Help & advice please, new to the world of serious cameras etc.
 

I need some serious help and advice again peeps.
I am starting a new hobby to fill some spare time now, but I am not sure what to go for.
I am starting into photography with a view to taking still wildlife photos etc, also moving , but not motorsport just yet.
I currently have an olympus digital camera, with3.2 pixels, 3x zoom,10x seamless zome etc, which takes good pics, but does not really cut it with long range zoom and pic quality for wildlife etc at distance .
Can anyone advise me on a decent spec camera for this type of use, I am no profes at this so I wil need some explaining of some items.
I don't want to get into serious money just in case it all goes pear shaped.
how does an SLR differ from normal dig cameras.
I am a novice at this, so please do not go into to much techcy stuff, without some expanatory notes to accompany it.

cheers
R

Sounds as tho you are after a camera that will do many jobs- just as i was looking for last year
check out
http://trial.which.co.uk/reports/av/...gitalCamera s

i settled for a panasonic FZ20 EB
the lense is to 36mm to 450mm in SLR terms ideal for anything from macro photography to long distance wildlife stuff- it has loads of buttons and modes but can be used on fully auto till you learn how to operate all the different features
it came with a 16mb card but i added a 512 mb card i think that is around 800 pictures i paid 250 pounds for mine at the sales inc card a lot of camera for the dosh - i settled for this camera instead of a digital SLR so i didnt have to carry or purchase loads of lenses
read up on it - if it appeals to you and you want some questoins answering just U2U me and i'll try to answer them
a selection of photos
full zoom

a portrait

the DD boys and girls

some local wildlife

at the skate park

Just been through this myself and ended up buying a Canon S2 IS....

Stunning piece of kit and is going to take some learning by me.

Here were my shortlists:

Canon S2
Konica Minolta Dimage A200
Panasonic DMC-FZ7


here is a useful resource:

http://www.steves-digicams.com/best_cameras.html


Good luck