Following months of my brother talking of buying a new Canon camera to replace his slightly ageing 350D with a 40D I noticed an offer in a mag for one for £499 (body only) - and bought it

OK it needs me to send off to Canon for a £100 rebate, and at the moment Im using his 70-200mm lens to try it out, but its damn quick at focusing and the build quality is nice.

For my hands its a tad big and just a touch heavy, so it will take time getting used to, then theres all the features on it (like live view, which Ive had on my old FZ20 for years) but the photos of my big toe, and the dog, and a sweet wrapper, are impressive  :wub:  

Will have to get out and take some exterior photos with it

Seems that most of the Canon bodys have a rebate as well as some of their lenses, so worth having a look around if you are in the market for new Canon stuff now.

The price, and the fact that its able to shoot immediately you switch it on are the main two. Lesser issues are speed of focusing, noise and low light performance. I bought the FZ20 knowing that its low light performance would be an issue. I could overlook these simply because it otherwise outperformed everything anywhere near its price range. A Canon 350D at that time was nearly £800 so Ive effectively saved the price of the FZ20 by waiting.

The FZ20 will still be in use as a second camera, and there are places where I would happily take that but not a £600 Canon plus lenses.

At the moment Im looking at lenses and thinking of what to buy in a couple of months. That gives me some time to get used to the camera and what I will be using it for.

One single photo from my nieces wedding.



I took a few over 200, some of them came out perfect like this one, a few had problems, mostly because somehow the flash setting had been put to -2EV somehow. Some were just blurred because of poor lighting.

[edit]Decided to go for a Canon 28-135mm IS USM lens, good enough for most things. Although lacking slightly for wide angle work I can buy something more suitable if I feel the need.