Help- shopping for a new camera.

[PittieBoo]

I'm a total newbie with no pro aspirations taking a fun-ed type of class. My main subjects are fast moving children and dogs. Based on those small tid bits, any tips on what features should be at the top of my list would be appreciated. Or, any camera recommendations would also be appreciated. I'm starting my search and find myself reading a lot about the Fuji Finepix S5 and the Canon D40- not that it means anything much at this stage of the game as I'm totally overwhelmed.

Thanks.

[Take12]

My main subjects are fast moving children and dogs.

So you need lots of light, to enable shutter speeds of 1/200th and up. You would probably need to use high and even higher ISO settings. Which comes with noise. And you need a short to medium telephoto lens, probably a zoom lens, with a large max. aperture.

The way I see it that calls for a camera that handles noise well. Like e.g. a Canon 5D Mark II, with its full frame sensor. And of course that large aperture zoom lens.
It's going to be a pricey business!

And when you've got all that, you're not ready yet! A 5D delivers ginormous image files, so you would also need a powerful PC or Mac to be able to process those at acceptable speeds...

Have fun!

[Songman45]

This is like asking a group of people what kind of car you should buy. Youre going to get a ton of opinions here. Determine what those subjects you photograph require then start narrowing your choices. You might need a camera capible of very high ISO with very low noise OR a lens budget that will afford you very fast very bright lenses. I opted for a decent camera but a very nice lens. The lens will outlast the body about 5:1 at the least.

[badpickev]

both of these cameras use a prosumer or above entry level bodies. they are very capable performers and will do everything you ask of it. their features are about equal wit the fuji have the added benifit of of higher DR. this comes at the cost of speed and resolution. the fuji is a native 6mp camera that performs at a higher resolution due to layout. the 40d is a 10mp resolution camera but lacks the added 2 stops of DR.

if you have the ability to test each camera do so, if not the long and shot comes to these questions

do you like the colors from fuji film?
can you sacrifice speed for added DR?
do you not mind large files?

the fuji shoots 3fps in std DR and 1.5 in wide, the raw file size is 24.5mb, but you get those lovely fuji colors built in. the buffer is kind of small due to the large file size, so the camera hits buffer lock fast.

if you can put of with all of that, get the fuji, if not get the canon