A good affordable camera?
I'm really beginning to get into photography and really want a proper camera, you know the big black ones with the big lenses like the professionals use. I have £350. Are there any good cameras for a budding photographer? I've heard that the Nikon D60, Sony DSLR A390L and
Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR are good. Any help?
Dslr cameras start at about $500 US New. You can get them refurbished and used.
At this price however this will not be a professional camera - these are consumer level dslr cameras.
Professional models start at about $4, 000 US and go up.
Fujifilm in general isn't very good, A list of camera brands that I know are good from my photography experience are Nikon, canon, Pentax, and Sony. DSLR cameras are more expensive then Point-an-Shoot cameras.
Canon T3 or Nikon D3100 are the cheapest DSLR cameras that you can buy new.
I'm afraid contributor "Jim A." is right. If all you have is a 350 then I would wait until you can afford an entry level Canon, or Nikon, not Sony or Fuji. Fuji makes fine equipment but sticking to the most popular names Canon, Nikon & Pentax is the way to go if you have professional ambitions. If you mean by the word "professional" that you want great pictures sharp and that will make big enlargements then you can include the Fuji name. If you plan on making money with your camera then the 3, I mentioned are the way to go!
DSLRs are good if you have the option to have your preferred lenses. I find that I can obtain sharper images with compacts than the kit lens that comes supplied with the DSLR. The images from the kit lens are occasionally sharp, and/or, flash images. To have the accessibility to get different zoom lenghs, you would be looking to use multiple lenses, meaning the price goes up. Using one really long lens would usually be impractical.
To Clarify
DSLR - Great if you can afford lenses
Compact - Great if you can't afford lenses