The Nikon D3000 is an entry-level SLR, especially suited ofr beginner photo enthusiasts, however, it has all the bells and whistles that many of the more higher-priced SLRs would have. Another great aspect of this camera as well as other SLRs is the price, over the last couple of years the prices of these cameras has fallen quite substantially then in years' past when they were all well over a $1000 and more.

One of the greater aspects of this particular kind of camera is that you are not only buing one camera but a whole slew of lenses as well, cause these such cameras allow you to change out lenses on the cameras' body at will, so you are not stuck with just one particular kind of lens but have many to choose from.

The Nikon D3000 comes with a 10.2 megapixel DX-format CCD APS-C image sensor, Active D-Lighting and an AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens for $599 you may be able to find a better deal if you keep shopping around.

Even though this camera is a DSLR, it still comes with many automatic features as well as the famous NIKON Guide which will walk you through setting up the camera all the way to helping you take your very first shot.

Some of the cooler features of the NIKON D3000 are:

The Guide Mode being the most distinctive, it walks any photographer, beginner or advanced, on how to help setup the camerea for any shot that is to be taken, step-by-step.

Some of the other nicer features, 230,000 dot 3in LCD screen, 3 frames per second shooting to catch all those moving shots. D-Lighting to help with shots for shots in both shadows and highlights. ISO from 100-1600 with a HI1 setting that expands the setting to 3200.

The D3000 is made of hard plastic and has the classic NIKON look throughout the body of the camera.

As for the Menus and Modes on the camera:

Playback, Shooting, Setup, Retouch and Recent Settings menus.

If you want to get into the shooting settings quickly simply press the Information Display button which looks like a magnifying glass with a plus sign in the middle of it and by pressing the Info Display button you can change the white balance, metering, AF Mode, flash mode and exposure compensation along with other camera settings.

Here are the shooting modes that the DSLR 3000 offers:

Programmed Auto, Shutter-Priority Auto, Aperture-Priority Auto, Manual, Portrait, Landscape, Child, Close Up, Sports and Night Portrait, these will allow you to get all the shots you could ever possible want or need with this camera.