What to go for when I upgrade?

[geebs2006]

I bought my new camera back in January - its great and I love it but when I was originally looking for one I sort of just jumped in and picked the camera with high megapixels for my budget. As said its a great camera but one thing I am beginning to wish I had now is the ability to change the lens.

Specs of one I have:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fuji-FinePi...4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1209208669&sr=1-4

I'm not going to upgrade for a while yet - maybe at Christmas or something as I still have a lot to learn before moving onto changing lenses but wondered what you guys opinions were on what I should upgrade too.

What to go for with a budget of say maybe £400ish?

What to go for with a budget of £800?

Just want opinions so that I can still keep an eye out for any bargains that may crop up. I was thinking a Nikon or something.

 

[Garry Edwards]

I bought my new camera back in January - its great and I love it but when I was originally looking for one I sort of just jumped in and picked the camera with high megapixels for my budget. As said its a great camera but one thing I am beginning to wish I had now is the ability to change the lens.

Specs of one I have:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fuji-FinePi...4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1209208669&sr=1-4

I'm not going to upgrade for a while yet - maybe at Christmas or something as I still have a lot to learn before moving onto changing lenses but wondered what you guys opinions were on what I should upgrade too.

What to go for with a budget of say maybe £400ish?

What to go for with a budget of £800?

Just want opinions so that I can still keep an eye out for any bargains that may crop up. I was thinking a Nikon or something.

Nobody can (or should) advise you on what you buy in 6 or 7 months time because things are changing (improving) all the time and both specs and prices are bound to be better by Christmas.

Your camera is good, for its type - but its limitation is the size of the sensor, which limits the sharpness of its images because they have to be enlarged so much, and which limits your ability to blur the background because the small sensor dictates that the effective lens aperture is very limited.

Getting a DSLR - any DSLR - will overcome those problems, there's far more to a DSLR than the ability to change lenses!

Also, don't get too hung up over the number of pixels, that's just marketing hype. More pixels mean more theoretical resolution, but not better image quality. The problem with a large number of pixels is that they end up being too small, and too tightly crammed together - this results in reduced ability to cope with high contrast subjects.

 

[geebs2006]

Thanks for the reply - Yea i've noticed some of my pics aren't as sharp as they could be. And I was beginning to think that MegaPixels as you say is a marketing hype because my cousin has a D40 6 megapixel compared to my 9 and his pictures look so much sharper.

 

[Steep]

Sharpness comes from many things, keeping the camera steady and shake free, not using a slow shutter speed in low light are two possible cures for fuzzy pics but there are many more. Why not post an image you think is soft along with details of how it was taken and folk here can advise on ways to improve?