hi sher,
yupp i have a family owned digi cam. but the thing is i dont know what functions it has. all i do is snap away. i never venture what functions it has to offer. ahah. cos i dont understand how it works at all. now i want to get one myself. so i was thinking what cam i should get. cos there are so many models out there in the market. i dont wan to end up getting one and regret. so is a digi cam classify under DSLR?
1) photography has nothing to do with having a dslr OR a prosumer. there are people here who produce great shots with f30s, 850is, etc.. of course having a better camera will give you more freedom to do what you want to do.. but if you do not understand the technicalities - which SHOULD come in time if you're purely interested.. then start off with your family digital cam.
2) photography has everything to do with producing pictures. they can be beautiful, they can mean something to you. for me, i'd like to think that a hobbyist would want to focus more on the beauty aspect.. pictures that one can be proud of, pictures that one can show other people and make them go wow. but that's me. this can be a very bad habit where you just dump photos which MIGHT have a lot of meaning to you but are not pretty.
but we digress. so what is an eyecatching photo have everything to do with? being shot with a dslr? being shot with a mark 3? being shot with an l-lens? not really. a great photo has everything to do with COMPOSITION. start with that, read up on it, practise with any camera.. and everything else will follow.
3) yes, there is a lot to read up on technicalities. many techniques, many equipment, many lenses which you can get, buy to make that picture which was previously relatively impossible due to limitations. but you can always start simple, and slowly, work your way up the food chain. there are people who would argue that photography is like putting a newbie driver into a sports car.. he can probably maximize it if he wants to. what they neglect to mention is that the sports car analogy is probably wrong because it is more like a james bond car, a lot more tricks up its sleeve than just plain moving fast along the road.
4) relax. you have only, all the time in the world. and if you don't, well, at least relaxing will help you enjoy it. there is no reason taking up a hobby just to add stress to your life.
cheers and welcome. any camera will do at first, then when you're talking about higher end models which will help you do more, do your research on good review sites like dpreview and imaging resource (google please). you can either jump straight to dslr (which will cost more to buy AND maintain, regardless of what people are going to tell you) or go via the prosumer route. you might even stay at prosumer, there's nothing wrong with it. basically, there isn't much RIGHT or WRONG in photography.
hope i helped.