Rodstar, You asked the difference between the Kodak and a DSLR. Aside from the ability to change lenses easily DSLR's have one huge advantage and that is sensor area. Just as aperture rules in astronomy, the size of the CCD or CMOS sensor in a camera directly affects the performance, particularly noise performance. The closer together the pixels are, the more noise they generate. The chip size in the kodak is tiny, in the 300D it is approx 2/3 35mm frame size. Compare an image in daylight from the Kodak and the Canon and you won't see all that much difference. In lower light levels the Kodak image will fall to pieces, the image will be full of noise and compression artifacts. Comparing the 300D and the D70 the Canon wins hands down. For a start you can buy the 300D for $1499 or less from an Australian dealer. A lot of the popularity of the D70 comes about as a result of its stronger case, which may be better if you handle it roughly, but in all the samples and reviews I have seen the 300D comes up trumps and certainly has the best noise performance particularly as the ISO (equivalent of film speed) is cranked up. Canon has just released the 350D which is an 8Mp version of the 300D. If you get really serious, the 300D is also easily modified for enhanced infra-red performance by replacement of the infra-red filter which is inside the camera and over the CMOS Sensor. The ToUcam is still only a low resolution webcam (which has good noise performance), although the results that can be achieved from the ToUcam are excellent.
http://www.camerastore.com.au/Digita..._Cameras_1.htm has the 300D kit for $1339 ; you will also need a C/F card; I bought a 1 gig card for $140
Try these links for DSLR reviews.
http://www.dcresource.com
http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com
http://www.dpreview.com
http://www.steves-digicams.com
and this one in particular for lens reviews, bob has some good advice on his site.
http://http://www.bobatkins.com/phot...00dlenses.html
Finally a link to Pete's astronomy page (he's in Hobart) to get an idea what you can reasonaby expect from both the
300D and the ToUcam on an 8 inch MeadeLX90
http://www.users.bigpond.com/lansma/images.htm