Best Bang For The Buck

Easy answer. You want a Canon Rebel series dSLR with the 18-55 kit lens. This is because of features like Electronic First Shutter Curtain and the remote imaging software which Canon offers, both extremely important to maximizing coin image quality.

You should be able to get one new within your budget. Heck, it's probably possible to find every model since the T2i/550D - the current newest is the T5i/700D - available brand-new at retail. For your purposes, any will do. The sensor hasn't changed in all that time, just exterior details which probably won't affect you as a non-professional photographer. The T3i/600D introduced an articulating viewscreen which may be useful to you.

Lens prices can get pretty ludicrous, but Canon has a couple of gems in their lineup. The 40mm pancake, 50mm f/1.8, and 55-250 f/4 are seriously good lenses for the money; don't hesitate to snag one of them if it meets your focal-length needs. I'm a particular fan of the 55-250.

As regards coins, of course, you could go either the dedicated macro lens route - with or without extenders - or the bellows/duplicating lens route.

Unless you have other ulterior photography reasons for getting a DSLR, the Rebel series is a fantastic buy, I myself have owned and still own quite a few Canon DSLRs from the Rebel (low end) up to their flagship model the 1Ds series. Great cameras with lots of features to love.

The real key however, is lenses, just buy the best you can afford, keep them, as they will continue to work on future camera bodies you may feel like upgrading to down the road. I'm still using lenses I bout in 2000 with my film rig, they work just as good today as the day I purchased them.

Brand-new, sharp telephotos or macro lenses that have both flatness of field and tack-sharp focus at 1:1 will set you back pretty quickly. One way I can suggest to save bucks would be to buy lenses used. I have had many excellent experiences buying used gear from outfits like KEH. I know that B&H sells used too--I bought a used Gitzo tripod from them.

Still have the XS. Would definitely be a cheaper alternative & I could always upgrade camera at a later date.

Why DSLR? why not a Mirrorless interchangeable lens camera? you end up with more lens options with all the advantages of a DSLR plus the convenience of a point and shoot. All you are getting extra with a DSLR is an unnecessary mirror box.

Sony is certainly not the only one: heres a link to B&H.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/M...N/4288586281

A studio set up camera and associated gear is going to cost a lot more than US$600.00 so, As far as my understanding goes, that seems a spurious comment. Utility for a coin collector is waht I was talking about. a mirrorless camera with cheap adapters makes many manual focus macro lenses available.




I suggest any one considering this think hard.... when using their camera for walk around purposes if you use the rear LCD screen more than the view finder the view find is pretty much a waste of time. This summer I noticed those few people who had DSLRs in Vienna were usually relying on the LCD screen. I think there has been a substantive change from the old school and point and shoots and smart phones a trained people to take photos differently( not wrong just different)

Ahh, and just between you and me, you might want to think about it a bit longer before calling someone's comment "spurious".