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[catnamedvirtue]

Hello, i'm thinking of splashing out on a new digital camera or camcorder in the next few weeks, but would appreciate some 'non-online review' advice. I have about £300 to spend and i'm looking for a step up from standard entry models. I have lots of experience with film cameras, but i've not really delved into the digital realm.

In a camera i'm looking for an intuitive menu system, good images and hopefully some creative control over what I capture. Not sure if I can get an SLR for this price, but it would be nice!

In a camcorder, ideally it would record to HD or miniDV, with the process of transferring video to a Mac as painless as possible. Mainly looking at recording band practices/gigs with it.

Sorry for the vague outlines, but i've been trawling the internet all morning and it's all starting to read the same!

Any and all help is appreciated!

[alpina]

I have just bought a Nikkon DSlR D40 and its awesome. The amount of specific tutorials on utube are amazing. Jessops are doing them for £229.00 .

No video though!

The higher the optical zoom the better.

Comet have some good camcorders.

You don't need to spend a lot on a camera to get good shots. Fuji do some excellent cameras for about £100 these will do good quality video too.

A lot of camcorders will allow you to take still's too, mount on tripods, attatch lenses and filters. Try for one with HD, largest optical zoom possible, autofocus and 16:2 widescreen

[ca_gere]

Optical zoom is the way forward. Don't be swayed by digital zoom, it's a waste of time as the more you zoom, the bigger the pixels get. A useless feature really.