My husband told me that he wants to buy me a new camera for my birthday and Mother's Day this weekend. Knowing how much I love photography, he wants me to have a nice digital camera where I can change the lenses as needed. I currently have a Kodak Z740. While it is not an expensive camera I love it but it does have its limitations.

Any suggestions?

jackie - there are lots of threads here regarding this really - you could either have a scan through those as most of the models discussed are still current or give us a guide on your anticipated budget to help narrow things down a bit.

Yeah, I noticed afterwards that there were some similar postings. Really what I'm looking for is something under $1000. My friends keep telling me to buy either a Cannon EOS Digital Rebel XTi or a Sony Alpha SRL. I want something easy to use but something more powerful than what I have. When I look for any data on the internet nothing is consistent. It varies from website to website. So now I'm looking for advice from the people I feel are the real experts.

Thanks in advance for your help.
Jackie

yes for that kind of price you have a pretty wide open field - Nikon D40X, Canon Rebel XTi, Pentax K10D, Olympus E-Volt 510 - all available in kit lens form for less than that - forget the Sony - it's ropey sensor is outclassed by any of these other choices. theses are all so close in performance it would be hard to say one over the other aside from how comfortable you feel handling them.

If it's any help, I shoot with the Olympus 500, the previous model, which has 8MP vs 10, and no Image Stabilization, but a more than decent entry-level cam.

Any of those cams will have a full auto mode too, so you can in effect use it as a big old point and shoot until you start finding your way around the various other setting options.

Jackie: Both of them (Rebel XTi and Sony) are wonderful cams. Others too (Nikon D40x/D80, Pentax, Olympus, ...)
But if you really love photography (and I'm sure you love it), you'll quickly be tempted to buy other lenses (tele, macro, ...). The best choices in lenses are found in Canon and Nikon IMO. And if you want to spend less money, you'll search for cheaper lenses like Tamron, Sigma, ... These one are more developped for Canon and Nikon than the others.
example
This wonderful lens (look at Kodo34's macros...) is only available in Nikon and Canon mounts.
Good luck and have a nice birthday!

My advice Jackie for what it’s worth is play with them all, then choose the one that appeals most and has the most logical control layout for you.

If I were starting out now I would go with Canon. Simply because they have the largest range of lenses and accessories for their cameras. However if money was tight I’d be looking hard at the Pentax.

Thanks everyone for your help. We ended up getting the Canon Rebel XTi. Thanks again for your advice and support.

Jackie

Congratulations on the new puppy, you’re going to love it.

Canon Rebel XTi is a pretty good camera, since I've owned it for 2 years now. But I like my Nikon D200 alot more.. :) Even though it costs a little more, but it's worth it. :)

2 years? the XTi/EOS 400D has only been in stores for about seven months... :-)