Ryan, turn all flow off, and get a glass pitri dish, if you float that on the surface you can see right in, without seeing the surface and any reflections in the picture. :) might be the only way of you getting good pics with a curved front.

You could shoot from further back and close the aperture to get a much wider depth of field, that'll reduce the distortion from the front glass.

Have you got a DSLR, compact or phone camera?

Ryan, try one half of a CD case. It should float like a boat and will remove the surface reflections you're shooting through.

Just keep your eyes open on eBay, you could get a decent 350D for a couple hundred quid, but they hold their value pretty well, so you could sell it down the line and upgrade to a better one without loosing too much in depreciation.

If the 1000D near you is available, get that, it might only be 10MP, but it's the massive sensor and control you're paying for.

I had a 550D, sold it and got a 650D, the first touchscreen DSLR, it's very cool.

Any DSLR is a huge improvement over a camera phone anyway, so I'd be happy with a 350D, 400D, 450D, 500D, the 550D, 600D and 650D are still a good few hundred quid, but you're getting a huge step up to a DSLR even if it is one of the older models, so you don't need to spend much...

The 650D is the first with the touch screen, the 600D doesn't have it. It's also the first from any manufacturer.

You can touch to choose focal point, but it's a bit naff, it slows the whole process down, generally if using autofocus, you'd either keep it using the central AF point, focus at that, then shift to the composition you want. Or you can select one of the other AF points.

Camera shake is controlled pretty well if you've got an IS lens, the standard kit lens has IS (image stabilization) and as soon as you touch the shutter button, it activates and the shot becomes motionless, it's very good.

Although don't get hung up on image stabilisation, as if you're taking pictures of fish, you're going to need a shutter speed of at least 1/200th of a second to freeze the fish, that'll also freeze any camera shake you have.

There's a general rule for good shutter speeds to use when using a particular focal length lens, as the longer the lens, the more exaggerated the camera shake will be shown. So the rule is to match or exceed the focal length with the shutter speed.

A wide 18mm lens, you really don't need much of a fast shutter speed to freeze camera shake, as it's barely noticeable at that width.

A 50mm lens, you'd want at least 1/50th, a 200mm lens, at least 1/200th, and so on.

Thanks for the offer. If its a 650D I'm definitely interested if you can hold it for 1-2 weeks max as don't have the money right now. If not it's not a problem I'll try pick up this 1000D.

And thanks for that info I-Conica, explained it all very well as I can understand it all and don't know much about cameras very helpful.

Thanks, Ryan.

Cheers that'd be good for me to start off with, shame it's a bit far I don't travel much unfortunately.

I can get that 1000D for £170 now so think I might just get that while it's available if the other one isn't a 650D, would really like one of those but I can always get the 650D and sell the 1000D if turns out it is a 650D.