I'll get a shot of some snow as soon as we have some real snow for you all. Currently, we only have about as much as you, which I was out in my shorts and t-shirt not too long ago letting the dog out. It's warm, almost above freezing, and there's barely any snow .
Forgive me if this has been done 20 million billion times - but I feel like conetemplating throwing my money away. If I were to chose to buy a camera, what would you recommend?
dSLR wise, under £300 ideally.
Shooting wise i'd use it for... everything, frankly.
TBH yeah - unless theres a big "dont do that you fool" thing I should know about.
Just been suggest the D40 / D40X which look ok second hand - I dont want to spend a lot of money because i'm not sure how much I will use it yet, and because i'm poor.
I know most of the pictures are horrible, tho i cant keep from laughing at pict #37 in part 1. The policeman just sists there like he's thinking in the way of "what? normal day, drinking my drink" or something
You have a pretty dang nice (though a bit old now if it's the same one from way back at the start of the thread) bridge camera. So the question has to be, how much do you use the current camera? If you use it often enough, then certainly a dSLR is justified, even more so if you are looking in the used market.
I'd say, go for it, but I'd chose something more and better than a D40 if going used.
I use it a lot (well some days I wouldnt use it, others it would be ~300 shots per day...), but it's not really a bridge camera - it's a SLR-lookalike-point-and-shoot.
How long does and SLR last? I see people always mentioning shutter actuations :S
50k, 100k, maybe 200k, maybe even 300k ... My A200 has done 11020 so far, no problems at all.
You probably won't have the body long enough to have the shutter die on you, especially with an entry level body which you might soon replace with something better of the current generation
got an A200 myself, as an entry camera I think it's great. Has all the functions which you need only missing live view. The only minus to having a Sony is that the choice of Lens is limited when comparred to the likes of a Canon/Nikon.
I have a Nikon D60 since a few months.. nice body. I had a Canon snapshot but it got stolen out of my car, so I had a good excuse for stepping up to dslr. I mainly use it for automotive stuff, mostly trackdays. I bought the kit with the extra lense.. 55-200mm Nikkor.
I'm quit a noob though.. it's much fun but it takes lotsa patience.
At that price, it's an absolute no brainer. It's a cracking little camera, and in terms of features and handling, considerably better than the shitty A230 which replaced it. I shoot with an A700, and often considered picking up an A200 as a backup body since they share the same batteries, memory cards, etc. I never did in the end and now there's only the A230/330/380 which are appallingly designed and crippled.
Lenses aren't really a concern any more - although they don't have the same range as Canikon, the only things missing are the speciality, niche pro-grade lenses that you wouldn't exactly be putting on an A200 anyway. All the usual standard zooms are available in varying designs and price tags, along with a few macros and primes to choose from, a new cheap 50mm/1.8 which is pretty decent, plus you can do wireless flash (once you buy a flashgun) "out the box" i.e. no extra cables, equipment, triggers required.
Pretty sure an A200 will come with the 18-70mm kit lens. Like most kit lenses it's nothing great but I used mine on my A100 for 1½ years and it's absolutely fine for general photography.
An A700 for £275 is such a bargain, it's almost criminal!