I'm pretty ignorant when it come to cameras. But, I want to buy a digital SLR with appropriate lenses for an up coming Zimbabwe safari. The trip may include some national park wildlife viewing if I fill out early. Just so you know, I'm budget conscious.

There are many that will do what you want. What is your price range?

The Canon rebels are good for an entry DSLR.

I know Saeed uses a Panasonic fixed (but with zoom) lens but not sure what model.

The canon rebel xt with an 18x50 zoom would do the job, being small, light and with 8 mp available. They usually run around $300. You must have a telephoto lens of at lease 300 mm. It adds a lot of trouble. You may want to go ahead and buy a Tamrom 28-300 zoom and a doubler to cover all the bases.

My family all preferred to see the digital video I took with my Panasonic/Leica Dicomar which allowed D-video and had a 3.1 sd capacity card. It was small enough to fit in my cargo pants but every time we spotted an animal to stalk I got so excited, I forgot about everything else.
Have fun.
Frank


I took lots of photos but I already had an Eos xd 30 at the time. I would have preferred a smaller in between size.
I also carried a finepix in my pocket but it only had a 2 mp capacity and I wished I had something a little bigger to get more detail.

Thanks guys. I just missed a Canon on E-bay with a 18x50mm and 50-200mm lens. It sold for $335. That is within my budget.

On eBay I see Nikon D60 cameras in the $180 to $300 range, but not with telephoto lenses out to 200mm which would have to be added if wildlife photography is one of the uses.

I just bought a Nikon D3000 kit with 18-55mm VR and 55-200mm AFS VR. I hope this will be OK. I am into it for $408.00.

It is definitely capable of taking good pictures and there are probably several good instructional books on learning how to get the most from it. Here's a link to one:

http://www.nikonians.org/forum...2&mesg_id=1972&page=

Thanks Wink, I think I'll get one.