keith
 

Hello all

Im interested in getting a dslr camera and have seen 2 that meet my budget for a beginner so would like some advice on which one might be best, I have seen them on tesco website.

Cannon EOS 1100 12.2 mega pixel , 3.1 opticall zoom 18-55mm lense

Nikon d3100 14 mega pixel 1 opticlal zoom 18-55mm lense

can anyone explain what the 18-55mm lense is because i thought it was a zoom lense but the camera specs confuse me somewhat.

please forgive if i sound thick but im used to compact cameras which have 3x , 5x , 8x zoom. any way any help and advice would be really appreciated.

thanks
keith

To work it out you take the largest number focal length and divide it by the widest end so in your case it would be 55 Divided by 18 which comes out at 3.05 x zoom.

So in other words times zoom is the magnicfication from the widest focal length of the lens.

In DSLR terms we don't generally think of times zoom but in mm and whilst there are superzoom lenses (these cover a wide range so are a compromise) available because lenses are interchangeable, there is a tendancy to buy lenses for a particular type of photography i.e wide angle for landscape (10-20mm) Zoom for wildlife (70-300mm) etc as the image quality is better; i.e. less barrel destortion/pin cushioning or chromatic abbertions (google these terms for examples).

There is another complication with crop factors on APS-C cameras in the case of Canon this is 1.6 which would make your 18-55 in real terms based on a 35mm film or full frame sensor the actual equivalent of 28.8mm - 88mm, don't worry to much about this at the moment though but thought I had best mention it;)

In the first instance if you really do want a D-SLR to learn more about photography, then I would start with the kit lens, experiment find out what you like shooting and get the necessary lenses accordingly.

With regards to the Nikon or Canon simply try them both in a shop and see which one you prefer and see how easy you find them to use. I did that and preferred Canon primarily it felt more comfortable in my hands but others I know have chosen Nikon.

There are of course other good cameras such as Olympus, Sony and Pentax but it has to be said that Canon and Nikon currently have a better choice of lenses and accessories.

Also consider that Nikon has announced the D3200 which does look a very tasty bit of kit.

Ultimately it does come down to budget.

Thanks Wavemachine for your advice but after a bit of thought and looking around iv decided to go for a bridge camera to start me off as i like the option of having the ability to take closeup and zoom without the need to buy extra lenses.
but once i get into photography i will upgrade to DSLR maybe in a few years time.