Last one from me for now. Mowgli is my favourite animal in the zoo. Jaguars are my favourite animal. It's not a great pic as he's the most elusive animal they have - even worse than the Amur Lep's.

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/big_graeme/6351279469/[/url
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/big_graeme/6351279469/Mowgli[/url on Flickr

The Canon S95 looks good to me.

I was slightly attracted to the interchangeable-lens compacts but the small sensors they have means that they are not the replacement for an SLR that I had thought they might be.
The attraction then evaporated for me.

So, for those times when the SLR is too bulky, I'm going for a compact ... probably the Canon S95.

Emma absolutely hammers digital compact cameras, by taking them fishing and dropping them on shingle, rocks etc, she's managed to get through a fair few. A couple of years ago I told her to get a Lumix DMC-FT1 and so far it's managed to cope with all the abuse she's thrown at it. It's obviously been superceded now and I have no idea what the replacement model is.

thanks both

Has anyone got any pictures of professional rugby or football grounds that I could use? Thanks in advance

Can anyone suggest a camera for me? I'm looking for a camera that I could use for rugby games, decent zoom and pretty clear. I'd also like to be able to use for everyday life although my main use would be taking pics from the terraces at pro games and also some amateur matches. I wouldn't like to spend more than £400 but could probably just stretch to £500 for something good.

Cheers in advance.

The Canon 50d Can be picked up in your budget on eBay, well suited to sports photography with it's rapid shutter speed and practically no delay, a Tamron 70-300 lens would be good for rugby, everyday life you would need something shorter, the stock 18-55mm lens? Search eBay and look at getting one with the 18-55mm lens, and purchase the zoom lens later.

At F4/5.6 it isn't fast enough for sports photography.

Hmmmm. A tad sweeping.

Given good light (and even winter days can have good light sometimes) f/4 or f/5.6 should allow 1/500 at a reasonable ISO (say 400 or thereabouts).

I shoot rugby with a f/2.8 lens but often set the aperture to f/5.6 to allow slightly more leeway with the focussing of fast-moving subjects.

Having not used the tamron at rugby I couldn't say for sure, it's acceptable for powerboat, Sunday league football and cricket.

The guy was asking with a budget, it's within his budget and he'll get some great snaps. Like the poster above, I've managed in winter months with 1/500 on ISO100, not the best light but decent results. I wouldn't have told him to go spend a grand on glass before deciding he didn't really like taking photos.

Thanks a lot, I'll check it out