At the moment there are 3 big brands in the dSLR world. Personally I wouldn't go outside those brands since the others have a very limited availability for accesories and lenses. These 3 big brands are:
- Canon
- Nikon
- Sony
You might think, what the hell is Sony in that row: they bought Konica-Minolta so they got the knowledge
To start with:
lenses are of biggest influence on your picture! I reckon 70-75% of the image quality is decided by what lens you pick. So for example, if you want a 70-200 zoom lens and regular range normal lens (say something like 17-55) and you have a budget of 2000 euro's, spend a maximum of 500 on your body and the rest on lenses and accesories.
Sony's are really lively with colors, Nikon is a bit dull in terms of colors. Canon is somewhere in between. It's a matter of taste what you like most. The current Sony series are a bit on the noisy side compared to the Canons and Nikons but they have a bit more detail. Of course I'm talking about the budget dSLR's.
One big advantage of the Sony is that it's got image stabilizer in the body and not in the lenses. If you want image stabilizer, with any other of the big brands, you'll have to pay extra for every extra lens, Sony does not have that. In return it's about 20% less effective. The question is, how big of a problem is that when some lenses from Canon and Nikon have 300 euro's or more price difference for the same lens with image stabilizer...
Also decide if you want liveview - that means using your screen as a viewfinder. Sony is the only brand that has this implemented right. With the other big brands, your autofocus becomes as slow as an other digital compact camera.
If you want a really cheap dSLR, look for the Alpha200. It can be had really cheap at this moment, features the image stabilizer in the body and Sony has some awesome lenses. Imho stay away from the current Alpha series(230,330,380), you're better of with a 450D or 500D if you want a step higher. The current series is more expensive, grips worse and hasn't got any image improvements. And the Canon has beter auto metering and white balance. And if you are willing to spend a bit more, the new Alpha 500 and 550 look like they will be great camera's with very good noise performance. But that has yet to be seen. If you don't want to wait, the Canon EOS 40D can be had for good prices nowadays and is certainly a big step up from the budget dSLR's.
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