OT TO SOME DEGREE - CAMERA

Nikon d80 is a fantastic SLR. You can go down to the D40 as well if you want to save the $$ but you are restricted by what lenses you can use.

Can't agree re Canon. Own several and always been very happy. Have a look at the Canon 400D.
alastair

The camera that is getting all the raves in that segment of the market at the moment is the Pentax10D. Check some of the reviews at sites like and compare its price/features and build quality.
www.dpreview.com/
theonlinephotographer.blogspot.com/
Check the last site for contributions from Carl Weese. Over the last few months he has been using evaluating and comparing a K10 with other cameras in this range and his observations are really interesting.
I have a Minolta 5D which I love. The new Sony is an updated version of the 5D after Sony took over the Minolta/Konica design rights. The big problem with this range is the relatively small number of lenses available and the price of these lenses because Minolta owners have been bidding them up to extraordinary prices. The Sony uses the same lens system and say they will bring out new lenses for the range, Some have come out but they are very pricey.
If I was buying a new camera in this range today I'd be getting the Pentax. What I really like about the 5D, the Sony and even more so about the Pentax , is the number of major controls that can be accessed from the body of the camera without having to wade through menus on the screen to find what you need. Lower end Canon/Nikon are now catching up on this, but you will get more details by reading the Carl Weese reports. I also think the body/build on the lower end Canon/Nikons is not as good. Example. Have a look at the weather sealing on the Pentax 10D. The other cameras in this range don't put in this sort of sealing until you get to models that cost much more.

I have a Pentax K10D. The controls really work well and some of the 'fancy' features are actually useful. I bought the 'better' lens (16-45mm/f4) which is a bit bigger and heavier than the 18-55mm std Pentax one but I played with the std lens for a night (while they got my choosen lens in) and it seemed quite good. I have also picked up the 50-200mm zoomy (via HK eBay seller) and are happer with that as a rarely used telephoto. All the Pentax lenses come with nice lens hoods which was unexpected but a bonus.

I haven't printed many pics (and not had any printed commercially) but would say the std settings give slightly soft results that need some sharpening in the image editor of your choice. It has in camera settings for sharpness/contrast but I'm yet to have a play with them to see how they effect the picture.

Some examples (resized for web display) not that you can really tell anything from pics on the web!:
some K10D pics (this link may disappear at some stage in the future... that's the nature of presonal websites!)

If you don't want to spend quite as much, the K100D is also an option (6MP instead of 10MP, bit smaller and lighter and missing a couple of features that the K10D has). It has also gotten great reviews. Remember to budget for a memory card and 2nd battery (if the camera take a special one). If it can take AA's then you can always have some of them handy for backup. The K10D uses a special battery so a 2nd is needed (IMO). I have read some decent reviews of the Sony but never laid my hands on it during my shopping.

I agree with what was said about making sure you hold and operate each camera as some feel better in your hands than others. I have a Nikon 35mm manual focus SLR system (2 bodies, 8 lenses, various accesories) but choose the Pentax as I just liked the way it felt in my hand and the ease of use of regularly used functions.

Cheers, Nige

I have a Pentax K100D. Excellent value. My existing K-mount lenses work nicely. The SD card and AA batteries are very important as that's what I've standardised on for the laptop/PDA/chargers. The resulting photos are noticeably better than from my Pentax 33WR for three reasons - better technical image quality, instant shutter response over multiple images and being an SLR I find that I "compose" photos rather than "point-and-click". Battery life is excellent. A work colleague also has one and has spent the time to tweak the stand settings. The results are better in terms of colour, sharpness and tonal quality. The comment about the camera functions being availble via buttons rather than menus is spot on. Also a Cannon model I looked at had grey-on-grey menus which were very hard to read.

Adrian

Here is the review of best cameras in different categories...

www.steves-digicams.com/best_cameras.html

Hi Carolyn,

I bought the sony about a month ago and have been happy with it to date (although admittedly I haven't used it a whole heap yet). I liked the following features:

10MP (when taking wildlife shots at a distance, by the time you crop down there is still a lot of picture left)
Antishake - built into the camera body
Auto cleaning of the CCD on start-up

My short-list covered a wide budget range, and included the sony r1, pentax k100 and the nikon d40 (didn't like the kit lenses of the d-80). Spent a lot of time going through reviews as mentioned above.

Kit lenses are kit lenses, but the sony ones seem fairly good. I got the twin lenses to give more versatility. Do be aware that the "mm" stated have a 1.5 factor due the size of the CCD. So, an 18mm lens is actually 27mm in 35mm equiv. and a 300mm is actually 450mm equiv. The high end sony lenses are Carl Zeiss which is a highly respected brand.

Yes, the shutter is a little noisy, but that was way down my list of important features.

Here's an alternative - if you don't want/need a whole heap of zoom, the sony r1 could be for you. Carl Zeiss lens, 10MP, fantastic pictures, fully programmable but not an SLR. Fixed lens at (from memory) 18-125mm in 35mm equiv.

Hope that's of some use.

Cheers
David

Well we don't have a DSLR, but we have the next best thing for considerably less, a Canon S3 IS. This camera is brilliant, the photo's have great colour, a 12X optical zoom, rotating view finder, it's not quite as big as a DSLR and less than half the price. I bought it for $550 online with a 2GB Sandisk SD card for $50. Check out this site
www.goodgearguide.com.au/
for reviews on all manner of electrical toys from the computer mag Australian PC World.

I couldn't quite afford a DSLR at the moment but am stoked with this camera.

Mark.

Thank you all for your advice and the sites to read. I liked the Sony for the 3 points given above. I must remember is to see how it feels in my hands, I just looked at it and read the brochures, it also seemed to have lots of adjustments on the outside of the camera which I feel is good and was mentioned in another brand ^^^.

Carolyn