Dslrs Or Superzoom - Which Is Best For Me?

[happy7]

Hi everyone

I am hoping for some advice. I'm looking for a new camera for taking photos for my travel agency website - I'm planning to take photos of landscapes, people, plants, flowers, and a bit of night photography. I'm currently using Ixus 40, which I had for years & still really like it (and I take it everywhere), but I'm finding the photos are not looking so clear.

I'd like something not too big and too heavy & been looking at a couple of lower end DSLRs eg. Canon EOS 450. It seems like a very nice camera, but is it a bit of an overkill just to get photos that will look nice on a website? Would something like a superzoom be good enough to do the job well?

Thanks!

[MrSnrang]

I've tried to use a fuji s9600 for shooting sports on days that i forget to bring my D40 and there is a huge jump in usability between the two.

The S9600 is slow, hard to set exposure, flimsy, and noisy.

The D40 is fast, exposure is easy to change, it is a different world of quality, and only starts to show distracting noise at ISO 1600. With the kit lens and the supplemental 55-200mm lens I gain a total focal range equivalent to 18-200 on a 1.5x crop factor (same as the fuji with 28-300). Add the fact that the d40 kit can be had for a mere thirteen thousand baht.

[tw25rw]

Personally, I swear by Panasonic Lumix as a camera brand. Have a look at the LX3 for quality and flexibility. Possibly just right for what you want. Or if you don't mind forking out, the Leica D Lux 4 is basically the same camera with some fine tuning to the software and some extra accompaniments. Very small zoom range but you can buy conversion lenses.

For an allrounder with a big zoom, the FZ28 (I use the predecessor FZ18). They have also created a new market niche with the G1: a compact with interchangeable lenses. Like an SLR without the mirror/prism arrangement.

[baahjun]

As MrSnang said, the d40 would be a good camera for the job, small and good quality imgs. IMHO the main difference between that and a P&S is the size of the sensor (forget the amount of megapixels, you def. don't need more than 6MP, and for webwork 4MP would do fine) and the fact that you can always change lenses later if you want to. Dpreview is a good website to read reviews and compare cameras.

[happy7]

Thank you everyone for your replies. Both the D40 and Lumix LX3 seem suitable, so I will be going to have a look at those at the shop.

[RAZZELL]

Thank you everyone for your replies. Both the D40 and Lumix LX3 seem suitable, so I will be going to have a look at those at the shop.

I'd buy a Canon G10 unless you want to learn "serious" photography.

Added advantage of half decent video capture, plenty good enough for a website.

RAZZ