Do u think u need an expensive camera to take good stills  

I think a good camera is very important when taking photos. Mine is 4 years old and I see a huge difference in the photos I take with it and photos I take with my friend's newer camera. I'm saving up and hoping to get a new one soon. I want a Nikon. I've heard they are really good.

Yes. I guess. For some cases, digital cameras are really good.

I think it really has to do w/ both the camera and the photographer. I have always had a love of photography. A year ago I decided to start my own photography business. The year before I had done all my children's photos using a point and shoot camera. Kodak Easy Share 3.1 megs. People were amazed at my photos, they would always ask what kind of camera i had, they were stunned when I told them. Last when I started teh business I bought a Digital Canon Rebel XT which I absolutely love. My husband started working more hours so I pretty much gave up the photography business (now I just do it when people ask). But I started looking for another camera that would be a lot easier for the "everyday" shots. I found the Fuji Finepix s6000fd and fell in love. I have owned this camera for about 2 months now and absolutely love it!

PS You have a great photo there also!

ohhh its a cool photo that u have put up. i jus love taking photos and as u asked abt the technology it is important but at the samw time u got to have a sense for phottography and this pic is cool. photography is the art of taking pics at the instant of perfect animation......

Indeed a good camera helps but a "bad" camera will have some impressive shots in the hands of a good photographer.

That is a great shot. I'm still getting use to my digital SLR. At least your camera has a macro mode so you can shoot like that. I'd like to do some macro work but a good macro lens is quite expensive.

That is an interesting photo. How many pixels does your camera have? I just bought a Canon SD900 Power Shot with 10 mega pixels. I did have a Kodak Easy Share 3.1 mega pixel. And people always said that my photos were good. When I took photos recently with my canon the man I was taking them for compared them to his that he took and said he could telll the difference between the mega pizels from my Canon and his which was about 2.5 or 3 something. I just got it and haven't had much time to work with it. I think a lot depends on the photographer. A person can have an expensive high end camera and still not know how to take a good picture where as a person like me can take a low end camera and take some really great shots just because we took the time to figure out what makes a great shot. By the way your pic is a great shot. I try for the best camera I can afford but I also try to learn what makes a great shot. I think in the long run composition is what really makes the difference.

i think the camera doesn't matter at all. when i was studying photography and i don't have a decent camera yet, i use to have shots that were really good according to my friends and collegues which then i guess would be the reason for me to join contests. and i have a lot of awards and winnings just using a simple camera. btw, i was using a canon film camera then. that time was when the canon eos300d and nikon d70 was first released. and because of my film camera, i had the funds to buy two cameras ohh, make that three. so i think, it's more of the artist and how you visualize the shot to look like.

a higher end camera CAN make a difference. However, it is more important that the photographer be able to compose and or know how to determing the right composition for the effect wanted and no matter how good a camera is it will not turn a bad shot good, yet a "cheap" camera in the hands of a skilled photographer will look great!

Just looked at the photo, it is a very nice close up!! keep up the good work!

I think a good photographer can take good pictures with just about any camera. Of course, some cameras have better macro and better lens than other cameras, but still.

I used a 2 megapixel Nikon CoolPix 800 for years. I won it in a photo contest back when it just came out and was sold for around a thousand dollars. I took thousands of great photos with it, even though today people would not consider it one of the greatest cameras.

Someone once gave me a 1 megapixel $20 camera they bought because it took horrible photos, and I even got some good photos out of that. So it all depends. I'd probably have hated using it as my sole camera, but I would use it if I was going somewhere were the camera might be broken or taken away from me.

Now I want to buy a really nice camera, but just so I can have more features and change lens and stuff. It's nice to have more features if you can have them. But you can still got good photos out of a point and shoot.