Just Shoot Me wrote:

I have been thinking about going DSLR and would like a little help making
up my mind.
Right now I am using a Nikon Cool Pix 8400.
I only do indoor photography and don't mind working with a tri-pod.
$2,000 is what I can spend total on a new DSLR, Shoe Flash? and a New
Tri-pod.
I like wide angle but not curved pictures, Something user friendly.

my pictures will be ...mostly for the furniture and the layout
and not people.

Jenny

OK so Architectural/interior design is the purpose. That means (as you
said) a low distortion wideangle lens. Most entry level DSLRs will come
with a kit lens at 17 or 18mm with somewhat bad distortion and if you
are surviving on a point & shoot, that's probably not quite as wide as
these and probably much more curved.

Architectural photographers (especially interior) generally find a super
wide lens useful (essential?), and they generally demand the lowest
possible distortion. Usually barrel distortion is the problem at the
wide end of a zoom, like a mild fisheye effect. That's a rather
difficult goal. The other thing serious architectural photogrphers use
is perspective control lenses, in medium or large format that's called
tilt/shift and shift allows you to keep all the verticals vertical (tilt
doesn't matter on a tripod). And to expressed the desire for something
easy to use and a budget that doesn't match the demanding requirements.

So my suggestion is to look into a post-processing solution which will
let you correct the distortion in an affordable super-wide or stitched
P&S images. That's not very simple but it would be workable even with a
P&S camera and panorama stitching.

Panorama stitching software is more hassle but better programs are not
too hard to use and they will completely remove the curves and make a
super-wide field of view with exceptional detail, even with a tiny old
P&S camera. You might want to get a panorama head for your tripod in
that case. It sounds bad but just shoot the whole room & crop later to
suit and you will be very satisfied. I don't know how big you want to
print, if for web use this is overkill. Look for a P&S camera that has a
panorama feature and it will come with easy software and simplify the
manual control settings necessary for this. Pretty easy.

Now, if you want to go DSLR and don't need huge prints, you would use a
program like DXO to correct the relatively minor distortion and look for
a lens that is sharp corner to corner and has well controlled flare.
Then buy the body which matches that. The other thing a DSLR will buy
you is dynamic range. Windows in daylight are much brighter than the
dark corners of a room so this is valuable.

The tripod doesn't matter for interiors with a wide angle, you just want
a cable release instead of an infrared remote. Mirror lockup matters if
you are doing larger prints and want lots of detail but that only comes
on the higher end models. Canon's entry level kit lens is barely
adequate, Nikon's newer models come with a not-so-great kit lens also,
the 18-70 that came with the D70 was good, then you could add a 10-20
Sigma. Put that on a used D50 which has decent dynamic range with DXO
for corrections and you are good to go. Canon makes a 10-20 and combined
with their kit lens is probably not bad. Bubble-level, maybe a flash and
diffuser for bounching off the ceiling, extra memory & software,
probably a little better tripod with a ball-head for convenience,
quick-release, and a remote shutter cable & you can use up $2,000 easily.

--
Paul Furman Photography
http://edgehill.net
Bay Natives Nursery
http://www.baynatives.com