Who's got which photo camera and why

[McBeck]

Originally Posted by Von Hinten

Thanks for the hints and tips guys, I'm absorbing all this info and try and get clear what it is that I want. I don't really mind about the size of the camera itself, that's not a big, or even non-issue for me. I've decided that I want to come home with better pictures now so when I'm out to take them I'll just pack accordingly. Easy.

What I do care about is being able to shoot fast moving targets like racing cars blasting by for example. The biggest issue I've had with the smaller cams is that there usually was a significant amount of time between the moment where I take the shot, pull the trigger so to speak, and the actual recording of the picture. Not to mention the time it then takes to safe that picture so I can move on to the next.

This past weekend, for example, I was at the 6 hours of Spa Francorchamps where, among other absolutely gorgeous cars, the classic prototypes from the late 60's and 70's were doing their thing and it proved hard enough a task to catch them on my default camera. But I had also borrowed an standard Canon EOS 400D from work and using that camera I was so much abler to actually getting the moving cars on film.

Like John said I probably have a long way to go to get from the 'shooting snapshots level' to the taking photographs one, but the ease of how I could use the speed at which I could take the shots alone would have been well worth the bigger investment.

Obviously I don't know (yet, as it's clear I have lots of reading to do) how photo saving time compares to the compact camera of course but that would be a big factor to consider for me.

For fast moving objects you will need a DSLR. I have a Canon 450D and am very happy with it.
Do you need fast continues shooting? If you need to take 10 shots continuesly in a row in RAW format, I dont think the XXXD series is fast enough. You may want to look into the 50D
Added to this you need a fast lens. Look at the Sigma lenses with F2.8