agree with the above
for someone running around on the beach in good daylight, the all-in-one superzooms are so close to offering what the base model slr's offer, it's not worth the slr headaches, unless you are doing more serious photographic stuff
if you go with a superzoom, just be prepared to accept that you will experience more sensor noise in low light conditions than most slr's, and therefore you will most likely experience the "water colour painting" effect as a result of the camera's built in noise reduction
in general;
superzooms (and most point-n-shoots) have smaller sensors than slr's
smaller sensors with high megapixels = more noise
therefore, more noise = greater amounts of noise reduction needed in order to please the public
more noise reduction needed = more "water colour painting" effect (less detail)there is also the argument about depth of field, but most people who buy low end slr's mate them with low end lenses, and cheap lenses generally don't give much more control over depth of field than a superzoom, so it's pretty much pointless anyway
if you are considering an slr, canon and nikon appear the obvious choices, but sony have some market altering technology being developed and added to their new cameras, which will possibly (dramatically) change the way cameras are manufactured in the near future
And it is a nice tight focus at that length. AF or Manual focus ring plus manual zoom ring too - tres unusual and a BIG sealer for me. Much more fun than stodgy button zoom/focus.
www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos60d
