Bumpity-bump.

OK, so I have a question.  I kinda need a new camera as my setup thus far has been a basic point-and-shoot set on a 1-second delay, which is frankly horrible, so I'm considering getting a DSLR.  Right now I'm leaning towards the Canon T3i, as this seems to be a popular/inexpensive choice.  I'm kinda confused, however; whenever I search "Canon T3i" on Amazon I get "1100D" as a result.  From what I've understood the T2i is also referred to as the 500D and the T3i as the 600D, so what is the 1100D?  And what is the difference (if any) in price and features?  If someone could clear this up for me I would be most grateful.

Secondly, will I also need a macro lens for brickfilming with a DSLR, and, if so, which one is good/affordable?  Looking at the prices, most lenses seem to be just as expensive, if not more, than the camera bodies, and I'd really like to save moniez where possible.  Right now I'm trying to research it out but all I'm seeing is a bunch of random names with strings of letters and numbers attached to them (bearing in mind I've only recently started to look into this and I've barely learned what the shutter speed, ISO and f-stop are).  From what I've heard it would seem best to go with one that has a manual focus seeing as this would prevent light flicker (and possibly give the ability to make some interesting brickfilming effects) but again, I'm pretty new to this so any help/explanation would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

110D is the T3. I own both the T3 and T3i. The T3i is DEFINITELY worth it. The only difference with the T4i is a Digic 5 image processor (whereas the T3i has a digic 4, but still kicks butt!). Also, dont buy the kit lens, buy the body only andd then use that leftover  money (and save) up for a much better, high quality lens.

Hey Sloth, question about using Nikon lenses on Canon bodies. Can your lenses focus to infinity when being used cross brand? I've heard a lot about problems caused by incorrect distance between the sensor and the back element of the lens. It's not really a problem for brickfilming, but I'm starting to do some other stop motion that may require focusing to infinity, and I also like being able to use all of my lenses for normal photography as well, since that's my other art along with animation.

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Thanks for the advice!  Sorry for getting back a bit late.

Anyway, I talked to a guy in a camera store, who was super helpful.  He recommended going for the Canon 700D, which is the direction I was leaning towards anyway.  (Canon is supposed to be better in terms of video capability, amongst other things, and it's possible I may do live-action at some point in the future.  I may also end up trying out still photography as well.)  He also said that a 50mm 1.8 lens plus some extension tubes could be used in place of a macro lens, which seems like a good idea seeing as it'd be quite a bit cheaper and I wish to save as much money as possible. 

I don't actually use animation software; I animate blind and put the frames directly into my editor (Sony Vegas).  I don't have a camera compatible with any animation software, plus my laptop is a dinosaur that is horribly slow and still runs Windows XP, so it's not really practical.  At this point I use a point-and-shoot camera with autofocus, which is absolutely horrible, so I really need some better equipment.  Dragonframe definitely sounds interesting, and I certainly intend to look into it, particularly as I'll be getting a new laptop soon-ish, but for now my priority is a better camera (as basically anything would be better than my current animation setup).

I'm curious, is there any particular reason to go for a Nikon lens as opposed to a Canon lens?  As I said before, I want to save as much money as possible, and a Nikon lens plus adapters seems to get pretty pricey quite quickly.  I looked up the lens adapters you linked on Amazon.co.uk, and it says they're around £160--upwards of $250--which is definitely past my budget for the time being.  On the other hand, I looked up extension tubes on eBay and I've seen them for sale for around £20 from sellers who have lots of good feedback.

Either way, right now I have to earn enough money to actually buy a DSLR....

Okay, I've done some research, and it seems that Nikkor lenses mounted onto Canon EOS cameras should be able to focus just fine to infinity, assuming that the adapter used is the correct width, which is 2.5mm. Also, another option to Nikon are lenses with an M42 mount. I use some old manual focus Pentax lenses, and I love them. What brand you get really just depends on what you can manage to find in your price range.

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I just looked that Helios up, I may need to buy one, I really like the look that it gives using a shallow depth of field.

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Is there a good way to find them other than buying from ebay sellers in eastern Europe, or is that pretty much the only place to find them?

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Interesting to see (after actually reading some of the thread) that Sloth ran into infinity focus issues on Nikkors. I confess I rarely focus to infinity and perhaps I have been focusing back a hair from infinity on the ring to get to true infinity focus without really thinking about it. Either way, it is achievable, just not so easy to rack into it in a live action rack focus shot or something.

I have two Russian lenses, a Mir-1B 37mm f/2.8 and a Helios 44-2 58mm f/2, I got both from Eastern Europe via eBay and they were in good condition matching the descriptions. The prices on top35 appear not to be very competitive with the (great) prices I got buying that way, though it looks like some of them include adapters. The trick with eBay is to buy from sellers who sell a lot of lenses and give thorough descriptions of the condition their lenses are in. The good sellers are likely to give you specific details. If they just say it has a few scratches but works great, that's not a very encouraging sign.

Of the lenses I've bought over eBay, only one was in inadequate condition that didn't really match the description, thankfully that was in the US and I was able to send it back for a full refund. I will say if you're buying Nikkor lenses, KEH is really competitive compared to eBay prices, but does a great job of making sure the lenses are in good condition. I would probably go with KEH over eBay if they had what I want, but they don't offer Helios lenses.

Nikons are the hardest lenses to adapt to properly, having looked into this exact predicament recently. The problem is that Nikon cameras have a longer flange distance than almost any other lens mount. Because of this, the Helios lenses (m42 mount) are just slightly too short a flange to fit properly on a Nikon.

Nevertheless, there are two ways to adapt m42 lenses like the Helios to Nikon cameras. One is to use a nikon to m42 adapter that has a piece of glass in it, allowing you to use the lens like normal, but with a piece of crappy glass correcting the focus and making the image quite soft and blurry at wide apertures. The second is to use a little ring with no glass, which will give you a good image, but can't focus properly beyond about 4 meters (the extra length of the flange acts like a tiny extension tube, preventing infinity focus). That will pretty much never matter in a brickfilm, of course.