Which one should I get?

[Jtorrespr1]

Canon EOS Rebel T3 DSLR Camera w/ Bag, 4GB SD Card (brand new) (black friday deal) comes out to $519.00 (tax included)

or should I get a used(1 year old)
nikon d3000 with three lenses. 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 VR, 55-200mmf4-5.6 VR, 35 primef1.8(not VR). i will also include a 2 gig sd card and a camera bag. For $675.00

which one would be a better buy for me i am taking a course at the local college for photography so i can learn better about photography in general(hobby)

Any opinions or advice is appreciated.

 

[boneycat]

Two pieces of advice were giving to me when I asked a similar question 2 years ago. 1st one was you buy a Canon/Nikon for their lenses. It just so happens that they sell cameras too. Buy the best lens you can afford. Two: it's "not the arrow but the Indian" cliche that makes good pictures. The cameras and lenses during Ansel Adams' time was vastly inferior to the technology we have now, but he's taken arguably some of the best pictures during the last century.

With that said you'll find there's the Canon and Nikon fanboys abound. No different than AMD vs Nvidia, Mustang vs Camero, etc. Between the two you'll find that the D3000 is Nikon's replacement to the very popular D40. Unfortunately it wasn't as good and was quickly replaced with the D3100. The T3 is Canon's low end. I do not have as much experience with it. If you don't mind going used, see if you can pick up a Canon T2i, which can be had for around $500 or so. I'd take that over the D3000.

Here's a website to a photographer that blogs: www.kenrockwell.com. He has some really good articles and keeps things in perspective when buying equipment. Good luck!

 

[slashbinslashbash]

It looks like it is $489 for the T3 kit on Amazon right now, and 4GB SD cards are pretty much dirt cheap at this point, so that doesn't add much to the value of the package (maybe $10). If Amazon doesn't charge tax for you, then it's a better deal than the BF deal IMO.

The Nikon package is a better deal on the surface, but it has several problems with it. The d3000 is really pretty dated by now -- no Live View, no video. The 55-200 is crap compared with the VR version (I'm assuming it's not the VR version, please correct me if I'm wrong). The 18-55 should be the VR version too. If they are both VR, then the Nikon deal gets better in comparison with the Canon. The 35/1.8 is a great lens and will be very useful for your photography class. Unfortunately, Canon does not have a directly comparable lens. The 50/1.8 is cheap and has good image quality but it is fairly long on a crop body like the T3. Too long for most "general" photography although good for portraits. The Nikon 35mm is great for general purposes.

It is hard to say, really. I would go with the Nikon package if both of the zoom lenses are the VR versions. If not, it becomes more of a toss-up. The Canon will have a better body but just the one lens (but it is $150 cheaper, so you could pick up another lens with the money saved). The Nikon has a lot of range covered with the two zoom lenses and one prime, but the non-VR versions of the 18-55 and 55-200 are pretty much worthless at this point. The d3000 body is lacking though IMO, especially in comparison with the T3. The best advice is usually to put your money into better lenses and don't care about the body so much (since bodies are updated yearly but lenses usually only once in a blue moon, so bodies depreciate much faster), but in this case it is cutting it close IMHO.

 

[Jtorrespr1]

sorry I forgot to add that the the 18-55 is vr and so is the 55-200 vr also. The only one that is not is the 35. thanks for remind me to clear that up.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

I think I would go with the Nikon then. The HD video on the T3 would be nice, but for purely photographic purposes, the d3000 should meet your needs. You are all set with a nice beginner set of lenses (if you had to buy your first 3 lenses on a Nikon crop body, those are probably the 3 I'd recommend) and you can always upgrade to a newer body with video later. You also may find that the d3000 is too small for your hands so you may want to find an older (but bigger and, in some ways, nicer) body like a d70 which would still lack video but give you more photographic control (namely, 2 scroll wheels + the ability to use older Nikon autofocus lenses).

The great thing about buying into one of the two bigger body+lens systems (Nikon or Canon) is that there is always a huge secondary market and it's easy to upgrade incrementally, especially on the bodies. Sell the old body, scrape together an extra $100 or $200, and you can upgrade to the next year's model, or from a beginner/consumer level model (like the d3000 or a Rebel) to an older semi-pro model (like a d70/d80 or a 30D/40D).

 

[iGas]

IMHO, it would be better if you get a used camera kit and flash.

PS. More doesn't mean better, perhaps it is best to buy a cheap kit and add a fast prime with external flash for fill flash.