Replying to Help me find my brother a camera

1) What is your budget? How much money can you spend right away, and do you think you can get more money to invest in the future?

i'd say his budget is up to about £500 as he only really wants something entry level for photography, not filming

2) What experience do you already have with cameras? Have you ever even used one before? Have you helped your friend out with his camera? Have you owned your own?

he has messed around with my t1i and really liked it, other than that only point and shoots

2) What gear, if any, do you currently have? (tripod, old camera lenses, mics, etc)

he has none. he also lives abroad so borrowing my stuff isn't really an option unless he's home,but i have a tripod, lenses, remotes etc. i don't think he is looking to buy any kit any time soon though

4) What are you planning to shoot and how do you want to use your camera? Are you going to use this with the sole purpose of shooting skiing? or do you think you might try other stuff as well (movies, documentaries, short films, etc)

as i said, he just wants a better camera for getting into photography ie a DSLR

5) Do you want a camera that you can hand to your friends, that could or could not have film experience, and let them shoot you? or will you be doing all the filming?

i doubt he'd be letting others use it for any length of time, and not for any intensive use.

6) When filming skiing, how do you tend to shoot? (follow cams, leave it on record on a tripod and hike, film from a tripod, etc)

this is irrelevant

7) What computer do you currently have/use to edit (if not currently editing, what would you most likely use)? If you can provide specifics, such as hard drive space, RAM, processor size, that would be great.

he has a small laptop that wouldn't beup to the job, but our computer at home is very powerful and has cs5 installed

8) What program do you currently edit on? How familiar are you with it (1- just learning; 10- I can make tutorials and know the keyboard layout)

i don't think he's ever used photoshop



so yeah my brother was looking for a decent entry level DSLR for photography, not filming.

we found a nikon d3100 with the 18-55vr lens (i presume this is a kit lens as i know nothing about nikon) for £400 but i don't know if this is a good deal (it looks good but i'mnot sure)

so yeah any advice/ suggestions would be greatly appreciated, and feel free to point out anything i may have missed