General

[Mike Deep]

With a $300 budget, used is your only option. Lenses are going to be a problem if you intend to shoot paintball. The kit lens can only get you so far, and the cheapest telephotos will eat up most of a $300 budget by themselves.

[Lead-Foot]

Originally Posted by Mike Deep

With a $300 budget, used is your only option. Lenses are going to be a problem if you intend to shoot paintball. The kit lens can only get you so far, and the cheapest telephotos will eat up most of a $300 budget by themselves.

Mikes right and your not going to enjoy shooting paintball with the limitations. There's so much more than just a camera and lens, so much more.

If I were you I would get a new 32gb iPod touch and shoot videos and take still shots of players at the field. You can post to image hosts right from the iPod, you can edit photos with iPhoto ($5) and edit video with iMovie ($5) and put the video to YouTube from the iPod. No messy image editing software or computers needed. Plus it does 100,000 other things.

[lonegunmen]

I picked up a new Nikon Coolpix P510 and I am happy with the features on it. Zoom, fast shutter, multi shots for sports,many choices for settings. It does well, and I have seen it for $329.

[chopper duke]

Woot has the T3 for $399 right now. Don't know if it's good or not but there it is.

Canon EOS Rebel T3 Digital SLR

[Hawkeye20]

I learned on a Nikon D40. They're excellent cameras for beginners and are pretty well priced for what you get. They're also pretty light-weight.

Nikon D40 6.1 Megapixel Digital Camera w 2 lenses <--- That's local to you. Comes with a second lens featuring greater magnification. You could probably talk him down to $400 if you're good with negotiating.

http://maine.craigslist.org/pho/3391352459.html Wow, D70 for an insanely low price! Forget the other link, unless you wanted the second lens...

[Floundah]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye20

I learned on a Nikon D40. They're excellent cameras for beginners and are pretty well priced for what you get. They're also pretty light-weight.

Nikon D40 6.1 Megapixel Digital Camera w 2 lenses <--- That's local to you. Comes with a second lens featuring greater magnification. You could probably talk him down to $400 if you're good with negotiating.

Nikon D70 DSLR with case, charger, memory charge & lens Wow, D70 for an insanely low price! Forget the other link, unless you wanted the second lens...

yup i jumped on that D70 yesterday, waiting to hear back. Craigslist is always sketchy, especially if it a good deal, lets pray its not some murderer thanks everyone for your help

[Hobbes]

I've done several recent craigslist deals and I'm still alive

[Hobbes]

A bit higher than your budget, but the Panasonic GH2 is currently $500 with kit lens at Amazon with 2% cash back potential. Not a bad price on that and they video mode is supposed to be pretty good, especially with the hacked firmware.

[Luckless]

Not a huge fan of the T3, especially when compared to the T2i and T3i sensors. I own one, and used it for about a year, then upgraded to a 7D because of issues such as low FPS, poor ISO ability, and general build quality.

Personally I would strongly suggest going with something supporting a back wheel as well as a front dial (Any non-rebel body I guess for canon, no clue about other brands.) as this lets you adjust stuff so much easier. The single dial rebels aren't horrible, and they are perfectly workable, but dual dials just make things so much easier in a number of cases.

[Arson24]

Originally Posted by Luckless

Not a huge fan of the T3, especially when compared to the T2i and T3i sensors. I own one, and used it for about a year, then upgraded to a 7D because of issues such as low FPS, poor ISO ability, and general build quality.

Personally I would strongly suggest going with something supporting a back wheel as well as a front dial (Any non-rebel body I guess for canon, no clue about other brands.) as this lets you adjust stuff so much easier. The single dial rebels aren't horrible, and they are perfectly workable, but dual dials just make things so much easier in a number of cases.

I was a huge fan of my T3......until I got my hands on my 7D.
but I do agree with your points, that back scroll wheel is awesome
and when you customize it to your liking its really handy to change stuff on the fly.