What kind of dslr camara to get?

I want to get a "big" camera for christmas and i do not know which kinds are good or not. I only want to spend max $500, which i know is a small budget but i'm just a novice photographer so i don't need anything too fancy; but i still want a good camera, nikon or canon.

You want a big camera.Hm. That sounds really weird. Did you even google it, ask anyone or read about it? 500$ is not a small amount of money so you shouldn't just spend it cause the camera is big.

They're called DSLRs. They have lots of advantages and are great, but you can't just take pro shots in 5 minutes. You'll have to read a little bit and practice outside.

For that budget I recommend Canon EOS XS and Nikon D3000.

Here's a post called 'Buying a DSLR, what's important, megapixels, features, brand, price, quality and which one to buy - http://www.the-dslr-photographer.com/2009/03/which-dslr-to-buy.html

Good luck! The site has many more tutorials, tips, reviews and guides!

I think you should consider Canon Rebel XS a good dslr camera for beginner, easy to learn to use. Beautiful picture quality, sharp pictures and very good results in low light.
http://www.amazon.com/...B001CBKJGG

I think you should go with Canon Rebel XS 10.1MP Digital SLR Camera

10.1-megapixel CMOS sensor captures enough detail for poster-size, photo-quality prints
Large 2.5-inch LCD display; includes Canon's EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens
DIGIC III image processor provides fast, accurate image processing; Live View Function
EOS Integrated Cleaning system and Canon-designed Self Cleaning Sensor Unit, plus Dust Delete Data Detection in included software
Stores images on SD/SDHC memory cards (not included) s