Quote Originally Posted by blacknightteg
i honestly dont agree with that. Dslr's are ment to be as point and shoot as pocket camera's they just have more manual settings on them. i say go for it. its better to learn on something like one of those in my opinion then it is a pocket camera. I know there has been a lot of criticism on here towards people who are new at photography and want to get an slr, but i dont agree with it. yes if you exhaust many of the few manual options on a point and shoot, you will get a good picture. but even on that you wont get the quality a dslr will give you.

when taking pictures with a dslr, its not necessarily about having the manual settings right and what have you, its about angles. the angles can make and or break the picture.

if i were you i would go with a canon. to me that would be better for you in the long run. especially when it comes to acquiring better lenses as you get more into it. their not as expensive as nikon and you can find more third party lenses for canons
Just going from personal experience. I bought my D40 really before I was ready for one. I wish I had taken the time to learn on my point and shoot prior to investing in it. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love it! Great camera and I use it constantly, but I do feel as though I am sort of playing "catch up" with it at times. By all means, if he would like to dive into the DSLR world, I encourage him to do so... I was just speaking from personal opinion/experience which I should have stated.