Looking for a new beginner camera

I would suggest a Nikon D3100 kit or a Canon T2i kit:

(link)

(link)

You can't go wrong with these brands, which will allow you buy a complete range of lenses and accessories as you grow into photography.

If you're really planning to major in photography, you will be better off waiting until you see what camera is recommended by your professors. Depending on your program, they may want you to learn on film first. Others may not. But either way, it's probably better to not guess and wait. By now, you presumably have applied to a school and have been accepted, so it shouldn't be difficult to figure out which professors teach the early classes and reach out to them. Then you can get an early jump and see what they are instructing students to buy.

Many schools recommend a Pentax K1000, it's a very inexpensive film system that's great for learning the basics. But don't buy now if you don't know what you'll need for school. One big photography lesson is determine what you need, then buy. Expensive mistakes happen when you buy before you determine what you need...photographic equipment, in general, is expensive and buying unnecessary equipment wastes money very quickly.

Well said Jay

The Pentax K1000 was discontinued in 1997.

Yes, but there aren't too many film cameras in production at all...K1000s are readily available.

Ummm ... okay. Jay, could you name, say, five of the "many schools"- colleges, since that's what she's aksing about- that recommend that students buy the K1000. It's just that I've been in the photo business for more than thirty years, I sell to students from half a dozen colleges and haven't had a student come to the store in more than a decade whose been told to buy a K1000, or, in the last half decade, any film camera.

We need to know whether Cassidy's course requires film or digital. While I'm a lifetime fan of b&w film, it might be irrelevant to some school courses. It certainly isn't necessary to learning the basics.

And I'd be reluctant to agree with an unqualified endorsement of the Pentax K1000. At least some of the later versions built in China had a spotty reputation. A student might be just as well off buying any of a dozen other 35mm film SLRs with solid reputations. There are plenty of very good used Nikon, Canon, Olympus and Minolta 35mm film SLRs for which affordable OEM and third party lenses are readily available. In local pawn shops, thrift stores and used camera stocks, I see more affordable lenses for Canon FD and Minolta mounts, with the Pentax K mount a close third.

Fair enough, I'm basing what I said on things I've read here many times. I didn't recommend the K1000 unqualified, though; I suggested not buying anything until contacting the professors to see what they expect students to have. I only mentioned it because it seems to come up in discussion here often as a student's camera.

Jay, you have to differentiate between high school and college students. The dozen or so high schools whose kids buy at my store still teach Photo 1 classes using 35mm film cameras. It is a bitch for parents who can't find used cameras on short notice and wind up buying Cosina-variant basic 35mm cameras for $200-plus. Their kids use them for one high school class, then never touch them again.

The colleges whose students I deal with have either moved away from teaching Photo 100 classes with film cameras or supply film cameras for the first one or two assignments, then move on to teaching digital basics. I can't remember the last time a college kid bought a film camera at my store, except for personal use.

Cassidy, from your original post, I assumed that you wanted a camera you could use now; one that would hopefully get you through much of a college photography curriculum. If that's the case, I would still recommend the Nikon or Canon kit above in your price range.

If you take a college class that requires a film camera, I'd go to KEH camera online and buy a used 35mm camera-lens combo in the $125 price range. KEH warranties it's cameras, and such a camera will get you through a class without spending too much money.

Understand though that taking college photography courses is an expensive proposition. When I was in college back in the 1980s, each fine art photography class I took had me spending over $2K on supplies. Talk to instructors in the college photography programs you are looking at and get a basic understanding of the course costs involved.