Newbie help

[gog440]

Hi, I dont normally post in this bit of PH but I am getting a bit more interested in photography and I am planning on upgrading my camera. My current camera is a Kodak z740 bridge camera, it does have a certain about of ability to set manual settings but it is about 5 yrs old, is only 5mp and only has a 10x optical zoom.
In an ideal world I would get a DSLR, but my finances wont stretch to a new one and I am a bit dubious about buying a 2nd hand camera.
I have been looking at these http://shop.fujifilm.co.uk/refurbished-digital-cam... Either a refurb from here or from tesco (using my BIL's discount)
The reviews seem fairly universally good but having seen what some of you guys produce I thought I would ask for your input.

The other thing was that I have rediscovered a camera I bought off a friend of a friend about 15yrs ago, it is a russian made Zenit 11 complete kit
like this one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Zenit-11-35mm-SLR-Film-C... Is it worth keeping? is it actually any good?

Most of my photographs at the moment are of cars in various forms, either at LeMans or on various rallies and the odd bit of Landscape type stuff.

[Simpo Two]

gog440 said:

In an ideal world I would get a DSLR, but my finances wont stretch to a new one and I am a bit dubious about buying a 2nd hand camera.
I have been looking at these http://shop.fujifilm.co.uk/refurbished-digital-cam... Either a refurb from here or from tesco (using my BIL's discount)
The reviews seem fairly universally good but having seen what some of you guys produce I thought I would ask for your input.

It's not a DSLR; I think you're judging cameras by zoom ratio. You can't change the lens and it's got an electronic viewfinder. Nothing wrong with s/h cameras but get a proper DSLR (interchangeable lenses, optical VF) that you can build a system around as you learn more.

gog440 said:

The other thing was that I have rediscovered a camera I bought off a friend of a friend about 15yrs ago, it is a russian made Zenit 11 complete kit
like this one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Zenit-11-35mm-SLR-Film-C... Is it worth keeping? is it actually any good?

If you want to shoot film it will be a fine 'no-frills' basic starter - cameras like that have been the starting point for many photographers. But you will have to buy film and pay to get it processed, so there will be significant running costs.

[gog440]

I know the fuji's not a dslr, it just seemed like a reasonable compromise between a compact and a dslr, I dont have a lot of money for buying lenses and stuff, a second hand dslr at the price I can afford is going to be pretty low end or a good few years old and I will need some decent lenses which are really expensive.

I know its not ideal not being able to change lenses but I think the one on the fuji will do 99% of what I want to do, the fuji does allow you to manually set everything so it seems to me like a reasonable starting point.
The zenit I may have a play with and see how things turn out, but as you said there is the cost of film/processing, and they seem to be going for buttons on ebay (i think the lens on its own is worth more than the camera!)