Could not resist, but again the head up the butt reply of Usenet User. Go
for a Pentax K-1000.

Come on , he is just starting out and is, in his own words, on a budget.
A Nikon D100, is hardly a budget camera at ?1500, body only, unless your on
David Beckham's budget, lol

A simple second hand manual SLR, can be picked up for less than ?150, and is
much better to learn on than any of the " all the bells and whistles "
modern automatic film or digital camera's

I A canon EOS 30 and an EOS 300, but i alos picked up a canon A-1 as a thrid
camera, got it from jessops complete with a 50mm, lens for ?170, and a sigma
70-200mm zoom lens for another ?50, there are stil plenty of lenses and
accessories available for it, and it can be used on fully auto , or fully
manual, great wee camera.

Brian.........................

Third on the K 1000, If you want to take pictures you will have to learn the
basics and the K 1000 is basic

Film. I like digital cameras but I prefer film :)

Angie

Well Peter Jones said this and Peter Jones said that ... but did you
know that Peter Jones said

My own feeling is that "bells and whistles", make us lazy in photography,
the correct way to learn  would be by using a fully manual or semi auto.
like the A series canons, then you can move to the ultra expensive do it all
themselves camera's and lenses.
Camera's from the late 70's upto maybe the end of the 80's are, I think, the
best to learn on, Olympus OM10, canon A series, Pentax ES, etc.

You can get a manual online for a canon AE-1, and most other canon's. My A-1
came minus a manual , and it was a nightmare trying to figure out how it
worked til i found this site, now at least I know how to turn it off and not
use a battery every week, lol
http://www.canonfd.com/choose.htm

Brian...............

For a more comprehensive article extolling the advantages of older manual
SLRs, check this link:

http://www.photo.net/equipment/beaters

For a "hand-on" description of using an old 35mm manual camera, as opposed
to the new ones with all the electronic bells and whistles, check this link:

http://www.photo.net/equipment/35mm/old-slrs

I still use a Canon F1 Oldstyle, but I also have two FTb's as backups, and
they can be had relatively cheaply. For what it's worth they both have
mirror-lockup, which I like. They also take either FD lenses or FL lenses,
which can be cheaper (the FL lenses use stop-down metering, which is not a
hassle for me).

I agree with other posts, the Canon A series is fine, the Pentax K1000 is
the classic learner's camera, and I think an Olympus OM-1 would also be
good.
Steve S.

Meeces and all- thanks for posting the question and all the replies. I have
decided to get a good used camera, and now I have a nice list to choose
from.
So my question is - is there a web site that compares and rates the various
models?
Is there any preferable source for a good used camera besides a shop
(costly) or ebay (risky)?

Thanks,

Chris

I'm going to buy a camera used as well. :)