Thanks for the compliment Blackdog
If you only want to spend a few hundred quid then a high end brdge camera is the way to go - I have an Panasonic FZ7 which lives in the car and i'm well happy with it - these go for arround 180 notes
mind you my main kit is a canon 20D SLr and about 3Ks worth of lenses - so be warned this hobby can be expensive and addictive once you get into it
(although that said I am now making a second income from it so it more than pays for itself
)