DSLR cameras have brought pro quality photography gear to everyday people. But it is important to remember that a pro quality camera is only part of what it takes to take amazing photographs. You also have to understand exactly how to make best use of your DSLR camera and that can be quite a bit more complex with a DSLR camera than with a simple point and click style camera.

And I think even more important than knowing the technicalities of how to use your camera is having a good eye. A great sense of what will make a good picture. A great example of this kind of “eye” can be seen when looking at these Beautiful Photos by one of the best photographers.

From personal experience I recommend the Canon Rebel XTi DSLR. It’s a fantastic camera that has worked well for me without any real problems for approximately 3 years now. It’s also rather inexpensive by the pricing standards of professional quality cameras. But you should be warned that those standards are quite high, it’s about $725 without a lens!

When you educate yourself more about pro quality cameras you will find that the lens on the camera is extremely important. If your experience comes mostly from point and click cameras then you are probably used to thinking that the megapixel count is the most important thing but that’s not the case at all.

With DSLRs, the lens is what makes the biggest difference in the quality of the photos. Really the subject of lenses is too complicated for me to cover here, I simply want to make sure you are aware of the importance of lenses and that if you want to get really serious about photography you will have to look into the topic more deeply.

Like with any other skill, you will only become a master photographer with lots of study and practice. You have to read all about the art of photography and then you will need to take lots of pictures experiencing for yourself all of what you’ve learned!

The Nikon D300 Digital SLR and the Nikon D40 Digital SLR are two excellent DSLR choices.