[bpw]

Thanks for your comments Don.

Now if I was a close friend I would be constantly comparing my results against these. Plenty of room for dissapointment.

It does worry me, as I don’t want Karen to be disappointed. She has a limited budget, so she can’t afford the equivalent of my equipment (not that mine is special), so I’d rather she asked around and got some idea of the best ‘beginner-level’ alternatives.

Camera brand is really down to personal preference. How it fits in your hand, ease of operation etc. If the two of you regularly go out together, then going with Canon makes sense as you are familiar with it and can easily advise.

I have hinted that she considers Canon for the reason you stated – I’m familiar with their products and she could borrow bits of my kit – but I haven’t oversold the idea. I would hate to ‘recommend’ a system and then for her to be disappointed with it.

So I would say it is really a case of primary interest. If birds were the prime interest then putting as much of the budget into quality zoom glass makes sense and go with a Macro lens later. If its macro then the same rule applies.

I agree absolutely and I’ll suggest this.

Of course if you were going to move up to the 30D ...... that could help Karens budget but not yours.

I have actually been considering upgrading and started a new thread some while ago to discuss this (I must conclude this). However, my work situation has changed recently so I have to wait a while before deciding what to do.

I think we all know that the main factor in photography is the user, rather than the gear, but as long as the equipment Karen gets is capable of good shots, then we’ll be happy. What I’m hoping is that someone might suggest a particular kit (body and perhaps third-party lenses) that might do the trick.