Cheers mate!

Definitely check out Pixmania for some really good deals.
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Shit dits sink ships.

Just to give you an idea of how good the resolution is on modern DSLRs:

This phot was taken with no tripod at full zoom with a standard Nikon 55mm lens, at about 200 metres distance:




Here it is in it's original size:


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Shit dits sink ships.

Great pics fella.
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I raised £959 for Combat Stress by running the London Marathon 2010!

2DD, is the pic of the leopard face on in the tree a crop or is that full frame?

Digi camera's with a high res --say 10 mp are superb for when you use
a good ''photoshop'' for editing --zoom and then crop the focus is
superb and no pixellation.

Was a 35 mm afficionado but am now a confirmed Digi camera user .
Simple operation and for most pics you can just use the camera auto settings.


G
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Level of education does not measure level of intelligence

It's cropped mate. I just used the standard windows photo editing software, no other trickery.

The full size phot is the same as the other two of the leopard I posted.
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Shit dits sink ships.

The word on the street is buy Canon or Nikon.

Best advice I would give you is whatever you buy do not forget to buy a skylight filter this is the filter that screws over the front of your lens and protects your lens from scratches. Digi SLR of course.
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BEAM ME UP SCOTTY! THERE AINT NO INTELLIGENT LIFE DOWN HERE!!!

Like Nike you are paying for the name, yes they are the mutts nuts when it comes to pro cameras but daffy only has £300 to spend and the Sony he mentioned is just as good, if not better than Canon or Nikon enthusiast cameras.
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Political correctness
A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical, liberal minority, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end

excellent advice, have cracked 2 in 23 years both times it would have been the lens had the filter not been in place...

Can't disagree given I've had no experience of Sony, they do seem get good write ups...

What I do know is that the Nikon D200 has a Sony sensor in it, it's just one element of the whole but Sterling's adivce is certainly worth following up on IMO.

I've had lots of cameras over the years starting out with the classic Olympus OM10, through OM40 to OM4 and then I switched to Minolta and then Canon and continued that through to my latest digital SLR which is a 450D. Despite all the reviews I've never noticed a significant difference between the quality of any of them and I think personally it's more to do with which camera's operation you prefer. I've no doubt that for a professional there are discernible differences but for an amateur I doubt it. I once borrowed a friends Leica and even I could tell the difference in quality but at £5k it would never be worth it for me. I've even won a couple of competitions along the way with pretty run of the mill kit and even sold a few pictures to a magazine but that's never been my driver for taking photos.

My recommendation for anyone just starting out would be to buy second hand, you can get some really good deals on e-bay where people are selling their entire kit for peanuts, just be sure to check that everything works and there are no sensor faults. A quick look in the £300 bracket revealed this:Canon EOS 400D which comes with extra battery and a few other little additions or this Canon EOS 400D with 35-150mm zoom
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137
Perspective
A poor life this if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare

The cameras I am looking at is the NIkon D40 even though it is only a 6MP it has flawless reviews and has actually gained in price, also the nikon D3000 for the onboard help menu and the sony A230 all priced in the 300-350.

The D3000 is basically the same as my one but without video recording.

A mate has one and it is v good.

Not seen the others so can't comment.

Edited to add: I really would try and go for something with more pixels. Even my mobile phone has 8MP. The difference is astounding, especially when you come to cropping your pics later on.
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Shit dits sink ships.

Don't get seduced by pixels and consider what glass your phone has in front of them. Trust me, 6MP is enough! How many MP would you say this beast has? Whenever anyone asks, it's the beginners' mistake, equivalent of bhp and maximum speed of a car.

First digi was a Minolta Dimarge 7HI with a fixed lens 200mm and macro cracking pics. It went kaput, it was six months later when I discovered by chance that Sony made the software for this camera and offered to fix the problem for free.

Bought the wife a Canon Digital IXUS 95 IS Digital Camera - Silver (10 MP, 3.0x Optical Zoom) 2.5 inch LCD from Amazon £126 the daughter year previous IXUS 80 cracking pics she took in the French Alps.

At the photo club this guy came along showing his pics taken on a Everest venture he stated I will show you pics taken with my slr and photos taken with my pocket camera similar to the IXUS see if you can spot the difference. We couldnt!!
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BEAM ME UP SCOTTY! THERE AINT NO INTELLIGENT LIFE DOWN HERE!!!