Need to pick ur brains zombie-like!

My wife is interested in a new camera - we have a cannon digital from a while ago - but its a consumer camera and want to get something a little more *pro*.

I'm not really sure what specs to be looking for or what price range. She would like to take photos of people, places, etc but to get a better quality than the average consumer camera - I think you know how I mean - landscapes and close-ups. Possibly for display.

Any hints on best place to look and spec/prices??

Well, as for brands, you have 3 choices, Sony, Nikon and Canon, Sony is the least expensive of the 3, nikon tends to have good quality as with canon, I have 3 point and shoot sony's and a DSLR Alpha 350, you can check it's quality on my gallery with crappy lenses.

Places on the UK, have no idea... If you dare to eventually have some confusion, try pixmania, they have good prices, but sometimes "forget" to send the items.

Ebay on UK is also a very good spot and some regular stores also sell there, not only used, but also new boxed items, it's a matter of search.

The Nikon D40X, altough the one with lesser MP's, takes awesome shots, the Canon D500 may also be a good choice, its the one on the price range with greater MP (15), the sony goes 14.2 MP and the Nikon D40X goes to 10MP.

Remeber DSLR pixels have nothing to do with point and shoot pixels, the DSLR cameras have 1" CCD's whilst point and shoot don't go bigger than 1/4", also the lenses affect the picture quality, a point and shoot usually have 3 to 7mm lenses and DSLR use standard 35mm lenses, I'm waiting for some €€ for the Vario Sonar 60mm 1.1 for my Sony, pricey (1900€) but deserves, it's all made with high carbon crystal.

People don't like Sony cameras, however i've done a few photo runs against a Nikon D300 and an Canon 50D and they did took a beating from my Sony, must say that each one of these costs 3 times my Sony...

Now depends, if you want to have a substitute for a hammer to nail things to the wall, buy a nikon and pay the extra thoughness, not features, the canon tend to balance features (alot) and quality, the Sony is just that, a good no hammer like camera but costs ALOT less for almost the same build and picture quality.

Decisions, decisions, decisions

Thanks for all the info - a lot to have a look at although I'm liking the look on the Sony DSLR Alpha 350

I'll check out your gallery this eve with the wife and have a look

Cheers.

No problem DS, you can check it here 1qi3gptz, the wider albuns are the ones taken with the 350, the others are from a p150 (7.2mp) or a H9 (10.1 Mp)

The pictures on the gallery are not the original raw files, gallery does not support pics above 10mp, so these have beem downsized and jpeg, as it doesn't support the raw format sony has.

If you want any of these pics in the original raw format, i'll give them to you, the have average 15MByte

I think the 350 is out of production, in substitute you have de 380.