I'm a curmudgeonly old amateur photographer in a younger man's body. I consider myself an amateur, but I got my first SLR body when I was 12 or 13 and got my first "pro" gig when I was 17. I had dreams of making a career of it, but quickly realized that money was more important to me than starving for my art. Just shy of 30 years later (and still under the age of 45), I got my first digital SLR, having been so disappointed by some of the more expensive P&S that promised the same kind of control over exposure as I had with my film SLRs but sadly delivered none of the results. (How can you truly be creative shooting in AUTO mode?) My Nikon D80, however, delivered in spades. despite using several different brands and model SLRs with all sorts of bells and whistles, my D80 is the first SLR I ever allowed to focus by itself (I had no choice with the point and shoots, but with a sensor that small, they were rarely out of focus... plenty of motion blur though)