i really need help picking a camera..

[beckyl92]

im a newbie but im fed up of my fuji finepix S5700. yeah it takes excellent macro pictures but the landscape ones are pretty bad.
even though im new to photography i want something thats decent.
also, if you could tell me about these different lens and how you know which one to get for different images that'd be great
i was looking at the canon 400D, then i was taking a look at someones flickr who uses a canon powershot S3. i was amazed..
anyways, my budget is about £450 but i'd rather spend about £250. i don't want to go to over the top seen as i haven't got a clue haha. :bonk:

 

[markw08]

You could get a second hand Canon or Nikon...

What type of photography do you enjoy....
Macro/Landscape/Portrait etc...

This will influence which lenses to purchase and which Body...

 

[lawrenceots]

hmmm £250 is quite low for a DSLR and lens.. break it down to maybe £170 max for a body and the rest for a lens? For that, you could squeeze in a Nikon D50/Canon 10D. And then that leaves £80 ish for a lens, depending what you're into could get a 50 1.8 or 70-300 or whatever suits your subject best? Also, if you sell your 5700, thats about another £60 ish towards the body/lens.

 

[sitemaster]

it really does depend of what you like taking, how much you want to spend and the bulk and weight you are happy to lug around. There is a thread on here from someone with lots of dslr stuff who wants a good compact to take on a trip so that he doesn't have to carry that large thing about, so I would say decide first on what you want to do, then think about the kit.

 

[woof woof]

"who uses a canon powershot S3. i was amazed.."

He's probably just a very good photographer I'm sure that most people can take a better picture with their mobile phone than I can with my DSLR but the point shouldn't be what others can do but what we can do and what suits us best.

A DSRL will probably give you the best opportunity to experiment, control and improve your photography and arguably offer the best possible picture quality assuming that you know what you are doing! but even if you don't you can learn and improve. More compact cameras are obviously easier to carry and perhaps more convenient although they may not be as flexible to use or as easy to control as a DSLR.

If you are ok with the bulk of a DSLR perhaps the thing to do would be to get one and grow into it and maybe keep your existing camera for snap shots when you don't want to take a DSLR?