Advice appreciated :)

[bronnn]

Hello,
I am looking to buy a digital SLR camera and was wondering what cameras you would recommend?

I am a photography student so would be using this camera for a range of things but most likely portraiture. I have been looking at the Nikon D90, but was wondering what else was out there. I have about $ 1,000 AUS to spend. Quality is important because I will probably be using this camera to produce larger prints.


Cheers!

[Photo-John]

Any reason you're looking at Nikon? I do think Nikon is producing the best image quality right now. But the truth is, all digital SLRs now are awesome. You can make excellent quality large prints from any of them. If you have a soft spot on Nikon, I'd recommend the D5000 over the D90. You give up a little bit in image quality but you save a bunch of money and I really like the tilt-swivel LCD a lot. You also need to take lenses into consideration. Ultimately, lenses are more important than the camera body. So if buying a less expensive camera means you can afford a bettter lens, the cheaper camera is usually the right thing to do.

We have pro reviews for both the Nikon D90 and the D5000 here. If I remember right, I make some comparisons to the D90 in the D5000 review.

Nikon D90 Pro Review >>
Nikon D5000 Pro Review >>
All Pro Reviews >>

I hope this helps. Let us know if you have more questions!

[n8]

If you have the budget, and it's a difference of $100 between the d5000 and d90, I'd still go with the d90...but bear in mind I'm fairly biased as that's what I usually use. By the looks of the specs, they're pretty familiar, but I'm wondering about the control you get through the menus, and I know for me, I just like having more immediate access to changing settings w/o having to go through a menu or hold another button while you dial as you do on the d5000/3000/60/40. Also, your options for lenses expands with the d90 due to the internal af motor. Sure, you can get an older lens and just justify not planning to use the af, but I think that'd only fly with a real old non-cpu lens.

[Anbesol]

For color reproduction, Sony is leading the pack. Color quality is of the utmost importance in portraiture, as flesh tones are about the hardest color to reproduce. 'Image quality' can reference several things though. I say this, of course, almost irrelevantly because IQ differences between the big 3 (Canon/Nikon/Sony) require the most absurd nit-picking imaginable. Dont let high ISO image grain be the sole factor in determining what is good IQ either, many first time buyers think this is the sole factor in IQ.

I am halfheartedly going to agree with John, because I think there is significant reason to upgrade to a D90 over the D5000. Though he is right, its not a good idea to buy a better body only to starve your lens budget. The menu and interface is much better on the D90, as well as having an internal AF motor which is much less limiting for lens selection. If the budget is real tight, than the D5000+good lens, but if you can stretch the budget a bit to afford the D90 and still get good lens, Id advise that.

The Canon 50D/T2i and Sony A550 with their higher MPix would also have a smidgen higher size output. It would make little difference in output size, but it is an edge nonetheless. Id also recomend looking into them (if you don't have your heart set on Nikon).

For a significant upgrade on output quality and size, full frame is a more ideal option. Canon's 5D, Sony's A850/A900 all have much higher mpix spread across a larger sensor, which has a dramatic effect on the output size. Those options break the budget by a lot though, so those would maybe be worth looking into if your budget can do a lot of stretching (at least double). Maybe a pipe dream, its been my pipe dream for a couple years now...

[MNRyan]

I've had my D90 for a couple years now and I'm really glad I got it. There are more than enough accessories both from Nikon and third party manufactures that are very inexpensive, plus with Nikon being around for so long and so popular there is tons of used equipment out there. I guess the same argument could also be made for Canon too. My recommendation would be to got to a few of your local camera stores and get some hands on time with some cameras in your price range. Do a lot of research! Hope that helps!