I have noticed this Kowa TD-1 camera in the news several months ago but now I have a review of it in "Which digital camera" magazine :)
In short, it's a very nice camera but only 3 megapixels and too expensive (£1,700! It's US$ 3,273 or CAN$ 3,932 or EURO 2,446).
I was interested by it but didn't know the price at that time. With that amount of money, I would take the cheapest slr available and get a long zoom with a x2 converter.
It's a 450 (yes, its widest angle has more zoom than the x10 full zoom of my Canon Pro90IS!) - 1350mm and designed for people into bird photos.
More at http://www.kowascope.com/pro/td1/index.htm
What a look! It is like a mini bazooka. It weighs 2,3kg.
Some photo samples at http://www.kowascope.com/pro/td1/cp.htm

Olly

Wow! That's quite the camera.

I would take the cheapest slr available and get a long zoom with a x2 converter.:)

:smile: one day I will know what your talking about! Sounds like some camera though. :rolleyes:

I would take the cheapest slr available and get a long zoom with a x2 converter.:)

:smile: one day I will know what your talking about! Sounds like some camera though. :rolleyes:

Colleen, I'm on the same page as you!

I agree with you,i would get a slr and a good long zoom with x2 converter.The photos are so small to judge

Colleen and Lisa :)
SLR is for Single Lens Reflex. With that kind of camera you have a viewfinder that sees Through The Lens (TTL). You can see several samples of them at http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=ProductCatIndexAct&fcategoryid=111
What's nice with them is that you can change the lens depending on your need. You need a wide angle, you get a 28mm lens. You need a long zoom, you get a 400mm lens etc.
With a SLR, if you put your hand in front of the lens, you wouldn't be able to see through the viewfinder while with a compact camera you would still be able to see.
A SLR is usually sold "body only". You need to buy a lens to be able to use it.

About the long zoom lens: the higher the number is, the more zoom you get. You get twice more zoom with a 600mm than with a 300mm.
Here is a sample of a long zoom: http://www.sigma-photo.com/lenses/lenses_all_details.asp?id=3295&navigator=7
It's a 800mm zoom.

About the converter: it's a small lens you usually put between the camera body and the lens or directly on the lens.
At http://www.sigma-photo.com/lenses/lenses_tele.asp you can see two converters: x1.4 and x2

If you use the x2 converter with a 800mm zoom, you get a 1600mm zoom.

Olly thanks for the information, I'm going to read up on the links. So does it means that you have to have different lenses for different things or can you get a lense that does all? As you mentioned I think that if you wanted to take pictures of birds for example you shud have one kind of lense and maybe if you want to take pictures of landscapes a wide zoom lense?

You can get a lens that does all, from wide angle to long zoom, like the Sigma 28-300mm F3.5-6.3 MACRO you can see at http://www.sigma-photo.com/lenses/lenses_all_details.asp?id=3271&navigator=2 (I am posting links to Sigma but it can be any lens makers). It even does macro. The problem is you will never get something "perfect": there will be some distorsion in colour or optically. It's a question of compromise :)
Roosje's Nikon 8800 is what we call a bridge camera. It's between the SLR and the compact cameras. My Canon Pro90IS is also a bridge camera. They are nice because they can do almost everything (taking little movies included, which is something SLR can't) but a SLR with the right lens will be better. Problem is you would need to get all the lenses to "beat" the bridge camera...
If you get a SLR, it is better to buy the good (and unfortunately expensive) lenses because if you don't, it would have been better to buy a bridge camera instead as they usually have a great lens.

Olly,thanks so much for the info. I really would like to know as much as I can before I go and buy one.