Nicole, "one of those 18X zoom 'almost' dslr's" I think you have listen too much to salesmen. Those cameras are SERIOUS CAPABLE DSLRs. Those 18X zoom 'almost' DLSR's are able to take equally great pictures as 4 times more expensive cameras. Do not believe the salesman telling that twice as much expensive camera takes better pictures. The difference between those cameras is very, very, very small. You may check the following webpage: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/recommended-cameras.htm I have a Nikon D200 camera with 18-200 lens (I paid $2,500 for it), and my wife has D40 with this 18X zoom (she bought them refurbished for $380). Guess what? In many situations she is able to take better pictures than me. When I travel I take her camera, because is lighter. When I take Wedding pictures, then I take my D200 because it has a lot of buttons, and it is easier to customize it. I can do the same customization with D40, but I need to go to the menus. Also take in consideration that whatever camera you buy, it will cost a half the price in three years, and a quarter of the original price in 5 years. Then it is not worth to pay a lot of money, especially in your situation, when you want to try SLR to see if it will be something you would like. Also there is a lot of to learn about the camera, lenses, digital processing. You may need money for a better computer, a program to improve the pictures, maybe a good photo printer, a tripod, macro lenses, more memory, photo books, etc. The camera is only the tip of the iceberg. BTW, I've just been to Costco, they have D60 with two lenses 18-55, and 55-200 VR for $697. Here is a link that might be useful: Recommended cameras

Last August I moved from Ohio to Massachusetts. Jan & I planned on taking about 3 weeks for the trip so we could get in some sightseeing photo time on the way. For the trip I packed my computer tower, 3 DSLR's and about 8 lenses plus an assortment of other odds & end. The remainder of my equipment was packed and shipped with an anticipated delivery date of 4 to 6 week. For my photo business I usually deliver the end item in digital format on a memory card or I have prints made through Adorama but I did need a new monitor for my computer so about a day after arriving in Massachusetts Jan and I went to Staples and got a nice flat screen(I had been using one of the old desktop boat anchors..LOL). Jan is just a beginner at photography and she said she wanter to get a photo printer for her computer, so we looked around to see what our options were. One a display in the isle they had the Kodak ESP 7250 All-in-one on sale. Normal list for the wireless model $129 and the hard wire model $99 less 25% for the next 2 days. I didn't know a thing about Kodak printers but in my mind it had three things going for it. 1.It was the cheapest printer in the store, 2. It is advertised at using the cheapest ink, 3. Would Kodak put their name on a photo printer that doesn't do a descent job of printing photos? When I got it home rather than mess with a detailed Wifi setup I just plugged in a USB cable from the printer to my router. Inserted the setup disc and sat back. Within moments I was watching a setup video that said it was all set up and went on to explain the features. Two paper trays. The top tray will handle up to 5x7 photo paper or business envenlopes and the bottom tray handles up to 8.5x11 legal size bond or photo paper. When your printing photos it will ask you which size you want and select the paper automatically. I had a pack of 8x10 generic photo paper so I loaded a sheet, went to my pictures and pulled up a photo then hit print. A couple clicks as it loaded the paper then it went silent. "What is wrong" I thought? About 10 to 15 seconds later I got my answer. nothing wrong, it just prints so quiet you can't hear it running till the finished print pops out. I then checked the print, and to say I was not happy would be an understatement. I can only eplain it in one word...trash. The print had way too much ink, was still wet and actually smeared when I touched it then the thought hit me, those are new ink catridges and usually you have to run a test print to set up the print heads. I checked the book, and sure enough, there is an easy test print to run, but I found something even more interesting. You only need to run the test print if you use non-Kodak photo paper. So here is the catch I thought. All genuine Kodak photopaper has a bar code printed on the back of the paper that tells the printers processor how to set the print head for that piece of paper. This means you can easily switch from gloss to semi-gloss or matt without changing the setup, but how much does genuine Kodak paper cost? To my complete surprise, while Kodak Paper is a bit high in Staples, at WalMart it is the same or cheaper than HP photo paper. When I began running prints on genuine Kodak paper I could not believe my eyes. The prints look better than those that we had printed at Walmarts 1hr service. To get a good test of the prints I selected 6 photos and put them on a memory card, then I printed them on this machine. I then took the memory card to 4 different 1hr photo service places around town and had them printed again, being careful to mark the back of the photos to know where they were printed. I then took all the photos to the photoclub meeting at our senior center and spread them on a table and asked everyone to select which they thought looked the best. Over 90% of the people who participated selected the prints from this printer. The printer also has built in memory card readers so it can be used as a stand alone printer, and the Wifi model will work directly from Ipods & Cell phones. Would I recommend this printer? Absolutely YES. in fact since I bought this one over half the people in our photo club have also bought one. I primarily use 4x6 paper, which is $7.00 per 100sheet for brilliant glossy white at Walmart. I have not priced the ink at Walmart but at Staples the ink is $19.89 for the color and $9.98 for the Black, but staples also gives a $2 rebate for any used cartridge you turn in. (Up to 10 empties per month). I just found a website this morning for cheaper ink cartridges for almost all printers. Thru the site I can get color cartidges for this printer for $9.98 www.inkjetSuperstore.com

I have an Epson Stylus PHOTO 2200, and I would not trade it for anything in the world. I purchased it so that I could make enlargements, up to 13 X 19 inches. The quality is superb, but I rarely make print size pictures with it although it is set up for that, and even accepts a roll of printing paper, and cuts it to length as it prints. We have a smaller version of the same Epson Stylus at work, but I do not know the number off hand, but it only cost $59.00, and the picture quality is the same, but it only prints sheets up to 8.5 X 14, but for an all around office printer, it is great. For a few dollars more, you can get it to take an SD card directly, instead of going through your computer. The photo ink cartidges can be replaced individually, so when one colour runs out, you don't have to replace the whole ink cartidge, just that individual colour. One note though, the ink carteidges is where some expense come in, but I have been able to print dozens of 11 X 14 photos before replacing any cartridges. If you want a lot of prints made on a regular basis, you may want to look into sending to an internet photo service or take them to a photo shop and have them made, just for simplicity if nothing else. Good Luck Kt

Hi Barb, There are a couple different technologies in use for photo printers. Most consumer grade printers are inkjet printers. The secondary technology which you see particularly in some of the smaller format printers is dye-sublimation. What you need to consider is: 1. Picture quality. 2. Qperating costs. 3. Image stability. The image stability of some of these materials falls into the "don't blink" category -- in other words the prints fade really fast. There are printers out there that make prints that fade in less than a year. At any cost these are a waste of money. So let's start here. Henry Wilhelm is THE authority on the fade resistance of inks, dyes, etc. used in the art world. Avoid buying any printer from a manufacturer that does not cooperate with Wilhelm Research (see link below) in determining the durability of their materials. Look over Henry's site for detailed info on this topic. When you buy a printer you should know what Henry has determined is the life expectancy of prints from that printer. If Henry hasn't determined it you should assume the worst. I've paid attention to Henry's work for years and can give you this quick synopsis: Most of the smaller dye-sub printers available now do a poor job when it comes to image stability. A few years ago Canon was not fully cooperating with Henry, but they have been recently and their newest inks are getting good marks. Epson has taken this issue most seriously and done the most to create fade resistant materials. Many of the re-fill inks available out there fall into the "don't blink" category. Among the inkjets Canon, Epson and HP are competitive in the quality category and lead the industry. All three make beautiful prints. I've been using Epson for years now -- my decision was made earlier on and fade resistance was the tipping point for me. A secondary quality issue is B&W. Most of these printers are designed for color and make gosh awful B&W prints. If you think you want to do any B&W you're going to want to look at the higher end Epson or Canon printers that are designed for B&W. One of my friends (professional photographer) just bought the new Canon printer and is very happy with both it's color and B&W results. Given item 2 above the purchase cost of the printer can be a minor consideration. At $10-12 each for a photo printer that takes 8 ink cartridges we're talking about $90.00 to load it with small quantities of ink. So once you get past quality and stability you want to look hard at the operating cost of the printer. The loser in this category is Epson with the edge to Canon and HP. They all cost too much to run and you need to look at this hard because there's no sense buying a printer you can't afford to buy ink for. Good luck shopping. Joe Here is a link that might be useful: wilhelm research