What should I be considering in buying an SLR?

what features or options should I be considering in buying an SLR camera?

As a beginner to SLRs I would recommend going with an entry level camera like the Nikon D40 or the Canon Rebel XT or XTi. Canon and Nikon are the biggest brands but there are SLRs made by other manufacturers like Sony, Olympus, and Pentax as well.

For your first SLR I wouldn't worry much about the features of the body since you don't know exactly which features you will use a lot later on. Any of the major brands of cameras are solid choices and they will all have similar feature sets. Go to a store (a real camera store, not Best Buy or Circuit City) and actually try them out to see which ones feel right in your hands and which ones have control layouts you think you will like. The people working at a camera store will be very knowledgeable about their products and what the different feature sets of the cameras are, so talk to them. They can help you figure out what features might be important to you.

One thing that isn't as obvious that you should consider is that you need to think about your lens selection along with your camera body selection. When you buy an SLR camera body you are also buying into a whole line of lenses. You won't be able to use a Canon lens on a Nikon body and vice versa.

Your lens is always going to be the limiting factor on the quality of your images in terms of sharpness, chromatic aberrations, and distortion. If you don't know what all those terms mean, don't worry about it- they are just different aspects of the quality of the images you will capture. In general you will always be better off with a great lens and an ok camera vs. an ok lens and a great camera. In addition to this, lenses will hold their value and usefulness better than camera bodies whose shutters wear out and which are constantly becoming dated as newer models come out.

For these reasons you may want to try to save money on the camera body and put as much as you can afford into the lenses. Since they hold their value better, you can always sell them later on if you decide you aren't getting enough use out of them.

For more information on the Nikon D40:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d40.htm

Review of the Canon XT:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos...

(dpreview.com is a good site to check out for all camera reviews)

Congrats on getting into photography and have fun!

Pay a visit to digitalcameraguide.com and read the reviews and comparisons of different makes and models.

You'll find that Pentax, Sony, Olympus, Fujifilm, Nikon, Sigma and Canon all offer affordable models with different features.

Some DSLRs have their Image Stabilization (IS) in the camera body. Other DSLRs require that you buy a lens with IS. With in-camera IS every lens you use will have that benefit.

Some DSLRs have an articulated screen for their Live View. That could prove beneficial when you use the camera at ground level or if you have to hold it over your head in a crowd. Of course, it means you have to be careful with it.

Read the reviews and decide for yourself which features are important to you and base your decision on what you want in a camera.

- popular SLRs are Nikon and Canon
- just choose between the two
- 8-10Megapixels
- ISO speed up to 1600

I recommend Canon 350D and 400D, as for beginners, it is really user friendly and practical for the price.