All the comments on here are so making me want to try all these other cameras though, too! I’ve yet to discover the fun of experimenting with lenses…

However I’d like to mention one thing in defense of the FZ50 since I’ve been using it quite a bit - despite what people on forums say, I find the noise levels of the FZ50 perfectly acceptable. I keep my camera on ISO100 or 200, and have only used ISO1600 once - in the zoo’s nocturnal animals section, when I wanted to take a picture without flash to disturb the critters! It acted like night-vision - grainy, green, but perfect for that look, and just what I expected of ISO that high anyway. ISO100-200 I find turns out perfect on the FZ50. I’ve taken nice night shots of Christmas lights

The noise levels on the FZ50 pretty much mimic the grain of conventional film - anything over ISO400 will of course be grainy - that’s the nature of film itself!

How close do you usually crop your photos? That’s the only time you’d really need to worry about grain/noise. FZ50 gives you 10 megapixels to play with - noise doesn’t even show up in 4×6 prints, nor even in 12×10 prints. And if it does, it’s what conventional film would have looked like, too.

(The only thing with the FZ50 - if you get the chance to use one, turn that damn Venus noise-reduction engine thingamajig right down to LOW. Noise will look like a watercolour effect if it’s on even Medium or High. Other than that, don’t worry about noise too much, as the same thing is what your conventional film camera would have done.)

I was almost sure I would buy the DMC-FZ50, or perhaps the new Canon 5SIS. I did a huge amount of research for nearly a month, and somewhere along the way I realized that these prosumer cameras are going the wrong way. Pushing 8, 10, 12 MP with the dinky sensor that they have is not good. I checked like a zillion camera review websites and actual photos and concluded that the Panasonic was out because of their problem with noise. And whatever people think, Panasonic is no worse off than Canon or the others when it comes to noise in the prosumers.

So the only thing left to do was go for a DSLR… and in the remaining part of the month narrowed it down to Pentax K100D, after also considering Canon 350D and the Nikon D40. Why? IS built into the body and the extra LCD screen. So now I am experimenting with the Pentax and I am extremely happy with the camera and the results!

Hahaha, thanks for the advice. I’ve been thinking about getting a medium format film camera as my next purchase, but I haven’t decided yet.

Also a polarizing filter and UV filter are important accessories that I use. Of course your post on Polarizers on photocritic was really helpful.

My next step would be to move to either a D80 or the d200 series…but not right now cause I’m still learnign to use my D50

@Andrew: This “setup” with more than one camera isn’t that expensive. For example, my SLR is quite old, and some 10year-old professional Cameras are available very cheap - either auctions or used or if a Photo-Saler closes his doors. And there you have the Lenses for either extreme situations or “planned” shots. And developing filmstrips isn’t very expensive, so with an old and by now cheap camera you can have the “high quality” if you need it.
But I wouldn’t recommend using analog as your primary camera…
There’s that budget again ;)

@Bela: Thank you for the compliment! :)

I really like the idea of having a multi-camera arrangement so that you can choose different ones for different situations. I just can’t afford it at the moment :P

I like the first photo you posted quite a bit. The blue tone gives the photo some extra oomph and separates it from other eye photos, which I see pretty often. I’ve also added you as one of my Flickr contacts.

I’m currently using my 2 megapixel cameraphone for stuff on the go like documentation and reminders. It works pretty well, but I keep forgetting that my phone *has* a camera, so I never remember to look at the photos.

1) In the piuctures that are meant for Photoshop or the web in general, I use my Konica Minolta Dimage A2 - the most flexible and reliable camera I have met yet. Considering that I’m on a budget as a student.
For example:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bela-beier/445090…
2) Outside and for special pictures I use my twenty-three year old Minolta XE-5, with 5 objektives - a macro, one 18-50, one 30-100, a 150-400 ands a 100 to 230.
For example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bela-beier/275646…
3) “On the road!” I always have a Panasonic Lumix DMC with me, that fits neatly into my pocket and does quite acceptable pictures. But mostly - documentation, reminders and stuff like that. Nothing fancy.

From time to time I still dabble with film. My dad gave me his old Canon AE-1, and I have 150mm, 50mm and 20mm lenses for that rig. Absolutely great color and clarity. Sure gets expensive to develop though.