striking photo! i just did a bit of gymastics here, in order to compare the "before" and the "after": the difference in effects is remarkable..

I'm 'falling into infinity'*

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*: ©Dream Theatre

Sorry if this isn't the best forum, but I really respect your work and find you have a lot of visitors well versed in photography as well.

I'm torn between the Minolta DiMAGE A1 and the Canon EOS-300D. I can get the A1 for around $600, while the 300D is still in the $1k range. I understand about the interchangable lenses and all that, but for someone who probably is NOT going to have a large investment in lenses and filters and such but does want a well capable camera, isthe A1 my best bet, or should I still pony-up for the 300-D?

Houser,
A1 is a mighty fine camera as well. Although, for that price range I personally would go for a Canon G5. You can see the comparison between the image quality of them here:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/minoltadimagea1/page18.asp

also, keep in mind that the interchangeable lens is not the ONLY difference between the Rebel and P&S cameras. The larger CCD (or CMOS) for a SLR camera exhibits far less noise than smaller ones, specially in higher ISO settings. on the downside, shooting with a digital P&S is totally different than SLR, like the fact that on an SLR you won't be able to compose your shot on your LCD, and you can only use your LCD to review your photos.
SLR & P&S cameras are like Apple and Orange, you can't really compare them, and still you can't say which one is better.

also beware of some problems with A1, like these:

Noise increases at slower shutter speeds and especially long exposures

Shutter release lag slightly slower than expected

Image processing artifacts in JPEG images (dots, moiré, etc.) not in RAW converted

and this:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1024&message=6370694

I hope these helped! good luck.

Thanks for the POV, wvs. Still, though, that manual focus ring and telephoto ring are nice additions to the P&S that make it feel more SLR-like. Although a friend of mine (who works at Ritz Camera) tells me that the Focus is a little different, having to look through a little center ring in the viewfinder to tell if the object is in focus.

Still, I think that may be the way I go for now. I used to have a Rebel EOS SLR back before digital. Didn't know what the hell I was doing, unfortunately. Still don't but at least now, my mistakes are a little easier to fix. Any ideas how to shoot old brick red and not have it come out like poop?

there you go. Maybe adding a forum isn't a bad idea.

funny you should say that, cause i'm working on a forum already. it's nearly done, you can already start here:
http://topleftpixel.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=2

hey, how do we join the forum?!?

is that the rec centre.. it looks familiar.. but still the texture of brick is amazing.

Thanks for great info

Thanks for great info