New Camera. Advice please.

Hey all, well after seeing some photos flying round on the site I wouldnt mind buying a new SLR.

I used to be into photography a few years back and I had a Pentax SLR.

But when the time came to replace it, I bought a diddy camera instead. That is on its last legs now and pretty bored of it.

My budget is propbaly about £250/£300 at a push, so I may have to settle for a intermediate SLR.

I dont think I'll get anything top notch for that kind of money but it would be nice to get an idea of whats available. Top of the range down to my sort of price.

Cheers in advance,

quick, get into jessops, you can get yourself a nikon D40 for 270 quid,

people will come along in a min and tell you the canon 400d is better, then jessops will tell you the same, because they want commision. they will say that the nikon D40 is only a 6 megapixel camera, and the 400d is a 10 mp camera.

but then , any expert will tell you that the mega pixel isnt important, its the guy behind the camera, and its the lens that you use,

the 10 mp will only come in useful if you intend to blow your images up huge, like A3 or something like that.

here are some shots that ive taken (very amaturish with the D40)

Must admit, ther isnt really any need for anything higher than about 8mp, but in saying that the D40X has caught my eye but its a 10.2.

Apart from the gap in MP is there any other differences between the D40 and D40X?

The D40's great. I've got one and love it. £270 - what a bargain! I don't think there are many differences between the D40x and the D40 except for MPs.

I would love to get another SLR camera ... I used to have a Canon EOS 300 ... fantastic camera which I just couldn't do justice to, so I gave it away to my gf at the time who COULD do it justice ... kinda wish I hadn't now LOL

I have a Sony Cybersh1t 3.2mp camera ... on my Sony Ericsson K810i LOL

Oh and a Fuji Finepix E500 5mp digital compact camera ... which is ok for most bog-standard stuff, but isn't a patch on a decent digital SLR (obviously).

If you can push your budget a but higher Id go for the new olympus E 410 its got a lot of very good reviews recently, pc world are doing a kit for £399.00 at the min but you could probably find it cheaper on here www.pricerunner.co.uk

Have you thought about a secondhand Canon 350D - am sure you could pick one up for 200 quid or so..

You don't mention if you have any lenses - that normally dictates the brand which you go for...?

No I got rid of all my lenses. Bugger I didnt realise they were interchangable between 35mm and digital?