Helping a friend choose a camera - Part 2

Following up my earlier advice, my friend has now decided on a digital SLR:

"Also have managed to get up to £600 to invest in a camera. I believe that this was the camera you recommended: Canon 400D.

Do you think it's worth taking advantage of the packages that they are offering with the camera... or just to wait and save up for an additional lens at a later date?

Any advice - as always - would be well received!"

This is how the advice continued:

You certainly couldn't go wrong with this as a starting kit and at 10 megapixels you could blow up fairly large prints. A cheaper option would be the one below it at 8 megapixels (the canon 350D). You can get the same lens [18-55mm kit lens] with the 350D body for £350 at warehouseexpress.com (they are almost always a lot cheaper than Jessops - the 400D is only £438 without lens from them). That would leave you with £250 for other stuff that you will undoubtedly need or want later (such as a tripod, maybe another lens, filters, printer, memory cards, books etc...) Digital is a big investment and it doesn't stop with the camera.

You can pick up lenses and stuff on ebay and at various photo stores online that sell used goods. I can point you in the right direction. Used from photo stores is best as you get a warranty and you can send stuff back if you don't think it is up to scratch (not so on ebay).

Another DSLR system I would consider at the moment for a beginner on a budget would be to look at Pentax. They have a few nice cameras and the beauty of them is that all the old Pentax K Mount lenses will work with them. So you could build up a collection of good lenses (used/cheap). The Pentax prime lenses are excellent (although manual focus) and can be had very cheaply.

The camera is no slouch either.

The 6 megapixel Pentax K100D is £398 with 18-55 zoom lens.
The 10 megapixel K10D is £600 with the same lens.

It still depends on what you mainly want to do (or want to do in future). I think the best bet is still probably the 350D or 400D. If you get the 350D you get the zoom and camera for £350. Then you can try it out and decide whether you need something else. You will also need to buy a few memory cards (cheap online). Everything else comes with the camera. I also use Canon cameras so it might help later on if there is a problem as they have similar controls and so on.

Stay tuned for part 3.