If your budget is 1000$ and will not be higher in the next years, than buy the Minolta which really is a great camera. No use in buying a SLR without some lenses. If you may have additional money available soon, than buy your Digital Rebel which is the better (read as "more versatile and better pics") camera (using this one myself) and she's not limited to one lens as the Minolta is. But do never forget: the "cheap" 300D-body will need at least the same amount of money for lenses to be really useful. Especially in your case, where focal lenght is a matter to worry about. (If there's even more money to spend, the Nikon would be no bad choice to, but she should be compared to the 10D, not the 300D) F828: don't believe all those fanboys "blahblah". If (ever) this cam will be available, we'll see, what she is able to to. Prior to that, i don't even read reviews. ;)

You're getting an 1D for christmas? Take good care of that lady ;). Congrats to that great gift!

lol Thanks for the explanation. Do know these power-save-modes very well ;-). But i promise, i'd take some jelly-jam-marmelade-pictures especially for you :-) .. in exchange for some ham salad, ok?

Would you mind giving some hints on how to do that? As some others around here, i don't have any idea on where to start .. Great work!!

As Michelle said .. :)

So be it. Thanks to all of you! :-)) @Wolfsnap: special thx for your advice. Will try it that way soon. Till now, i usually shot spiders, living in places where there's not enough room to move to much so the AF had to do it's job. But about this "getting out before the dew dries" - thing sigh ... no chance on this one, even if i really do believe you ;-) @JordyArt: i'm dreaming of butties in 3000*2000 Px (seen this pic of "tharakes" lately?) .. don't think this is possible with a standard-lens? Perhaps with a close-up-lens attached? Or did i miss some joke here? If so .. oops, sorry ...

Tried it in a shop this afternoon (already 06:40 pm over here) and one can think, this lens is from some other company (or at least the double price) than that *** 50mm-lens. A lot less noise, faster AF and a better picture quality. Couldn't imagine, that for that little more money, one could get a so much better lens. Nice addon: it has the same 58mm opening as my tele-zoom and the kit-lens, so i can use all my filters here too. :] Thank you Michelle! Hope to be of service sometimes too! :)

Seems quiet (="still" in german) .. and still there's life? So why not ... at least, it's no fruit-bowl :)). But you really shoud add that thumb. Can already hear that paddle coming down on you ... running

Sorry, i didn't want to say you've been borrowing anything. It's just, that i know this effect from a movie-cover and have used it myself once. Sorry for beeing misunderstandable. Of course this are your pictures, your idea and your work to make it look like that. I've never thought anything else! Please accept my apologies for writing that in a manner, one could read it like "borrowed".

Thanks for posting that link. Looks like a lot of work, but well worth the effort.

Not disappointing at all! I'd remove the white border .. or at least make it smaller ... but i would not be me, if i didn't find something to nag gg. Thanks for making this one. I like it. Like the background too, even if it seems to be veeeery familiar (those, knowing my site will know why ;). huggz, Tom

Thank you! I'll look at them tomorrow. This moon is shot hand held? Hardly believable. wow cu, Raven

Ooops ... something's missing: Greetinx, Raven / Thomas ... sorry, didn't want to be rude ;-)

@Donald: i'll let you know! :-). Still no delivery .. :-( @Randys: thank you!! 100-300 IS or 75-300 IS? Never heard of an 100-300 lens with IS but i may very well be wrong with that!! I'd bet you're happy with that 100-400 L IS lens g .. if anyone is willing to buy exclusive rights on some of my pics .. loool I'd like to see that galery, of course. If you'd post the URL here? Do you have similar shots with both lenses to compare them? Thx in advance! As you did mention Sigma: my dealer here was saying, that Sigma has some technical problems (e.g. metal-screws within plastic counterparts which does look like high-value but is way inferior to just glueing) and he's getting back a lot of that lenses. Also, there are (he said) problems with just re-engineering canon-techniques (instead of licensing them) which can lead to compatibility-issues later. Don't know if he's right with that as i'm quite happy with my Sigma-Macro lens .. but of course, what can i say after 3 weeks ... ;-)

Gongrats from me too Matt! Well earned honour!! Looking forward to your next one :)