Please help me with camera ideas...

[bigxbomber]

Hey everyone,
I am new to digital photography and need some ideas on what cameras meet my needs and budget. I will use my camera almost strictly for major league baseball games and I usually sit 40-50 feet from the pitcher's mound. Zoom and Frames per Second in high resolution are very important in my purchase. I do not know whether to go with a DSLR like a Nikon D40 or something like a Nikon P90? Would I need to buy a lens for either of these (Again, admittedly, I don't know much about this stuff)? The camera does not have to be a Nikon.

Which camera should I buy?

This short questionnaire will help the rest of us make good camera recommendations for you. Please answer each question carefully and succinctly.

The questions marked with a * are the most important.

Budget

* What budget have you allocated for buying this camera? Please be as specific as possible.
Around $500

Size

* What size camera are you looking for? Or does size not matter at all to you?
Does not matter

Features

How many megapixels will suffice for you?
I would like to blow some pictures up to 8x10 without losing much clarity. Maybe 10 megapixels or so.

* What optical zoom will you need? (None, Standard = 3x-4x, Ultrazoom = 10x-12x)
I assume I need Ultrazoom. Again, I would be using to take baseball photos from 40-50 feet away.

* How important is “image quality” to you? (Rate using a scale of 1-10)
10

Do you care for manual exposure modes (shutter priority, aperture priority, manual)?
I would prefer not to have much manual setting, but if it meets my other requirements, then it's ok.

General Usage

* What will you generally use the camera for?
Sports

* Will you be making big prints of your photos or not?
Almost all 4x6, but some up to 8x10

Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos?
Mainly night baseball games under the stadium's lighting system

Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos?
Always

Miscellaneous

Are there particular brands you like or hate?
Nope

Are there particular models you already have in mind?
Not particularly

(If applicable) Do you need any of the following special features? (Wide Angle, Image Stabilization, Weatherproof, Hotshoe, Rotating LCD)
I will be hand-held shooting so Image Stabilization might be important to reduce blurring from the lens.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. All the different features and the large amount of cameras on the market have me going in circles and really confused.

[bigxbomber]

I have looked into the bridge cameras alittle more today and I seem to like the following four:

Canon SX20
Nikon P90
Casio Exilim EX-FH20
Panasonic Lumix FZ35

Given what the camera will be used for, which one do the more advanced photographers here say would work best for me? Are there any cameras I should also look at - bridge or DSLR?

Thanks again.

[Andy Stanton]

The four ultrazooms you mentioned are very good. The Casio has the fastest continuous shooting ability, the Nikon has the longest zoom and the Panasonic may have the best picture quality. All will take good pictures of baseball games since the field will be well-lit.

However, a DSLR will give you the potential to take even better pictures than an ultrazoom, plus take faster pictures even when not in continuous shooting mode. But for the price you want to pay, $500, you would not be able to afford a new DSLR, its kit lens (which comes with the camera) and a separate long zoom lens. If you'd be willing to add another $50, you could afford to buy either the Olympus E520 or the Pentax K2000 with both lenses. Both these cameras are excellent and will permit you to take very good pictures of your subjects. My only caveat is that it may take a while to learn to use them to their full potential. However, the results will be worth it.