There have been many assumptions, conclusions and hearsays with regards to the cheapest slr digital camera. Some say it comes from Canon – the Canon Rebel T3. While other says, it’s Nikon D3100 and some declare the Pentax K-X. As you read through below, you will know the answer to these questions and you will discover which one is the cheapest, all by yourself.
To start off, let’s give the floor to the Canon Rebel T3 as it introduces itself – starting from its pros and cons.
Canon Rebel T3 generally brings EXCELLENT photo quality (12.2mp). This camera is also a good entry level camera (great for beginners because it has simple controls manipulation and minimal buttons to memorize). What Canon did was to reborn the Canon Rebel XS and named it Canon rebel T3 with some additional features and more settings. For its price, the photo quality is very good also it has excellent mid-range ISO (400-3200) sensitivity performance. The processing is very good as well.
It also has great color reproduction, however, when you shoot in shadowed areas, the white balance gets a little too cool. A certain feature that pushed the saturation and sharpness is also available and its called Standard Picture Style. Distinct feature also include solid metering and exposure. It comes with an 18-55mm lens that produces nice out-of focus highlights. However, like any other products, it has average performance, nothing but the basic features so it is very fit for newbies.
Now, it’s time for Nikon D3100.
It basically has excellent photo quality (14.2 mp) and has very good and well laid out controls. It has user-friendly guide mode and full manual controls on video capturing. However, it has small viewfinder and sadly, no bracketing.
The camera delivers excellent color reproduction in its default SD mode. IT has typical quality for its video. The audio is not bad but it gets a hard time locking the focus of the subject. What’s good about this camera is that it can offer full manual exposure during movie capturing. It can shoot even during night times and in low light conditions. However, it has the slowest burst performance of the group at 2.9fps which makes it not a suitable camera for photographing wildlife. This is good for photographing kids and pets.
Bottomline is, it is a good entry-level camera. Excellent photo quality is obvious and though it possesses these, it stands behind the competition.
It has 12.4 mp, very good noise profile, classy viewfinder and relatively speedy. It offers movie capture support in a kit. The camera body is solid and well fit. However, it is ran by 4 AA batteries which makes it heavier than any other battery packs.
On the viewfinder, the AF is not displayed, no HDMI connector, slow Live View autofocus, mediocre LCD and unreliable image stabilization.
It has creative modes as it explores artistic freedom through unique special effects. What’s amazing is the camera’s HDR image capture.
All these camera range from $400 to $550. So whatever you choose, make sure that you will not regret about it and you may enjoy its features.
