My husband brought me this for Christmas and it is the first real camera that I have had. It is so real that it scares me a bit, because there are so many bits and pieces that I know nothing about, but I have brought a book on photography and I am trying to learn.

It really is a beautiful camera with lots of capabiltiy, although you will quickly need to buy yourself a different lens as the standard lens is very limiting. I brought a tamron 70 300 lens for £99 and found that this covers a lot of what I need at the moment. I think that the battery extension that also includes the grip would be another extra and I will soon look into buying that.

I use mine mostly for photographing my animals and when I can get them to sit still I can get some quite decent photos. Your will need to get a decent camera bag and if you are going to have a few lenses then you will need a fairly sizable one. I brought the Lowepro 200 and found that stores all my camera bits, plus my camcorder and our old digital camera. Usefull for keeping everything together. Only problem I can forsee is if anyone nicks the bag they get my whole digital life in one swoop!!

What I need now is more spare time to play with this.