Art student needs a decent pro camera on a tight budget

[lexie1]

I'm starting art and desin at uni soon and need a decent DSLR camera with all the manual settings for exposure etc, and as a student I'm not made of money so it needs to be pretty cheap.
What's the current concensus on the best/cheapest model with pro features?

TIA

[AnnaV]

What's your budget?

[inkista]

And what do you consider to be "pro features"? If you just want manual exposure control, even the entry level dSLRs will work for you, and you can find older ones used from one or two generations back in the $300 neighborhood. What you'll need to understand is that the camera is actually a combination of a camera body and a lens. You'll likely need to budget for at least one lens as well.

[jdepould]

A lot of the undergrad photo majors here use D80/D90s (depending on when they purchased). A few have D300/D700. Some of the non-majors have D60s and the like.

An important thing to consider is whether your school has gear to check out. We're heavily biased toward Nikon, so the Canon shooters are at something of a disadvantage.

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by jdepould

\

An important thing to consider is whether your school has gear to check out. We're heavily biased toward Nikon, so the Canon shooters are at something of a disadvantage.

That's a trend Im seeing alot more of: Nikon is getting some mad school-based love. I know the photography program at the nearest college in town uses Nikon exclusively: D3/D3x, D300, lenses out the wazoo and speedlights... oh the speedlights.

I got funny looks when I asked for 10 SB-600s. But they were there.

[jdepould]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

That's a trend Im seeing alot more of: Nikon is getting some mad school-based love. I know the photography program at the nearest college in town uses Nikon exclusively: D3/D3x, D300, lenses out the wazoo and speedlights... oh the speedlights.

I got funny looks when I asked for 10 SB-600s. But they were there.

Yeah, we've had that for a long time. I'm a little pissed that the 400 they sent us this year is the older non-VR, D-type, but oh well.

We have a ton of speedlights, like 15 SB-900s.