I’m visiting another part of East Africa this week and have the opportunity to invest in a camera, at a knock down price, limited selection though & some are DSLRs. Choices are:

Nikon D3200 or 5200
Canon Rebel 5
Sony A3000 or NEX7

Thoughts…?

The Nikons are good and a great ‘start’.
I’d get an slr if you’re into learning.

I just bought the Nikon D3300.

The 5200 is an older model but both can be had for similar money. I chose the 3300 as it’s ISO range is greater so potentially better in darker conditions.

The 3300 only came out early this year I believe

What’s a “Rebel 5”?

The Rebel T5 is what we know as a 1200D, and the T5i is our (considerably better) 700D. I’m not aware of anything that’s just a 5.

Unless you have friends you can borrow gear off, the whole Canon vs Nikon thing is best resolved by playing with them in the shops and going on intuition. There’s not a vast amount between them in practical terms, it’s largely personal preference.

I’ve got a nex-7 (and a dslr). The advantage of the nex-7 is size. Essentially it’s a miniature dslr. The downside is size too, it’s a fiddly little thing compared to a dslr. The other downside is the price of lenses. If you can get the lenses you want in budget and you want a small, high quality kit then it’s hard to beat.

The same applies to the a3000, except it’s not as small as the nex-7 so the benefits are dubious.

If you can live with the extra size a dslr will give you faster handling and cheaper lenses.

Knock down price you say ? . . . . check the warranty/returns process carefully, otherwise that knock down bargain could quickly become an expensive paperweight/ornament.

Canon v Nikon is sillyness – plenty of other good makes like Sony and Pentax. Also CSCs are now as good, but smaller, so there’s Olympus, Panasonic etc.

To the OP – your only option is to try before your buy – or just guess – they will all be good.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/360910530495?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=108&device=m&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108

Canon 1100D bargain price. The Rebel T5 or 1200D in the UK is not much of an upgrade.

With decent lenses the 1100D is more than capable.

Cougar, yes T5i is what I meant.

Tony, knockdown price comes with full worldwide warranty & backup because of where I’m getting it from.