[peanut]

Nicely put Andygrif.

As posted by myself in another photography thread is also now apt here.

I thought about a compact but then I thought about thinking ahead a bit further. It all depends on if you just want to take snaps or experiment and play around a bit. I wanted to try a bit of manual photography, nothing serious but a bit of achievement and see some different results than what a compact can do.

Ok you can't carry a dSLR around with you all the time but I wouldn't want to carry a compact around with me all the time either. But if I know I'm going somewhere where I might need the camera then it's no problem at the end of the day.

Besides I wouldn't trade in a 200mm lens now for anything.

I now have some (so I've been told) some very good pictures hanging on my walls that I have taken, that I'm sure I wouldn't have bothered to take or have gone out of my way to take using a compact and to me, that's the difference, as with dSLRs you see things just that slightly differently because you can.