Hi guys,

As I mentioned in my intro, I'm a complete newbie to photography but I'm looking to buy my first digital camera. What would be the best sort of camera for me to buy is a complete mystery to me though, so I'm hoping I can get a few pointers here. LOL - I've read lots of reviews and technical specs on other sites, but aside from sending me cross-eyed, that hasn't been a lot of use to me in actually figuring out what I need to be looking for and what's likely to suit me the best.

Sorry, but I've got lots of questions!!

I do know that I probably need a compact camera though - running around with lots of lenses and tripods and things is a bit advanced for me just yet! I need something that's going to fit in a pocket ;)

Anyway, mostly what I'd like to take pictures of are things like animals (well, specifically dogs) and at a bit of a distance - maybe 10 metres or so, but I'd want the dog close up, if that makes sense. 3 x zoom seems to be 'standard' on most of the cameras I've looked at - is that likely to be enough? Some of them advertise digital zoom too, but a friend told me that that's not really relevant so I stopped bothering about that. I know that the more megapixels the better though!

I'm also keen on taking pictures of landscapes and buildings, when the opportunity arises. Well, generally a good all-round range of subjects really. Never know what's going to interest me in the future :)

So - any pointers for a newbie? Just a few suggestions on some cameras that are likely to suit my needs would be really useful. I'm sure I'll have loads more questions later, but right now I'm still lookiing for a starting point so I can start comparing.

TIA
Debbie

Debbie, My first and only digital camera right now is a Canon PowerShot S200, digital elf. Its about 4 years old, they do make the same camera now with more pixels. I love it for a newbie, its takes small videos and pretty good pictures. I always keep it in my pocket just in case( weights 6.4 oz). Some of its features are: Continuously shooting, self timer, digital zoom, auto focus,replay modes,light metering, LCD monitor, you can shoot in different modes. I haven't even used all the features it provides yet. The best feature I like is its size. Hope this helps a bit.

First, welcome to this board :)
As for your question, there are tons of compact digital cameras with x3 zoom in the market but you wrote you are "keen on taking pictures of landscapes and buildings" so it would be better to choose a camera with a wider lens than the common 35mm. There are several compact digicams starting at 28mm (like my "old" Nikon Coolpix 5000 by the way) but I would have to do some search.
Here are some good sites for reviews:
http://www.steves-digicams.com
http://www.dpreview.com
http://www.dcresource.com
I know the Nikon Coolpix 8400 has a 24mm lens but it is an expensive camera and not that compact. It would fit in a coat's pocket but not in your shirt's pocket. How compact should it be?

Olly

My daughter wants to buy a compact camera and searching on dpreview i found this camera which looks very interesting
Canon PowerShots A95
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canona95/

Sophia

If it is for buying a A serie Canon, it would be interesting to wait until the PMA camera show (February 19 - 23, in Orlando this year) as it might get remplaced like for the PowerShot A75 remplaced by the new PowerShot A510:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0501/05012002canona510.asp
The new one is smaller, lighter and has a x4 zoom instead of a x3. Even if you do not get the new one, the old version would certainly be cheaper :)