many features available to me as possible).

I know none of this is straight forward help, but ways to go about finding it. Hope it’s at least somewhat useful… =/