Nikon D3000. good or bad?

[ryangrieder]

so im getting ready to buy a camera again for my girlfriend for christmas. i been doing some looking around because the price as everyone knows can extremely vary, and i think i found a decent deal, but wanted your opinion. the Nikon D3000. anyone own it? like it? the good? the bad? what do you think? i found it on best buy on sale that comes with a DX 18-55mm Nikkor lens. is that a decent lens? they are asking $499 for it. here is the link to buying it. she mainly wants the camera because her sister in law is about to have a baby in march and wants a nice camera for the event. she also goes on vacation alot and is tired with her simple digital camera.

im looking to spend about 500 bucks. is that a good camera for that price or is there a better one for that price range. im also going to be using this camera for some tank pictures as well of course. so whats the word with it? what do you guys say since you know more then i do when it comes to DSLR's.

 

[JonnyJ]

i don't know much about that price range SLR, but when i simply did an amazon review on the d3000 a lot of people are pointing towards the d5000 instead. i didn't read that much into detail but that's definitely a start & what i normally do when buying any type of electronic. Then i search the one they encourage me to get and see what they say about it.

Keep in mind that this is a beginner slr and you are going to have some harsh reviews from wannabe pro photographers. if you can wait till black Friday i am almost positive that there will be some great online deals if you do not want to hit the streets.

 

[ryangrieder]

thank u. yeah i figured alot of professional photo guys out there may say the camera is not that great, but this would be her and my first DSLR. we dont need anything crazy, its just that there are sooo many different ones out there, it gets kind of hard finding a good beginner. i dont think she will ever want to buy another one either because im sure she will love whatever i get, i just need to make sure its easy to use, good picture quality, ect. the big deal with pictures that i know she is going to want is movement pictures. she likes to go to disney, or flordia, or ect, and mainly take pictures of animals. thing is animals never sit still for pictures. she tries with her sony cyber shot simple digital camera and everyone always comes out blury.

so all i ask for is....
easy to use for beginner.
good pictures.
decent lens for medium range.
something to control movement in the picture and come out clean.
500 or under price range.

 

[Teddy]

I dont know much about cameras, but if you decide to get the Nikon D3000, newegg has it for 449.99..you save another 50 dollars

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ..._re=nikon_d3000_camera-_-30-113-222-_-Product

 

[smoq]

Even that it's gonna be your first camera, I would strongly suggest you getting D5000 over D3000. It gives you way better control over functions and it shares a lot of great things with D90.