Amateur Photographer & What Digital Camera: SLR for a beginner

Beware that you don't fall into the trap of thinking an expensive Camera will take Good Pictures. IMHO you are better using a decent camera with manual control of exposure - an SLR aids composition, esp close-up and alternative lenses help in the creative process. But whatever you do buy something cheap to experimant with. As a student (Yes?) you should not invest in expensive kit until you have to. It's easy enough to get artistic and quality using film and I expect this will give you a solid foundation in the art and mechanics of photography. I still use colour-neg and have a CD done with the prints - at £1.99 it's a cheap way to build up a digital stock. You can always scan prints and these should make quite large files, with better quality than many digital cameras. Just because the digital D&P is "free" isn't a good reason to follow the herd. You can learn to process B&W film and this is a very satisfying way of experimenting. Good s/h slr's start at well under £100 and if you can find one locally (private sale) you may find a friend that will pass on their lifetime of knowledge, if you undertake to look after their cherished camera. For the same money you will get a rubbish digital, with severe limitations.
The Digital camera revolution has only just started and prices are set to fall. We need 10G memory cards (like SD) and the Foveon chip looks set to change the course of developments, but maybe another technology will oust that. ((Noise in the blue channel seems to be the bugbear for digital cameras and overprocessing before writing the data.))
Good luck and post your progress, etc.
+ I'd be wary of s/h unless you can see it, maybe run a film through etc...(rules out internet)...particularly if you don't really know much about cameras - it's inviting having advantage taken, isn't it?
I forget what photography (course?) you are expecting to do - can you remind us.....
Good Luck.

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