10-4. I will say nothing beats the quality an SLR can produce but the lens to get that are what sets you back!! I'd reccomend looking at Nikon my F80 has been a dream and the amount of aftermarket lenses available besides Nikor is second to none. The Nikors are sweet but my 30-135 was more than body itself so it can get pretty spendy. If I were to buy an DSLR it would be the D80/10 MP but at over a G note it's an investment. I sold my telephoto lens because I wasn't happy with it (not nikor el cheapo off ebay[:'(])so would be looking at 600 and up for that - 1600 plus seems a bit steep right now and the size has me thinking of the ultra zoom point and shoot instead. My partner bought the Sony H5 and so far his pictures have been impressive thatI have seen. Mom has Canon IS2 which is also been very good. TheSony H's you can buy a telephoto adapter that almost doubles your zoom capability (x1.8 I believe), so that would get your optical zoom in the 20-24x range,just an FYI. Here in Canada they sell for 250.00 but I have seen them on ebay for less. As mentioned the Sony H2 has the inside track due to price and the ability if required to up the optical zoom. Though the Canon has a tilting preview screen and according to reviews/break downsa slightly better image stabilzer and movie mode(if that is a concern). While the H5 screen is simply awesome the cheapestI have found it for is 499.00 with reg price being 540, seems like a lot for 1" bigger screen with 200K pix count. The 1 additional MP so I havebeen toldreally means squat in the grand sceme of things and in the case of the Sony the Zeiss lens usedis pretty much at the peak performance with the H2/6.1 MP. It seems everytime I think I favor one I second guess myself, so it will probably come down to what feels best to the hand and wallet! Then again I might do a complete 180, I'll keep you posted. Iwas giventhis site by a couple camera shops, it is thorough and may help you some www.dpreview.com