Have always enjoyed photography, though never terribly seriously, and always on a budget! My first camera was a Kodak Instamatic 126 when I was 12ish in the mid 70s, "bought" by redeeming vouchers from Weetabix packets IIRC. I bought my first and only SLR (a Minolta X300) when I was at Bath Uni in the mid 80s, but then I went digital in 1999, first with a Canon A50, then a Canon A40 , next a refurbished Canon A520, and now a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5 which I'm enjoying, though I do miss the manual controls... A DSLR would be nice, but I love the portability of compacts, and IMHO the picture quality these days is damn good from them. From the three weeks playing with the TZ5 it certainly doesn't dissappoint on that front. Anyway, who knows what the future holds...?