buying a camera is complicated!

[sohc em]

so i'm looking at buying a new camera, our 8 month old is on the move and my old casio exilm is a good camera, but not gonna do the job. we want a more advanced camera but don't think an slr is necessary. i know alot of you on here are good photographers and was wanting to get some opinions. we wil use it mostly for taking pics of our daughter, but i will also be using it to take pics of the cars i restore. we are looking at a Nikon - Coolpix P100 10.3-Megapixel here is the link
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Nikon+-+...&skuId=9758747
let me know what you think. and $350.00 to $450.00 is what we're looking to spend

[hondaacc91]

get a dslr you can find one for that price

[pwrusr]

You can get a decent starter SLR for that price. You simply have to look a little harder then bestbuy... www.amazon.com is your friend

[cvc7chris]

x2 on the dslr, but if you wanna stay point and shoot, i'd personally reccomend a sony dsc-h50...

http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-came...-32775804.html

because i have the camea and it's a GREAT point and shoot and has a GREAT picture...
and it's almost half the price than the one you posted..

[sohc em]

thanks for the input i'm still trying to decide if a dslr is gonna be good for us not much of a photographer so i'm trying to figure out the benefits of dslr to point and shoot

[Tnwagn]

If you want something to tote around day to day to get pictures just to keep the memories a point and shoot will do just fine.

If you really want to capture a moment with the best image quality or have an interest in picking up photography as a hobby then a DSLR would suit you well.

Keep in mind, the zoom you typically get on a standard point and shoot will be much more than whatever lens comes with the DSLR you buy. As such, if you want to be able to zoom in a lot and are interested in a DSLR, you would have to purchase another lens.

[lsn92ex]

I've personally had great success with every canon PowerShot I've ever used, I great friend of mine that goes to CNU has won several photography contests with his SD850, i believe it is.... the SD series cameras don't have full manual exposure control I believe, but Canon's A series powershots have full manual exposure control if that's what you're looking to get in to.
-these, however, are older Canons. I'm not too sure about the newer Canons.

then again, another great friend of mine bought a Leica P&S type camera that he took to a work trip to Haiti and came back with some beautiful shots... probably one of the best point and shoots out there.
Leica D-Lux 4

imo, if you're going to spend 400 bucks, don't buy a mediocre slr when you could get a high-end compact that can take comparable pictures with half the bulk.

EDIT: i haven't looked at the prices of Leica in a while...
ALSO: it's not a Leica he has, it's a Lumix with a Leica lens... Lumix DMC LX3K

[matthew1er]

try nikon there great. i have a nikon s220.