Any suggestions?

Knowing more about what you would photograph would help.
Is it landscapes, sceneries and such, or are wild animals/birds what you're after?
Is it moving targets, especially in not so good daylight?

In case of landscapes KonicaMinolta A200 would be very good camera (if you manage to find one) because it has good wide angle and medium tele. (28-200mm)
For pure landscapes Kodak P880's 24-140mm zoom would be spectacular.

If you don't need much low light capability and targets are stationary you can get good results for normal sized prints with non-SLRs.
Also macro photography quite much requires own lens in DSLR side so fitting all necessary to that budget could be very hard.

Mostly still objects (scenes) outdoors, and macro shots.

I've been eyeing both the Canon Powershot s80 and the Nikon D70..hmm.

So good wide angle is definitely way more important than very long tele.
Also image stabilization could be very usefull.

Also with tripod taking shots in dim light is possible if camera just have slow enough shutter speeds.

Ligh level was this.

Also tele macro of KM's lens is one of the best for good quality macroshots, frame area is nearly same and unlike wide angle macros it doesn't cause heavy distortion, chromatic aberration and corner softness. (also lightning target is much easier when you don't have to cram lens to couple cm distance)
Apparently Sony has just recalled KM products back from wholesalers so finding A200 could be hard.


Two very different cameras, actually S80's tele macro isn't really bad compared to most others... btw, here's what "average" means in wide angle macro's distortion: (that chromatic aberration is normal for wide angle macro)
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/Cano...cro/wide1x.JPG
For comparison A200's tele macro.

In dSLRs there are macro lenses for every camera so brand wouldn't matter so much in that aspect but KonicaMinolta dSLRs have Anti-Shake which makes every lens stabilized and that would be definitely advantage in stationary target photography.

Hey again,
thanks for the information.

The anti-shake function of the Konica Minoltas does seem like a good feature, and the KM i've been able to spot locally is the Dynax 5D (for around 640e incl shipping); the other two alternatives would seem to be the Pentax *ist DL (which is available for around 600e, incl. a 18-55mm lens) and the Nikon D50.
Any thoughts on these?

Very beautiful pictures by the way, remind me of home..

Edit. I just saw the press release stating that Konika Minolta will be no more; with innards and guts going to Sony.. any idea what effect this will have on current KM models, like the dynax d5, in regards to batteries; lenses, and service?