Not necessarily.

I know that this is not a big-bucks interchangeable-lens DSLR, so most of you will dismiss it out of hand. But if you read the review and the specs, you will see that it has some pretty impressive capabilities, some of which might suit your needs very well.

1) HDR capability. It takes the "best" parts of three near-simultaneous exposures to produce a high dynamic range final image.

2) Extended zoom. How much of your noise is because you are losing 50% or more of your original image to cropping due to the fixed focal length lens you are using now? How many shots do you not even take because you were in the wrong place at the right time?

3) Speed. This Leica-built lens holds f2.8 across the entire 25-600 mm [equivalent] range. That is an incredible specification.

4) Control. You have full manual control over everything: P-S-A-M, manual focus, forced flash (not an issue in your case ), auto exposure bracketing in 1/3 EV steps, white balance pre-sets and/or bracketing, burst mode at 15 fps, shutter speeds to 1/4,000 second... read the specs and you'll see what I mean.

5) Cost. Less than 1/3 the cost of the lens that Dan linked to.

6) Versatility. Incomparable. Even RAW output.

But, it's not a DSLR. People won't be impressed. If you can live with that, it might pay you to take a look at it.

tanstaafl.