Evening all,

Firstly, hello everybody, hope you're all well. I realise this is quite a long-winded post, but I've been researching like crazy as to my options and there are quite a few factors feeding into my decision making at the moment. I realise that I need to also head into a camera shop and pick a few of these beasts up as well, but I'm still at the general thoughts stage at the moment and would appreciate any feedback from any forum members who've either been here before, used these cameras and come across these issues, or anyone in general really. And apologies for this post's length, and any typos I've made at this late hour. Oh, and I *will* be enrolling on a proper photography course soon too. Can't wait actually! Anyway, here goes....

I've been using a bridge camera so far whilst studying the basics of photography and, most importantly, getting plenty of practice, especially with the manual mode offered by my camera (a finepix 5800 pro). I wanted to learn some of the ground first before getting a DSLR to avoid getting one in haste and finding I'd bought something that, as I learned more about what I was doing, I wasn't happy with. So ultimately, I'm confident about most of the basics, and have a fair idea of what I want out of a DSLR.

I'm mostly interested in landscape photography, and am a keen hiker and would be taking my camera out with me on the fells, most likely. But I'm also, unfortunately, a student on a tight budget in terms of buying a good-quality camera. Another aim I have is to get my photography to a level whereby sending pictures to stock photo agencies and the like would be feasible (after all, as a student any extra money I could earn would be very welcome).

Anyhow, my researches have led me to a few options that interest me. For starters, the Sony A-350 looks a good bet, and on paper it looks like it should be capable of some cracking landscape photography when combined with a good-quality lens. But I'm concerned that its much-vaunted 14 MP sensor wouldn't be all that much of an advantage over a 10 or 12MP camera due to higher noise levels thanks to its use of an APS-C sensor, and having to cram all those pixels into the same amount of space as a 10MP model. Have any users of the A-350 found noise to be a significant problem? Another potentially huge downside is that the software shipped with the A-350 is apparently not compatible with Windows Vista 64-bit, which I'm running. But does anybody know of any workarounds? Can it be run on a 64-bit vista system through the 32-bit compatibility mode?

Secondly, and with especial reference to the British weather and my hillwalking, the Pentax range looks like a sensible option; a number of their cameras are weather sealed, which would be an advantage, and while I can't stretch to a K20D, how well suited to landscape photography are the K10D or K200D? Is there much between them, and how's their picture quality? I've read that Pentax cameras tend to underexpose, and that white balance can be a problem on the K10D, but is it really significant or can it be fixed easily?

And finally I've also considered Canon and Nikon, but since I'm not likely to have a great deal of money to spare for the forseeable future, I'm wondering whether buying into what seem to be pricier lens systems would be a wise idea. The fact that both manufacturers put IS into their lenses at quite a mark-up is a big factor for me, but on the other hand, are Canon/Nikon lenses noticably better quality? And Nikon's lack of an anti-dust system: any Nikon users here ever found that to be a problem?

And if you've got through that without dying of boredom along the way, I salute you!!

Seriously, hope you're all well, and regards,

Emp.