15 Best Budget DSLR Cameras for Beginners in 2024

The Nikon D500 is a higher-priced but durable DX-format (APS-C) DSLR camera. It offers superb autofocus (AF) and stunning images in RAW and JPEG format. It has a wide dynamic range and features great performance at high ISOs.

You also get comfortable and convenient ergonomics, long battery life, a deep buffer, and a fast frame rate (for a DSLR!). That’s helped by support for fast XQD and CFexpress memory cards. All this makes it ideal for those who want to start in sports and wildlife photography.

The autofocus comes from the professional-grade Nikon D5 and has an AF Fine Tune option. There’s a 180,000-pixel metering RGB sensor for subject recognition and metering.

There are 153 autofocus points with 99 cross-type sensors. They offer subject tracking across most of the frame. You can select one of the 55 selectable focus points using the tilting touch screen or an AF joystick on the rear.

You can even temporarily engage a different one. You can also specify the type of movement and the “stickiness” of the focus lock in the menus.

The camera has several user-friendly features:

• Dust and water resistance
• Customizable buttons
• Several connections for quick and easy uploads (Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth, and USB 3.0)

The viewfinder offers 100% coverage and 1.0x magnification for accurate framing. There’s even an anti-flicker mode for indoor shooting in fluorescent light. But it’s a bit heavy, and the SnapBridge app for transferring 2 MP photos to your mobile is unreliable.

The D500 does offer excellent 4K video. But there’s a 1.5x crop (2.25x relative to full frame). And there are few tools besides exposure highlight warnings and power aperture control. The autofocus, when recording, also tends to wobble and “hunt. But you do get microphone and headphone ports.

The Pentax K-3 Mark III is another “pricier” budget APS-C DSLR on our list. The new sensor provides detailed images with built-in noise reduction and good detail. They might even be better than what you get with the Nikon D500. The sensor allows the following:

• Pixel Shift high-resolution resolution images
• Astrotracer for easy star photography
• An anti-aliasing simulator to help prevent false color and moiré

It has a precise and fast SAFOX 13 autofocus, a fast continuous shooting speed, and a 5.5-stop shake reduction. The autofocus is controlled using the joystick. And it works up to 11 frames per second (fps). But the buffer is only 25 shots.

It doesn’t help that you can only use slower SD cards. And only one slot supports UHS-II cards. The autofocus is generally not quite as good as on the Nikon D500. But it’s an improvement on previous Pentax models.

The body is well-built, with a 1.05x magnification viewfinder and a comfortable thumb rest. It has twin control dials. And there’s a customizable e-dial that works with the Smart Function button. These controls appear in the viewfinder. There are five user modes and a lot of customizable controls—all nicely positioned.

The K-3 Mark III is the first Pentax camera to offer high-quality 4K Ultra HD video. It’s easy to change settings in the menu system. And there are microphone and headphone ports. The main video drawbacks? The lack of continuous autofocus and the 1.4x crop (or 2.1x in the full frame equivalent). This has an impact on low-light performance.

It’s also only 8-bit rather than 10-bit output. This means less detail and tonality. And it doesn’t offer 4K / 60p to slow down footage in post-production.

You also get a touch screen. But it’s fixed, and you can’t use the joystick to scroll between menu options. Battery life is average. But at least you can charge the camera using a cable connected to the USB port.

The Nikon D7500 is a mid-range APS-C DSLR camera. It replaces the D7200. And it uses the sensor, processor, and 180,000-pixel metering sensor from the D500. It can perform highlight-weighted metering and has an enormous ISO range. It also has a tilting touch screen and weather-sealing in a lighter body than the D7200.

RAW and JPEG quality is high (despite the slightly low resolution). You also get auto fine-tuning, a fast frame rate, a deep buffer, and 51-point autofocus. This provides subject recognition and “sticky” 3D tracking. All this makes it a great camera for action photography. But there’s no touchpad AF.

It helps that there are twin control dials. They make it much quicker to change your settings on the fly. But there is no integrated grip for easier vertical shots or extended battery life. And you can’t even buy one as an accessory.

It’s capable of 4K video. But video quality suffers from the 1.5x crop (or 2.25x full frame equivalent) and lack of focus peaking for low light. The slow, contrast-detect autofocus also tends to wobble and “hunt.”

The Canon EOS 90D is a mid-range APS-C DSLR camera. It features the highest-resolution crop sensor on the market… plus a few other bells and whistles.

It works best in Live View, with the DIGIC 8 processor and updated 220K-pixel metering sensor. They feature face and eye detection. Canon’s Dual Pixel AF provides fast and accurate focus and subject tracking. That’s for both stills and video.

The frame rate is high enough for a DSLR. And the fully articulating touch screen and AF joystick are handy. You also get some of Canon’s “standard features.” These include weather-sealing, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, headphone, microphone, and USB 2.0 ports.

The 90D replaces the 80D. The body is just as well-built. It has comfortable ergonomics and a viewfinder offering 100% coverage. RAW file quality is outstanding, with great sharpness and noise performance. Canon’s JPEG colors are always popular. But the default noise reduction is too much. It needs to be reduced.

You can shoot some really nice 4K video with no crop. But there is no 24p for standard video resolution. And there are no Log gamma options for advanced editing. So the footage is soft. There’s also no in-body image stabilization (IBIS) to help with handheld shooting. Instead, you need to use digital image stabilization. Plus, the video comes with a heavy crop.

The popular Canon Rebel T8i replaces the T7i. In some countries, it’s called the Canon EOS 850D (Europe) or Canon EOS Kiss X10i (Asia). It’s the company’s flagship APS-C DSLR camera. And it’s compatible with the EF and EF-S ranges of lenses. It has an optical viewfinder. But you can also use it almost as a mirrorless camera by using the touch screen.

It looks like the T7i, except for the new rear control dial and the AF-ON button. You get a slightly faster frame rate and an improved 384-zone metering sensor.

The autofocus system now offers face detection when shooting through the viewfinder. And there is eye detection in Live View. But the pentamirror design is limited. This means the viewfinder only manages 95% coverage with 0.51x magnification.

The T8i can shoot video in 4K. But the frame rate is fixed, and there’s a heavy, 1.6x crop. The autofocus also uses less contrast detection rather than Dual Pixel AF.

The Nikon D3500 is a DX-format (or APS-C) DSLR camera. It has a great Guide mode for beginners. It’s cheaper and lighter than the D3400 it replaced and offers better battery life.

Guide mode lets you tell the camera what kind of shot you want to take and then talks you through how to do it. That includes the basics of photography, including shutter speed, aperture, and exposure compensation.

You can choose Easy Operation if you want the camera to select the settings for “moving subjects,” say. Otherwise, Advanced Operation gives you more control.

The sensor is one of the best APS-C sensors on the market, leading to excellent performance at low ISOs. The limited ISO range, 11-point focus system, and slow burst rate are also acceptable at this level.

If you’re upgrading from a smartphone, the Nikon D3500 offers a higher resolution. But it isn’t as easy to use without a touch screen. Plus, it’s also not a great camera for videographers. The highest quality is only Full HD video recording.

But exposure metering is inconsistent. And the autofocus struggles in low light or with moving subjects. Face detection only works in Live View, and Bluetooth file transfer is slow.

Note that Nikon will stop making the D3500 as soon as European stocks have run out. Once that happens, it’ll only be available on the second-hand market.

The Canon EOS Rebel SL3 is also known as the EOS 250D or 200D Mark II in certain countries. It’s an APS-C DSLR camera that improves on the old SL2. Canon added 4K video and Eye AF in Live View in a smaller, lighter body.

Like the D3500, it has a Guided UI (user interface). It helps you learn photography skills while you shoot. It also has a Creative Assist mode for experimenting with other special effects. But you can always switch to manual mode whenever you feel ready.

The Canon Rebel SL3 combines Canon’s best APS-C sensor with the DIGIC 8 image processor. This improves the signal-to-noise ratio. And it leads to sharper images and a higher dynamic range, particularly at high ISOs.

But you must enter Live View to take advantage of the Dual Pixel AF system. It’s based on phase detection. And this makes it quicker than the contrast detection systems on many cameras.

The Canon Rebel SL3 has 3,975 selectable focus points. They cover 88% of the width and 100% of the height of the frame. You can choose between several focus options in either single-shot mode or Servo AF mode:

• Single-point AF
• Spot AF (an even smaller point)
• Zone AF
• Subject-tracking AF

The vari-angle touch screen, Wi-Fi (with NFC), and Bluetooth connectivity are useful. But the frame rate is average. And the autofocus only works with nine focus points through the viewfinder.

You can shoot 4K video on the Canon Rebel SL3. But the crop factor is high, the focus is a little slow, and you can’t use Spot AF or Zone AF. The optical low-pass filter also reduces the resolution slightly. But subject tracking is excellent!

The Nikon D5600 is a mid-range DX-format (APS-C) DSLR camera like the D5300. D5x00 models sit between Nikon’s D3x00 and D7x00 series. It’s in the middle of the pack for ease of use, performance, and customization options.

Sharpness is generally a little better than on other competing APS-C cameras. This is due to the lack of an optical low-pass filter—though at the expense of increased noise. The autofocus with touchpad AF is fast, accurate, and tracks moving subjects well.

There’s also a touch screen and built-in Wi-Fi, NFC, and Bluetooth connections. But you only get HD video (with poor autofocus and no aperture control while recording). The frame rate and buffer are also unimpressive—as on so many Nikon DSLRs!

The only real change from the earlier D5500 is the addition of SnapBridge. This is the Bluetooth-enabled app for automatically transferring 2MP images to a smartphone. It sounds like a good idea, but reviews have been mixed! It tends to be unreliable and works differently on Android and Apple devices:

On Android phones, you pair the camera and phone using NFC. Then you press the “i” button in playback mode to transfer an image. But Apple doesn’t permit NFC connections, so the pairing process takes longer.

SnapBridge offers remote Live view, remote camera operation, and video transfer using Wi-Fi. But it’s fairly basic, time-consuming, and unreliable. It doesn’t compare well with Apple’s iCloud if you have an iPhone!

The viewfinder is also a weakness. It uses a pentamirror rather than the standard pentaprism to reduce size and weight. That means it can only show 95% of the frame. So it isn’t large or bright enough for accurate framing—especially in low light.

Continuing on the same theme of handling and usability, you can only toggle Auto ISO on and off in the menu system. And there’s also only one control dial. This makes it much slower to change settings. Other models have two dedicated dials for shutter speed and aperture.

Touchpad AF is also a problem. It’s a nice feature, but it doesn’t work if you like putting your left eye on the viewfinder!

The Nikon D5300 is another DX-format (APS-C) DSLR camera—although a couple of years older than the D5600. It improves on its predecessor, the D5200. Nikon removed the optical low-pass filter to achieve better sharpness. But this was at the expense of more noise.

You now get 60p HD video and a slightly larger, higher-resolution LCD. It also has a 20% longer battery life. The autofocus has 39 focus points (nine cross-type). And the D5300 is the first Nikon DSLR with built-in Wi-Fi and GPS features.

Video quality is “only” HD rather than 4K. But there’s no crop. You capture motion smoothly and can output RAW video using an HDMI cable and plug in an external mic.

The only real issues are the slow autofocus in Live View and the handling. It would be nice to see a second function button, twin front and rear command dials, and a touch screen. But I guess we can’t expect the world from an entry-level camera!