Wanting to get a good camera..any ideas?

[Wannadog]

Im realy interested in photography, but well, my current camera sucks, lol.
I have a nikon coolpix L12, not realy that bad of a camera but someone broke the lens on it(so it only works half the time, the lens gets stuck and wont go back in)... grrr.. and Ive been wanting a better camera anyway.
But im not realy sure what I sould get..
I love taking action pictures, and pictures of animals and nature, flowers, etc.. and I would realy like to start taking some macro shots.
I definately want a digital... any of you guys have any suggestions?
I was thinking maybe a Nikon D40, do you think that would be a good choice for the things I want to do with it?
I want to stay under $500 (if thats possible, lol)

[Penguin]

i have a Canon Powershot S2 IS and love it.
it does everything you want and more and it only cost me about $350.
i've heard the Nikon D40 is a great camera also

dpreview.com is your best place to look up reviews on cameras to get a better idea on how well certain cameras perform

[Saje]

are you wanting to get into the slr style camera?

[Wannadog]

Originally Posted by Saje

are you wanting to get into the slr style camera?

yeah

[Saje]

well for that price range (and you may need to up it a bit) your choices are:

The Nikon D40 - about $600
Digital Rebel XTi in U.S. - about $600
Pentax K110D - $650?
Olympus E-400 - $550?

The d40 is obviously popular on this forum and i like mine. It is very limited in which lenses you can use but you can definitely work around that and as you grow and learn you can upgrade your camera body. If you were to spend more i would get the d80 body and used lenses over the d60 or d40x. the d60 and d40x doesnt have big enough differences to warrant the hike in prices. the d80 is a much better camera for the price.

I dont know a whole lot about the xti (surprising since I used it for two years lol) but reviews say you get better raw files out of the xti compared to the d40 which gives better jpgs. This one also is much more compatible with lenses so you get a better selection and more used options.

The pentax has shake reduction in the body so you dont have to shell out loads of money for special lenses. i think this is why andrew bought it and if you take a look at his gorgeous pics you'll see it works for him

I dont know anything at all about the olympus so read some reviews
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0609/06...lympuse400.asp

You should go to a few stores and hold the bodies and see which ones feel right for you