This may be a dumb question...

[non sequitur]

My 13 year old son has taken a keen interest in photography. He says that all he wants for Christmas is a camera, but he wants an SLR. What, exactly, makes a camera an SLR? For example, how would an SLR differ from the Fuji FinePix that I own?

Also, does anyone have any recommendations on a decent SLR that would be appropriate for a 13 year old?

[tooblue]

Originally Posted by non sequitur

My 13 year old son has taken a keen interest in photography. He says that all he wants for Christmas is a camera, but he wants an SLR. What, exactly, makes a camera an SLR? For example, how would an SLR differ from the Fuji FinePix that I own?

Also, does anyone have any recommendations on a decent SLR that would be appropriate for a 13 year old?

I wouldn't exactly trust a 13 year old with an SLR ... but if you bend and buy one, the lowest end Cannon Rebel xt or xti is a very good buy.

[hyrum]

Originally Posted by non sequitur

My 13 year old son has taken a keen interest in photography. He says that all he wants for Christmas is a camera, but he wants an SLR. What, exactly, makes a camera an SLR? For example, how would an SLR differ from the Fuji FinePix that I own?

Also, does anyone have any recommendations on a decent SLR that would be appropriate for a 13 year old?

SLR means Single-Lens-Reflex. That means what you see in the viewfinder is exactly what you get on the film or the light sensor. When you press the shutter a mirror flips to send the image to the film or light sensor.

Someone that age can learn a lot using an SLR camera and film, especially with manual controls (ie. turn off automatic metering etc). That said its a lot cheaper to experiment with a digital camera and the incremental cost for playing around with exposures, etc, is small, practically zero with a digital camera and you get immediate feedback. The world, including publishing is going digital, so I personally wouldn't start a 13-year old out on a film SLR camera (which you can probably find used for a song since a lot of people are getting into digital and getting out of their film SLR stuff).

There are digital SLR cameras, but compared to say some higher end non-SLR digitals (with 12x zoom, image stabilization, 5 megapixel or greater), I don't know if you get much bang for the buck, at least not enough for me to spend the extra bucks, even though I have a pretty good set of Nikon SLR lenses already. FWIW, I've been using a Panasonic Lumix for most of my pix lately.

[marsupial]

I have an old Nikon 8008 SLR. He can have it if you pay for shipping.

[il Padrino Ute]

Originally Posted by non sequitur

My 13 year old son has taken a keen interest in photography. He says that all he wants for Christmas is a camera, but he wants an SLR. What, exactly, makes a camera an SLR? For example, how would an SLR differ from the Fuji FinePix that I own?

Also, does anyone have any recommendations on a decent SLR that would be appropriate for a 13 year old?

If he really is interested in photography and you are willing to spend the money, I'd suggest this for him:

http://www.nikonusa.com/template.php...roductNr=25420

It will cost you about $600, but this is an outstanding camera that he'll be able to use until he can start buying his own stuff. The best thing about Nikon is that all of the lenses and various models are interchangeable, so he won't have to get different lenses for each camera body.