5 Best DSLR Cameras Under 40,000 in India – Big Bang on a Budget

Let’s face it. It can be really challenging to find a DSLR camera with a budget of under 40,000 rupees.

DSLRs tend to be expensive, very expensive. There are hardly a few options available under 40,000 in India. But we have scouted hard to find you the 5 best DSLR cameras under 40,000 rupees in India.

Sure, we did include a couple slightly different options as well (you will know when you read the entire thing), but other than that these are really the best you can get for your budget.

Sony Alpha ILCE 6000L

First things first, the Sony Alpha ILCE 6000L is technically a mirrorless camera, but we have still listed it as our best DSLR camera under 40,000 rupees in India.

There are a couple reasons for that. The more important one of them is that the ILCE 6000L beats ALL DSLR camera available in India at this price point in all departments.

Secondly, you wouldn’t find any noticeable difference between a true DSLR and the ILCE 6000L. The overall functioning and operation is pretty much the same as a professional DSLR camera.

In other words, it’s practically a DSLR camera, only much better than the other ones at this price point. Even Amazon has classified it under the category of DSLR cameras.

 

Another thing you need to take note of is that the ILCE 6000L is currently priced a little over the 40,000 rupees mark. However, the options under 40,000 rupees are really limited.

More importantly, the ILCE 6000L is an excellent option for anyone looking for a professional DSLR camera in this price. In addition, you get two lens with this camera while most other DSLRs come bare body in this price range.

So we decided to overlook this factor as the difference in price is not too significant.

With those important clarifications out of the way, let us focus on some of its major features and highlights.

The ILCE 6000L is a compact, lightweight camera but comes packed with a lot of advanced, impressive features. The picture quality is amazing with excellent details and colour saturation.

Another major highlight is the speed. Even some of the more advanced and expensive DSLR cameras on the market can’t match the kind of speed the ILCE 6000L brings to the table.

It takes shots in a jiffy, without any loss of quality. The autofocus is just as fast too, all while being surprisingly accurate. Add to that the excellent image stabilization and you have an easy access to professional quality pictures.

A lot of cameras in this price range would struggle in low light. But the ILCE 6000L manages to offer excellent quality of pictures and videos even in low light.

Coming to the video quality, you can shoot full 1080p HD videos, and they come out great. You get continuous shooting at 11fps with excellent AF tracking, something you would be hard-pressed to find with any other DSLR in this price range.

There are multiple options to share and transfer your images and videos as well. You can instantly transfer them to your smartphone, as well as over Wi-Fi and NFC.

You can charge the ILCE 6000L using a power bank as well, making it all the more portable. Now, the battery life isn’t the best you can get, but the easy charging option does help there.

However, if you still find the battery life to be on the lower side, you can buy an extra battery that you can carry with you when travelling.

Finally, the lens you get in the kit are good enough for most users and for all beginners. However, if you want to take the image quality to a whole new level – truly professional stuff – you can purchase the Sigma 16 mm f/1.4 prime lens.

The Sony Alpha ILCE 6000L is an interchangeable lens camera and supports external lens. It’s truly one of the best DSLR cameras in India, especially if you’re on a budget.

Pros:

• Best DSLR-like camera under 40000 in India
• Comes with a ton of features in a compact, lightweight body
• Incredible picture quality with great details, colour saturation and image stabilization
• Excellent HD video quality while supporting 1080p HD
• Great shutter speed and fast, accurate autofocus
• Continuous video recording at 11fps
• Easy to use despite all the great features and settings
• Comes with two lens and also supports external lens
• Easily transfer your pictures and videos using Wi-Fi and NFC
• Made in Thailand

Cons:

• The battery life is on the lower side, but you can always carry an extra battery or a power bank to charge it when travelling

Canon EOS 1500D

The Canon EOS 1500D is the most popular DSLR camera under 40,000. In fact, it’s available for a little more than 30,000, so it’s actually one of the cheapest DSLRs from Canon. It’s also one of our best DSLR cameras under 30,000 rupees.

However, that doesn’t take much away from its functionality and performance. For the price, it offers an excellent image quality and takes great close-up pictures.

The powerful 24.1 MP APS-C CMOS Sensor is as good as you can probably get for the price. The DIGIC 4+ image processor boasts 9 autofocus points, offering a good balance of both speed and accuracy.

That said, the autofocus isn’t the best you can get, but for beginners and at this price we believe it’s good enough.

Despite being much cheaper than most other DSLRs on the market, it offers 1080p HD video quality. Moreover, there’s also manual control and you can choose your own frame rates as well.

Of course, it’s super easy to use as well if you don’t want to use any manual settings, making it a great option for beginners. There are various different modes as well that are very useful for beginners.

The live mode option works well without any kind of lagging.

The connectivity options are very useful. There’s in-built Bluetooth that allows you to control the camera using your smartphone. Some users find this feature very handy and convenient.

There’s also Wi-Fi and NFC for sharing your images and videos.

You get the EF S18-55 lens with the EOS 1500D and they do a decent job. However, just with pretty much every budget DSLR, if you want a much better level of performance then you should get better-quality, more expensive lens.

The EOS 1500D does support external lens. The battery life is pretty good as well and lasts longer than many other comparable models.

Now, let’s get to some of the negatives as well. After all, not everything can be perfect at this price point.

The EOS 1500D doesn’t offer the most accurate autofocus, and you will have to live with that if you’re looking for a very budget DSLR.  The lens isn’t the most premium quality either, and honestly we don’t expect anything of that kind for the price.

Finally, the low light performance isn’t as good as the ILCE 6000L, but you’re also saving quite a bit of money with the EOS 1500D.

We also have a detailed Canon EOS 1500D review here if you want to read more about it.

Pros:

• Great value for money
• Excellent option for beginners with very easy operation
• Great image quality for the price
• Full 1080p HD recording
• Fast autofocus with 9 AF points
• Different modes that come in very handy for beginners
• Impressive live mode
• Excellent battery life
• Built-in Bluetooth to let you control the camera using your smartphone
• Wi-Fi and NFC supported as well
• External lens supported too
• Made in Taiwan and not China

Cons:

• The autofocus isn’t the most accurate you will find
• The low light performance leaves a bit to be desired
• The quality of lens isn’t the best – but it’s acceptable for the price

Canon PowerShot SX540HS

The Canon PowerShot SX540HS isn’t the cheapest DSLR camera on the market that’s worth a consideration. The excellent ratings and reviews it has got make it clear that despite the modest price tag it does offer a good overall performance.

Of course, it’s not a high-end DSLR or for professional quality work, but for personal use, hobby or beginners who aren’t looking to shell out a lot of money, it’s probably the best they can get.

In fact, the PowerShot SX540HS is probably the most beginner-friendly DSLR camera you would find on the market, besides being the cheapest one as well.

It brings a lot of versatility to the table in the sense that you can take pretty good close-up pictures and also some impressively detailed images of something as far off as the moon.  Sure, you do need to get familiar with some of the functions and settings, but it’s not rocket science and you will just need some time to do so.

However, if you find it complicated and would rather just keep things simple, the auto mode is always there for you.

The image quality overall is pretty good for the price. The amount of details captures is beyond what you would expect at this price point.

The zoom is excellent, which is how users are able to get all those detailed images of the moon they post in their reviews. The 50x zoom works well and doesn’t result in a lot of loss of details.

One thing we were really surprised with is that it offers full HD 1080p recording, just like the other much more expensive DSLRs out there. And the video quality is actually pretty good for the price. You can may be even shoot vlogs for your channel if you’re a new vlogger and looking to establish yourself without breaking the bank.

The battery life is on the lower side, though, but the batteries are rechargeable. The camera itself is lightweight and portable, and offers a good grip.

As for sharing data, it supports Wi-Fi and NFC.

Pros:

• The cheapest and most beginner-friendly DSLR camera on the market
• Great versatility with a range of settings allows taking both great close-ups and faraway shots
• Full HD 1080p video recording even at this price point
• Handy auto mode for absolute beginners who don’t want to play around with the settings
• Captures a great amount of details in every picture
• Excellent 50x zoom that helps take great faraway shots
• Lightweight and portable
• Supports Wi-Fi and NFC

Cons:

• The battery life is certainly lower than what you get with some of the more expensive DSLRs out there

Panasonic LUMIX G7

Let us quickly mention that we have finished reviewing the only true DSLR cameras under 40,000 above. But as there are no other options, we decided to walk you through a couple other options that are either as good as a DSLR or are priced higher than 40,000 rupees.

With that said, the Panasonic LUMIX G7 is actually a mirrorless camera. However, if the user reviews and our personal opinion is anything to go by, it’s better than most DSLR cameras under 40,000.

The single factor that makes us say that is the LUMIX G7’s ability to shoot videos in 4K. All the other DSLRs we reviewed in this post can only shoot in 1080p. This can be the difference-maker for many users.

The video quality is indeed far better than what you would get with most DSLR cameras in this price range. In fact, unlike with the other DSLRs we reviewed, you can even use the LUMIX G7 to shoot professional quality videos.

A particular user mentioned that they have been using it for professional documentary filmmaking and it meets their needs perfectly. The stabilization is great, low light performance is excellent, and the videos come out clear and sharp.

We don’t see much to complain about on the image quality front as far. The images come out super detailed, rich and with great colour saturation. You can even extract high resolution images from the 4K videos.

However, let us also say that the image quality isn’t the best you can get with the included kit lens, as the LUMIX G7 is only 16 MP. If you truly need a better image quality, you need to get better quality lens.

There’s an OLED Live View Finder and touchscreen LCD display, which is again something you don’t get with any of the other DSLRs in this segment. The touchscreen even allows for tilting, translating to a lot of flexibility with respect to your shooting angles.

It’s Wi-Fi enabled, and there are tons of other cool features as well, including a great autofocus. Despite all of that, however, it’s surprisingly lightweight.

Pros:

• Best value for money mirrorless camera that beats most other DSLRs under 40,000
• 4K video recording is exceptional at this price point
• Impressive image quality which can be further improved with better-quality external lens
• Great for professional use as well
• Excellent stabilization and solid low light performance
• Touchscreen tilting LCD that offers both convenience and flexibility
• Wi-Fi enabled and super lightweight

Cons:

• Limited battery life
• The included 16 MP lens aren’t the best you can get

Nikon D5600

As we said, these last two options don’t perfectly fit into the list as DSLR cameras under 40,000. The Nikon D5600, while being a great DSLR camera, is actually priced towards 50,000 and not 40,000. In fact, it’s actually one of the best DSLR cameras under 50,000 in India.

But given the lack of options under 40,000 and the great value you get for a little higher budget, we decided to include the Nikon D5600 on our list of the best DSLR cameras under 40,000 rupees in India.

However, it’s the most feature-loaded DSLR among all the options we reviewed. Unlike the other DSLRs, the 24.2 MP lens it comes with is really good and produces amazing images.

The images shot using the Nikon D5600 have a lot of depth, an amazing amount of details, and look surprisingly real. The image processor is snappy fast too, with there being as many as 39 autofocus points and great AF accuracy. It supports burst photography as well.

Coming to the video quality, you get full 1080p HD videos. You also get a great amount of control, thanks to the manual control and the ability to choose the frame rates.

Users mention that the D5600 is a great choice for filmmaking, and even professionals would be pleased with what it has to offer for the price.

You would generally also have trouble with low light shooting with other budget DSLRs. However, the D5600 is exceptional in this area and offers an impressive low light performance.

The flip-out touchscreen LCD is also probably the best you will find for the price. Despite all these great features, the D5600 is surprisingly compact and lightweight.

As for connectivity, it supports Wi-Fi and NFC and also comes with built-in Bluetooth connectivity. The battery life is much better than other comparable DSLRs as well.

All in all, the Nikon D5600 is a winner all the way. It’s likely an upgraded version of the previous (and now discontinued) D5300, and there must have been great demand that Nikon has come up with an upgrade here.

Pros:

• A huge range of features despite being priced higher than other options
• Images come out super detailed with a lot of depth and natural colours
• Fast image processor with a great autofocus
• Full 1080p HD video recording with manual control and frame rate selection
• Excellent low light performance
• Very convenient and functional flip-out touchscreen LCD
• Wi-Fi and NFC supported with built-in Bluetooth
• Perfect option for filmmaking or professional use on a budget
• Great battery life
• Compact and lightweight

Cons:

• Really very little to find wrong with this beast, but maybe the in-body stabilization could have been better if you want us to nitpick

Factors to Choose the Best DSLR Camera Under 40,000

The options are really limited when you’re looking for a good DSLR camera under 40,000 rupees, which really is a tiny budget when you’re talking DSLRs.

However, we not only managed to find 5 such options (although we did tweak the conditions a bit), but also want to educate you on the factors we covered when reviewing them.

Value for Money

Maybe you were expecting us to talk some technical factor as the most important thing, but we thought otherwise. When your budget is only 40,000 odd rupees, you really need to find value for money.

There are many great DSLRs on the market, but most of them cost way, way more than 40,000. So looking for bang for your buck is your best bet with that kind of budget.

We considered whether you’re getting all the basics with the DSLR. It doesn’t make sense to compromise on the basics, no matter the budget.

The satisfaction of users who have bought that particular DSLR is important. If most of them are not satisfied, it does mean that the basic features are not in place.

But that wasn’t the case with the cameras we reviewed above. All of them have got a lot of love from customers, and that is a great indicator that you’re getting a very good value for money.

Image and Video Quality

This is an obvious factor, but it’s not so obvious when you get into the little details. A beginner might not be able to tell what’s missing from an image unless they compare it to an image taken using a better DSLR.

Even many smartphones produce good images. But DSLRs are expected to do much better. Do they deliver on that front?

This is one important factor we covered. The depth of the image, the amount of details captured, the colour saturation, how the quality was impacted when zoom was used, and so on.

Coming to the video quality, 1080p full HD recording is a bare minimum in these times. However, it doesn’t stop there.

Whether or not you’re offered manual control? Can you choose the frame rate? Does the entire video come out sharp and clean or are there blurriness issues?

How about the quality when capturing fast-moving objects? Does the autofocus work as well when recording videos?

There are a lot of questions to ask, and we absorbed the answers into our selection process.

Low Light Performance

This is a surprisingly overlooked area by beginners. Sure, we understand that most people looking for a DSLR at this price point are going to be beginners and they don’t expect professional performance, but a bad low light performance is going to ruin your camera experience more often than you may think.

It’s just not possible to only want to use your DSLR during the day or in bright conditions. A good low light performance is a must-have.

Of course, if it really doesn’t matter to you much then you can settle for a cheaper option, but if you want the images and videos to come out just as good as they do in bright conditions, then don’t compromise on this factor.

LCD screen

This likely isn’t going to be a deal-breaker for you if you’re just a beginner or looking for a DSLR for hobby use. However, for professionals, for users looking to shoot professional videos, vlogs or for filmmaking, the LCD screen is an important factor.

How large it is? Is it touchscreen? Is it flip-able or tilt-able? You would certainly need good answers to these questions if you’re looking to shoot professional quality videos using your DSLR.

We have reviewed a couple great options that are going to be perfect for professional use without really breaking the bank.

Other Factors

There are a lot of smaller factors as well. The battery life, for one, is something you would want to consider as well.

However, it may not be a deal-breaker in most cases. These days you can easily buy and carry an extra battery and even charge your DSLR using a power bank when needed. Most of them support those kind of charging options.

Whether the DSLR supports an external lens or not can be an important factor to consider for many users as well. After all, what do you do when you want to get to the next level of photography? Buying another better DSLR would be a poor option, especially financially speaking.

However, if a DSLR supports good external lens, you can just replace the one included with the kit and instantly upgrade the quality of your camera experience.

Some of the other important features include in-body stabilization, autofocus (and its accuracy), auto mode option, manual controls, the range of settings, ease of use as well as camera size and weight.