Best low-cost digital SLR camera that accepts 35 mm lenses/filters?

I am a very amateur "picture taker". I can't use the word "photographer" because that would be well above my abilities. I currently own a very old digital camera. It is slow, no zoom, no focus and doesn't take any other lenses. A photographer friend suggested one of the best entry level cameras for what I want is a Nikon D40. It is a camera under $600 with a good lens and accepts most 35 mm lenses and filters. It also has a good balance of automatic and manual settings.

My problem is I'm just not ready to spend $600 at this time.

I have seen other cameras, such as the Canon 6 MP that is $200 less, but don't have alot of specs on it.

Is it worth $600 for the Nikon, or can I get a better value and features with another digital camera?

I'm an amateur picture taker as well, my brother's gf sold me her nikon cool pics.... (I'm at work and forget the number) but it works great for the kind of things I like to do.

Don't know if the "cool pics" accepts 35mm lenses, but I will check.

The suggestion for the D50 was good, but I refuse to use E-Bay again. When I changed my email address, they wanted a credit card number to verify, and I refuse to give a cc for that purpose, no fraud protection. Report It

I have a great Fuji S5000 and they make newer versions similar. It takes great zoom photos. Equivalent to 370mm 10x zoom. I love it. Takes video with sound too. You can add lenses and filters too. I paid around 300 dollars for it from Tiger Direct.com It looks like a small SLR film camera and even makes a shutter sound.
I had a Nikon and it was crappy and took blurry photos. I returned it to the store. Nikon has went down hill. I have had three recent model 35mm format film cameras and all had terrible lenses. You have to buy better lenses for any stock Nikon. They use plastic in their multi element lenses and the plastic causes lousy quality photos. Nikon sucks.

You might consider buying a "factory demo" on eBay. I have dealt with Cameta Auctions a few times and, in fact, this is how I got my wife's Nikon D50. cametaauctions has several D50 demos with two Tamron lenses for under $200 now. See auction number 160083860872 and then you can click on the link to their store to see more. Cameta used to be one of the regular multi-page advertisers in Popular Photography until they decided to use eBay as their main source of advertising. Note that the camera has a one-year warranty and the new lenses have a 6 year warranty. Cameta has you call and complete payment by credit card, which is a little different from the usual eBay procedure, but it makes it more like any other mail order company. If you prefer to buy a 5-year warranty, they probably have one available. If you prefer to buy one Nikon lens instead of 2 Tamron lenses, they will probably be agreeable to altering the auction items over the phone after you have won an auction.

The D50 is a step above the D40 and it will get you in the door of the right brand, as far as I'm concerned. Until you get into the over-$2,000 range, I think Nikon digital cameras are all one step or more ahead of the comparable Canon.

go to adorama.com
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