Is it worth getting a bridge camera ?

[Sneezecakesmama]

I have a nice canon ixus point and shoot. I would like to do some landscape and wildlife pics so ?? Do I need more of a zoom lens. Do bridge cameras do a better job? Don't want to spend £££££ on a SLR.

If I were you I'd skip the bridge camera and go straight for an SLR.

I'd look at a second hand Sony A290 or similar which I recently sold for £210. It's about the price of a bridge camera but it will give you much better pictures and of course you will be able to swap lenses etc depending on what you want to do.

I know a few people with bridge cameras and I am not impressed with the quality at all.

Thanks. Didn't think of a second hand SLR. Would you suggest ebay or somewhere reconditioned? Will look into this.

I have a bridge camera - a Fuji S8000d. It's a few years old now, but I love it. I bought it just beofre going to Tanzania on safari and got some fantastic shots with it. I find it is really ideal for me - I love photography but don't have the time or energy/space with two young kids to lug around lenses and change them. The optical zoom on my camera is great (18x) and the settings etc are easily enough for my purposes.

It just depends how far you want to go etc. and how much time you have to put into photography, but for me a bridge camera's been a good solution.

Thank you. I took niceguy2's advice and bought a second hand Nikon D40 DSLR as what he said makes sense, and the reviews were excellent and the picture quality amazing. Have not fannyied about yet with it much so I probably would have got away with a bridge camera, but I like the idea of becoming an accomplished proper photographer

Thanks anyway

Oh, that's good - I've always hankered after a Nikon. Once the kids are a bit bigger I'll probably get a DSLR, in the hope I'll have time to take photos of something other than the children at some point again!

Enjoy it!

Sneezecake. Now you have an SLR I'd recommend you get one of these:

Jessops 360AFD

Bounce the flash from the ceiling and completely transform how your photos look. It's not the quickest flash in the world but for the price it's excellent value for money.