Looking to upgrade from smartphone camera and basic point & shoot camera to something more capable. I am looking for a reasonable zoom lens as well as quality images. Ideally I'd like it to be capable of taking me from born again novice photographer to enthusiast. So that means functionality such as aperture priority, shutter priority and full manual operation (as well as decent point and shoot when lazy).
I've never had RAW as a format option before so would like that to be available. I may or may not use it at some point in the future (any good free /very cheap software to make use of the RAW format BTW?).
I'm open as to type of camera. I used to own a film slr, a budget Minolta, back in the day. I realize things have moved on so much but still remember the interest in the old film photography. Each shot was thought about more so as to not waste film. The excitement of looking at the developed images.
My issue is that I don't have much money spare, can't be 100% sure I'll want to get back into it or am able to due to family commitments and I don't know if I still have an eye for photography. So I'm looking for the best option for ascot little as is reasonable. If I can get away with £150 then all the better but budget is £300 or a little more of it is really justifiable. I don't want that budget creep you can get with kit. You know what I mean. For £330 you get the same function as the £300 camera but get widget A which is so popular much better. Another £30 gets you that upper budget camera with the whizz autofocus lens. And so on. But if there's something special available at just over my budget I'll listen. Kind of a bigger sensor for £330 that's usually only found on a £500-£600 camera.
Anything strikes you as suitable?
One last thing, a super zoom, bridge or DSLR camera looks suitable. I'm not bothered which but I'll be unlikely to spare cash for a telephoto lens so any DSLR kit ideally would stand on its own merit. Although I might stretch to a secondhand lens later on if the bug takes me.