Black Friday 2013: Canon EOS Rebel T3

One thing about travel and kids -- you want a good camera, one that can capture fast action and low light situations. I use the Canon EOS Rebel T3 with a variety of lenses, including my favorite: the Nifty Fifty. I really like this camera as it gives the user a lot of creative range in setting up the picture. For example, you can go the total automated route if you like as the camera includes your typical presets -- Landscape, Action, etc -- and a pop-up flash, but also allows for more manual settings such as setting aperture or shutter speed for more advanced usage. You can also have an auto white balance or you can set it yourself. It also has a broad set of ISO settings from 100 to 6400 so you can capture those sunset pictures on the beach!

One downside: this camera is more bulky than my point & shoot and so it is sometimes annoying to haul around a camera bag (I have this one) and depending on the types of pictures you want to take, you may find the 18-55 mm kit lens a bit lacking; I find the 18-55mm adequate for "walk around" -- when I don't know what I'm going to stumble upon and I need a good all purpose lens. However, I have supplemented the kit lens with the above mentioned Nifty Fifty and a zoom lens, the Canon 55-250 mm. That being said, I've taken this camera around the world with me and I've been very pleased with the quality of pictures I've gotten and I love having the presets at my fingers for pictures I don't want to "miss".

I'll be honest -- I don't know whether one should choose Nikon over Canon, but this camera is a good entry-level workhorse at a very reasonable price (currently $420 at Amazon with the kit lens). Nikon -- which I have NO experience with -- also has a reasonable entry level DSLR: the Nikon D3100  at a similar price price point.

I'm specifically pointing out the Canon EOS Rebel T3 because this Black Friday Cyber Monday, Amazon is allegedly offering the camera at a price "under $400". That's a fantastic value for this quality camera and the cheapest I've seen it new (I purchased mine in July of 2012 used for $420 and *that* was a good price then!). So if you've been thinking about buying a DSLR, I recommend this one, especially at the Black Friday deal price!