Photography: I suck

I have purchased almost all of my photography equipment from B&H Photo.  They are not the cheapest but they are the most reliable.  They do not practice bait and switch scams like most of the other photo sites on the web.  A typical bait and switch scam runs like this.  They advertise a really good price on a piece of equipment that you want.  You place your order on the web and a few days later you get an email with instructions to call the vendor.  You call and they tell you that they don't have the advertised item in stock but for a couple of hundred dollars more you can buy another model, usually along with some kind of "starter kit" which is full of useless shit.  They will then give you a hard time when you tell them to cancel your order.

B&H, on the other hand, lists whether or not an item is in stock along with the description of the item.  They ship promptly and I don't think that I've ever had to return anything I've purchased since it all worked flawlessly on arrival.  Heartily recommended.

As for equipment, I myself have used Nikon cameras for the last 35 years.  Nikons are an excellent choice in that they are rugged and take very good images.  Of course, the glass that the light passes through has a great deal to do with the quality of the image and Nikon makes damn good lenses too.  Well, actually the kit lenses that are supplied with their DSLRs are not that good, but adequate for most photos.  You can always splurge on good lenses later.  You should probably go with something like an 18-55 mm for starters.  This will give your photos a good range of focal length from wide angle to medium zoom.  Don't worry too much about features since any modern camera will have more settings than you will ever use.  If you want to take video with the camera then you may want to check to see if it has that capability.  I don't think that you can go wrong with any of the Nikon DSLRs.

Many people like Canon which are competitively priced with Nikon.   They make good glass so their lenses are renowned.  I've never used any Canon equipment except for Video cameras and cheap point and shoots.  The high end video camera is excellent but the point and shoots are meh.   If you're interested in a Canon then take a picture with one at Best Buy or somewhere and look at the image on a computer monitor.  Taking photos with each candidate camera of interest is the best way to determine which model will produce images that you are happy with.  Take a usb stick with you and ask if you can copy all of the test images to it then look at them on your computer at home.  Test them on your TV, if you can, and see what they look like there.  Pick the one that you think takes the best photos.

I've used Pentax cameras back in the film era and took some good photos.  Olympus is also supposed to be good.  Watch out for Sony and others since they haven't been in the market as long and remember, anything from China is probably a cheap piece of shit.

Bottom line, get a Nikon or Canon and you won't be disappointed.

Here's a link to B&H
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?ci … _PRICE_2|0

Alex also knows a lot about cameras so ask him too.

It will make a difference if you plan on creating prints, but only those 8 x 10 or larger.  For large prints more megapixels translates to sharper printed photos.  Unless you plan on printing advertising posters anything over about 10 MP is wasted.   Even 6 MP is bigger than the resolution of your computer monitor or television so it doesn't matter very much.  I currently shoot with a D50 which is around 6 MP and I can print excellent 8 x 10s but I rarely do so.

Both cameras that you mentioned are great choices.  I know people who own these and they are very happy with them.

Good luck.  Remember that a 50mm lens is a medium telephoto on a DSLR.  A 35mm lens is closer to what's referred to as a "normal" lens on digitals.