I'm selling my D200 right now if you're thinking about something like that, I dont know. $850 with the vertical grip and an extra battery. You'll still need a lens for it though so factor that in also.
And yeah you may want a tripod, depends on what you're shooting. Its not a necessary initial purchase though if you're just trying to pick up the essentials right now.

D80 is nice, Ritz has them for a decent price too http://www.ritzcamera.com/product/54....htm?bct=t1134 go to a store and play around with one and see if there are any lenses you like too

yea I am not getting every little thing right now, I want to get the camera to get use to for now then ill go from there. And to the people that said I should take classe's I am not gonna be that big into that I would take class's beside's I am trying to avoid a Community College I want to go down south or up to Penn State hopefully when I am done doing the Extra education work I am doing since I graduated already from high school. hopefully ill be at the college i want. I am not getting that far ahead of myself right now, gotta take a inch at a time, sometimes you have to take a step back in order to take a step forward.

Yea Circuit City has it to. I am gonna go to the Mall one day and visit the Camera store. or I may go to Circuit City, well see.

Pro Camera Shop... find one and go to it. Unless you want to talk to someone who doesnt have a clue about anything that they're talking about which is what you'll find in the Mall, Best Buy, Ritz Camera, or similar.

And as far as I'm concerned the SLR purchase is a package deal with some form of education on the camera, otherwise we're back to the p+s convo where I would be willing to bet that the SLR will result in WORSE photos than a p+s would. If not a class you need some sort of guidance, but a class would really be best. Even a once a week night class for 8 weeks or something...

I dont know, I actually have a Allen's Brochure right next to me, Ive been glancing through it. They have the D80 listed for 849.95 and the Tripod for 449.95 thats like 12-1300 bucks right there. I rather just get the Camera for the time being.

There are roughly 8 billion tripod options out there ranging from $50 to $1500, but I thought we established that you're not tripod shopping right now.
Camera prices change over time, and Allen's will be competitive with any legitimate shop, or maybe beat them on price.

I know, But I was justing quoting on the price they listed.

Just a few things I read

Anything over 8 megapixels will mean virtually nothing unless you want to print large prints.
FPS mean virtually nothing if you never use it (sports, birds, motorsports, etc.)...if you just shoot pre-set things in pre-set environments it makes no difference...ive never had to use burst fire on either of my cameras.

You have to get a camera that is suited for what you want to do, if you just want to take pictures of stuff, a point and shoot is probbably your best bet, its all been said here. I would really listen to funny!, i like rice, troll, jspek, vwcorradokid, and most others that have put their solid advice here. They have been doing this for years, in fact most have probbably been shooting since before me and you knew how to shoot with a P&S. If you want to check out my 30D you are welcome to do so, fire off some shots, and ill show you the basics, but I'll say what others have, at the point where you are NOW, its not going to matter much if you get a P&S or a top-of-the-line DSLR, the DSLR might just be more confusing for you. Sure its a long-term investment so you won't have to upgrade equiptment time and time again, but I found it better to work at a slow pace and learn rather than jump in to deep water immediately.

I realize what you are saying, But like I said its just for ****'s and giggle's at this point, I said I may start a business with it, that's not a definite, its a maybe, maybe I ll get big into it maybe i wont, I just want a decent camera at this point. I hate these stupid $100 digital camera's that look like the picture's came from a disposable camera or a Filmed Camera. My brother just bought a Nikon CoolPix S550 some digital camera, he got a deal on it because he work's at staple's Ive looked online their and they only have the D40 and D60 I believe. If anything Ill just wait til christmas to get this. I am not sure If ill be coming out to the Moorestown Meet anytime soon.

Well realistically, youll need at LEAST a year experience to start any kind of business with photography, and that means taking classes, reading, and spending time consistently on shooting and learning. If you want to just take pictures for now, buy a nice Point and Shoot camera, because if you get an SLR, you won't be able to take "nice" pictures for a little while until you learn everything, and its quite a bit to learn. A good point and shoot will give you nice crisp pictures, good features, at a generally lower price compared to SLR and it will be more user-friendly so you won't get tangled up in the manual modes...trust me, it is very frustrating to take shot after shot and see that it came out different from how you wanted, I think after almost 9 months I am just getting out of that territory barely.

Don't forget post-processing, which is a whole other field and I find it harder than taking the picture itself (but I need to learn it more)

My advice
Buy a nice Point and Shoot (like the Canon g10? that i like rice suggested)
Shoot with it and enjoy your pictures
Play with the manual modes here and there, learn stuff, and THEN move to an SLR if you want to progress with it as a hobby.

There are still times that I am glad to have my old 5 megapixel Kodak point and shoot, because despite having a half decent ammount of knowledge about photography sometimes I just don't want to mess with using a large bulky camera even in full-auto mode or manual settings for that matter.

is their any camera similar to the G10 that Nikon Make's?

Im not at all familiar with newer P&S Cameras, from Canon or Nikon, but i like rice is a great photog and I would not hesitate to follow his advice at all.

Check out www.dpreview.com
They have reviews for cameras and go over the features and have sample shots from each one.

Nikon has the D40 also. which is like $460.

this i believe is the equivalent to the g10...dont quote me on it...
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0808/08...nikonp6000.asp

and i am not a fan of the d40/x/60. id die if i had to manual focus a lot of my lenses every time.

Thank's Yea Ive seen that one, So neither the Canon G10 or the Nikon Coolpix P6000 or SLR but these are surpose to make the picture's equivalent to an SLR image?

You Know What I think I should just delete or closed this thread and acted Like I never posted it.

If you dont want to post here any more then dont... but now that a lot of very knowledgeable people have taken the time to try and help guide you, save you hundreds/thousands, and get you on the right track, I dont think any 'closing or deleting' is necessary, which you dont have the ability to do anyway. Even if you dont want to listen to all of this excellent advice, at least we can hope that our advice may help someone else in the future.
The time to decide whether a thread should exist or not is before you start it in the first place.

why are you getting so upset. everyone here is trying to help and you're acting like everyone is takin shots at you.

You know what, To many idea's pop into my head and it only take's a thing or two to talk me out of it. which basically what you guy's did by saying oh well this is this and that is that and it becomes expensive blah blah blah. I mean you guy's want me to buy all this **** for it for no reason maybe that's what you guy's like and what not but i have other taste's. you guy's make it sound like a have to spend a fortunate on a damn camera.

i didnt see where anyone was telling you to spend all kinds of money. the truth of the matter is, photography is an expensive hobby when it gets serious. every single person that posted in this thread was trying to save you money by telling you to get something entry level before jumping too far into it right away. if you keep attacking the people in here that are trying to help you, its gonna get ugly.

you know what just close the thread, end of discussion.

wtf... we're telling you to just buy a simple point and shoot so you dont waste your money.

here's the deal... a lot of us know a lotttt more about this than you, and have yearssss of experience with photography, and buying gear, and making mistakes, and so on.
this isnt something any of us would rub in your face or bring up randomly, but you posted a thread asking for help.
we're here, taking our time, to try and help you. we're more than happy to do it, but if you're not going to listen to what we're saying and understand its coming from people with a lot of insight then we'll feel like we're wasting our time.
you're learning whats involved with photography... sorry that the truth is you cant get a complete high end slr package for $400, and that even if you did take the plunge your photos wont improve unless you take a class, but better for you to know now then once you've already begun spending money.

you've got a bad attitude dude... i dont understand it. ton of people trying to help and you get all defensive and mad? unappreciative doesn't even begin to describe it...

and no, i wont close the thread. you obviously didnt take anything away from it but i hope that the time we've taken here will be informative to someone down the line, so it wasnt a complete waste.

the **** is this guys deal.

yup, definitely shouldnt have asked anyone anything, just gone and spent $800 or $1000 getting the basics, and then realized he doesn't even know where the on/off button is. and then realizing for himself that if he doesnt know what he's doing the photos will look like garbage just like they do with a cheap camera. that would have been better...

he's really starting to piss me off with all this bull****. to the OP, if you want to ignore everyones advice and waste your money on **** you dont need and dont know how to use, then be our guests. but dont come in here and tell us we dont know what the hell we're talking about.

First off you don't have other taste's because you've never done photography so you wouldn't know what is involved.

Second your immature as hell, its almost funny reading this thread and seeing you react the way you did when some really great photographers and very knowledgeable people have chimed in.

and third, I may be completely off on this and have mixed you up with someone else, but aren't you still in HS? So where would you come up with the 1300 dollars for a D90? Thats something you should take into account.

No I am not in HS, and why doe's it matter where I get money from that's not of your concern.

Also I thought I would throw this in, I've seen you post in 2 or 3 threads, and everytime you have you've created mayhem in them.

because thats a lot of money to drop on a camera when you don't know anything about photography. Think logically here, I know that may be difficult for you. But lets cut the crap and admit that 1300 bucks right off the bat to realize you may not even enjoy something is a little ridiculous. Start off small.

i think its time to make a faq section for these questions. im down to help make it.

Sure, and you can use my name as a Thread Title.

what the **** does that even mean.

How to explain something to an idiot.

since that's what you all assume.

i must have missed the posts in here that assumed you were an idiot. you asked questions and we gave you answers. if you dont like the answers you're getting, then stop asking questions.

One of you Guy's mention that i probably dont know where the power button is!.

that was after you completely shot down everyone's advice. we're not going to be nice to you and try to help you if you are an ass when we try to help.

in all honesty, i didnt know how to turn on a sony a100 today.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/recommended-cameras.htm

Check this guys site out he has a lot of useful info and reviews of different gear

Yeah he has lots of good info, and then some thats totally off the deep end. I like to read his stuff but I also like to cross reference elsewhere...

i lost a lil faith in him when he says one thing is better, but then later goes on to rave about the not so better stuff. still good reading.