Good Deal for first DLSR?

[rancid]

^^what's wrong with the D40? 

Versatility wise, it's not as feature packed as say the D80, D200, D300, etc, the D80 is a better camera.  Manual focus only lenses on the D40 is a bit of a pain and and it does not produce the same quality of pics as any other entry level DSLR

i agree with the lack of features on the camera.  I like it like that in a way.  I was going to pick up the D80 as my travel/backup but decided on the D40 due to weight constraints.  I have used my D40 for manual focus shots and it seems to perform fairly well.  My D200 does a slightly better job at it.  I'm glad I didn't lug my D200 around with me on my trip....it's damn heavy!  I didn't really have much of a choice except to go with Nikon cause I have Nikon lenses...and I like the pics that come out of Nikons better than the other cameras that I've tried. 

[BLAM]

i sure hope you'd agree, i pretty much copy pasted what you wrote....

[fulminatus]

^^ LOL.. lazy bum.  And I thought you made a mistake in your post.

[rancid]

i sure hope you'd agree, i pretty much copy pasted what you wrote....

LOL....that's what I get for posting after I just woke up.... =P

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If anyone is looking for a mid zoom lens....stay away from the 18-135mm Nikon.  It's not that great.  There's considerable light fall off at the 135mm end.  I didn't have a chance to test out where it starts.  Picture quality wise, it's not bad after you fix the lens portion of it in lightroom or photoshop.  I say if you're going to get a midrange zoom....the nikon 70-210mm F4 would be better suited.  The pics that come out of that lens is damn sharp!  I have the old manual focus, push pull version and it does an excellent job.

I did stumble onto a few good deals on craigslist for cameras.  Had a few D80's up for sale for fairly good prices.  May want to look there and save some cash. 

[BLAM]

if anyone is looking for a lens, stay away rfom anything more than 3x zoom

[RichMac]

if anyone is looking for a lens, stay away rfom anything more than 3x zoom

What about this?

 http://gizmodo.com/353414/massive-panavision-bazooka-hd-lens-delivers-300x-zoom

[jmbproject]

An example of what I wanted(editing). I edited this pic using photobucket.

[Ice-520]

An example of what I wanted(editing). I edited this pic using photobucket.

PS can achieve this effect better, less bleeding edges around the plant

[jmbproject]

Wow you have good eyes!. yeah it was a bit hard doing that.
Just for practice purposes till I find a dslr for myself.