Hey guys,

I recently picked up a Meade DS-2141 (4.5") from S***club. 

I have always wanted a telescope and it was on sale for less than $200 so I decided to take the plunge.

I wanted to run it by the experts to ask if the Meade DS series is a good starter Telescope.

Please feel free to suggest another make/model although I am on a tight budget. I wouldn't mind spending a bit more if i can have a better starter telescope. I also own a Nikon D50 and would eventually like to get some kind of an adapter for wheich ever telescope i have so i can take pictures as well.

Thank you for your help. 

Well!  The DS series telescopes definitely aren't the best telescopes around, but they're not actually the worst either. That much I can tell you.  My wife got me one some years ago that she picked it up at Wally World for about the same cost, maybe a little less. After about a couple months the mount started to crack and eventually became useless. It made it into the trash. The Telescope(OTA) itself is collecting dust in my shed. 
However, it will give you your first looks at many objects before you quickly out-grow it with a strong desire for a larger more powerful telescope. 

As far as jumping into digital astrophotography you will need much more than that telescope if you want to go for those nice deep sky images. 

You will want to read through both of these:

Getting started with amateur astronomy and telescopes
http://www.astronomy.com/ASY/CS/forums/291288/ShowPost.aspx

Thinking about starting astrophotography
http://www.astronomy.com/ASY/CS/forums/302121/ShowPost.aspx#302121

You might also find the following thread interesting to read through. It's about those kind of telescopes that many of us have or have had at one time.
http://cs.astronomy.com/asycs/forums/t/28985.aspx

BTW, Where in North Carolina?