New camera recommendations

I have a friend looking to buy a new camera.

Budget

$1000 US

Size

Any size is fine, but I think DSLR is going to be required

Features

Easy to use. Good indoor sports performance (son plays volleyball and basketball)

How many megapixels will suffice for you? I doubt she'll blow up any pictures so this isn't a big factor. I would say min. 8

Most of her photos will be from within 20 to 30 yards away so 10x would be sufficient.

* How important is “image quality” to you? 7

Do you care for manual exposure modes (shutter priority, aperture priority, manual)? She won't care for that.

General Usage

* What will you generally use the camera for? mostly for indoor sports and standard family candids at birthdays and holidays.

* Will you be making big prints of your photos or not? most likely not and if so not likely to be larger than 8x10

Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos? you bet.

Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos? yes.

Miscellaneous

Are there particular brands you like or hate? I think she currently has a Kodak EVF 10x but it only goes to like iso 400. She likes it's photo in bright light but it's useless in the gym.

Are there particular models you already have in mind? not yet

(If applicable) Do you need any of the following special features? Image Stabilization and wide angle would be good to have.

Thanks

 

There are lots of reviews on the Canon Rebel T2i (aka EOS 550D), Nikon D5000, and D90. Reviews for the Nikon D3100 and Sony SLT A55 are just now appearing. Soon we should also see reviews on the new Nikon D7000 and Sony A580. You have a lot of research ahead of you

no help Kelly

 

Your friend will need an additional lens with long zoom capability to get those 10x zoom shots, so she should keep that in mind when figuring out how much to spend for the camera body and kit lens.

 

Kelly and Andy thanks for your replies. I figure she will need 2 lenses if she wants some zoom. The worry there is for her indoor sports shooting, fast glass is often more than her $1000 budget alone. So likely she'll have to bump up the iso and deal with the digital noise. I guess with that in mind, I should add noise suppression as a key criteria.

Greg

 

And all of the cameras I noted are reasonably good at high ISO. Of course if you want to split hairs, Nikon often comes out on top. More important, arguably, is AF performance tracking moving targets in low light (ye gym). Which is not so easy to pin down, but differences in this regard will likely exceed differences in high ISO noise. Also, how much weight your shooter is comfortable with. The Nikon D90, D7000, and Sony A580 have more heft than the other bodies. Also (maybe) ease of use. For that I would give top marks to the Sony SLT A55. Nikon D90 and D7000 have more potential, so more of a learning curve for anybody chasing that potential. The other models lie in between.

Kelly