Isn't this
http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi?PAGE=PROFRAME&PROD_ID=1879162 like
about £275?  And surely you can pick up an inexpensive zoom on eBay???
(You'll still have to factor in the cost of a memory card but those prices
are falling fast.)

Actually, there are lenses available from both Nikon and Canon that have
image stabilization built in, VR in Nikonspeak, IS in Canonese...any of them
are probably better quality than the 35-80 you have now, but they cost more.
(IIRC, the 35-80 was a "kit" lens with the 3000.)

The S9000/FZ30 aren't as good as a DSLR but depending on what you are
wanting to do they could be good enough, if you've only ever used the
kit lens on a EOS3000 I'm almost tempted to say it would probably be
absolutely fine. Yes a DSLR will always be better, but how good do you
actually need. Remember as well a crap lens on the front of your DSLR
will actually make it worse than the slr-like cameras, I'll come back to
this in a minute.

How do you get round it cheaply?? eBay. Every year Canon/Nikon etc bring
out a new and slightly improved model, some people jump early and pay
the price, sell on the quite nice and slightly used kit to fund the
jump.

Personally I picked up a Canon D30, 3mp, good build, and a lens to get
me going, £260 [1]. The D60 which replaced it with 6mp can be had for
not much more, or the 10D (6mp again), which until 18month ago was the
daddy prosumer Canon body can be had for about £350-450, instead of the
£1200 it was new. (Course the Canon lens you have would fit the Canon
body...., there are still some nice bargains going on Nikon stuff on
eBay I just don't follow that market so don't know it)

When I say I've picked up one though, actually, I've ended up picking up
two, as when I've seen my dad he's been pinching the D30 and doing a lot
of contemplating, and to be honest I tried steering him towards the
FZ30. But ultimately we got him a D30 with a Sigma 28-300 hyperzoom lens
on (to get him going), which I warned him would be soft. He was happy
enough with the results, until we compared it with the results from my
Canon G2 compact which were sharper (across the bit of the range the
Canon covers), he's now after some sharper glass. The results from the
28-300 aren't chuck in the bin crap, just the camera can do much better
with better lenses on the front.

But eBay is great, have a look at 'fstopcameras' whos a good seller and
'phonebusta' who gets through a lot of DSLR kit. I've bought the D30
with a 28-105 for £250, a Tokina 19-35 for £70, a Sigma 28-70 f2.8 for
£60 (fstopcameras), a Sunpak flash for £35, and a Tamron 70-300 new from
AjPurdy for £100. Chuck in a 2gb card and an extra battery and I've
spent a smidgen under £600, I wouldn't swap for the slr-like ;) All that
kit should be sharper than the slr-like cameras, and of course once the
budget has recovered a bit I hope to improve some of the lenses with
some even sharper kit, Tamrons one for starters (bit soft 200-300), but
be warned this can get addictive, I only got the camera a few weeks
before christmas and built up the rest since.

[1] If you are v v v patient some people put them up buy it nows for
less than £200, bargain and a half, I've missed all those though.

Dmed-

I'm sure that lens was fine for your needs when you bought it.  You could
have spent much more money for finer lenses, but you might not notice the
improvement if you had your photos printed postcard size.

Yes, you can use that lens with a Canon digital body.  If you still print
postcard-size photos, it may still be satisfactory.  But it may not.

Since the digital sensor of most digital cameras is smaller than a 35mm
film frame, a greater amount of enlargement is required to get to the same
size print.  If there are any shortcomings in the lens, they will be
amplified by the same factor.  In fact, you will likely enlarge your
digital photos much more since it is easy to do in your computer.

Your least expensive path would appear to be to purchase a Canon 350 and
use your old lens.  For just a little more, you might get one that has the
"kit" lens.  This would allow a more normal zoom range.  Your old 35-80
zoom lens is equivalent to 52.5-120 mm because of the small digital
sensor's "crop factor".  And, by choosing Canon you would be able to use
most other Canon-system equipment you may have.

If you decide not to use the old lens, and don't have an investment in
other Canon equipment, then all bets are off.  Canon is just one of the
good DSLRs on the market.  Most here will likely recommend Canon.  Many
others are die-hard Nikon fans.  Others have found that Konica/Minolta and
Pentax digital cameras are quite good.

Fred

You can get a Canon 350D and use your current lenses. Later, if you
want wider, you can add a Canon 28/2.8. If you still want wider, you
can add an Olympus 0.7x.

http://digitcamera.tripod.com/#slr