What camera do you use?

Nikon D40, Nikon DX 55-200mm lens with hood.

I have a Canon Rebel XT and my wife uses a Nikon D50 (both DSLRs). Both take great pics but I think the Canon's auto-focus system is much better, and I prefer the menu system on the Canon as well. The downside is that the older Canon's use compact flash memory cards, which are more expensive by density and harder to find than SD cards that most body's use now (including the newer Canon's). The kit lenses they come with are decent but not great. You can get very good shots with them but not as consistently as with a higher quality lens. Sigma makes some great, affordable lenses for most major SLR mounts, that are comparable to the OEM lenses in quality. Whatever you chose, I would recommend an entry level DSLR if you are serious about taking quality photos of animals. Most (but not all) point and shoot digital cameras are pretty slow to focus, which makes for difficult shooting on animals that do not always want to cooperate and sit still. An external flash is also a good buy. Lighting is the most important factor in good photos, and the most often overlooked! Here's a couple samples of similar looking animals. Keep in mind the quality has been reduced to post them and that they were taken on different days with different lighting etc, but you get the idea.

Pewter taken with the D50
http://www.centralontarioexotics.com...EWM03small.jpg

Het Red Axanthic taken with the Rebel XT
http://www.centralontarioexotics.com...mages/hra2.jpg



Note: I recently saw the older Rebel XT kit at walmart for well under $500. This is a steal at less than half of the original price.

-John