Hi Guys

I've never been much of a camera buff, and remain relatively uninterested in hi-end photography (other than enjoying other people's work). However my recent New Zealand trip with the family (and JohnS ) saw me take some photos that I wasn't particularly happy with. Combine that with seeing some of my brother's great shots of the same things I was taking photos of has made me a bit more interested.

I normally just use my little Olympus point'n'shoot or more often my iPhone and leave everything set to auto, and this has been fine for working in the garage and taking snaps of my resto etc... But I want to get out and drive the car soon, and get some great 'location' shots.

So I know I don't want to get into DSLR cameras mainly because of bulk/weight and to an extent the cost - if it's too big or complicated I just won't take it with me. I certainly can't afford a $10k Leica rangefinder style of camera, but I see there is a new "in-between" format in the form of "mirrorless" cameras from pretty much all the usual suspects. These cameras have interchangeable lenses (some compatible with existing DSLR lenses), but no moving parts/complex prisms to increase size. The end result seems to be a great compromise with small camera body size and close to DSLR quality shots/effects/features.

My brother recently bought the Sony NEX-5N with 16mm and 18-55mm lenses. His portrait and landscape shots look brilliant, and the camera shoots film in true 1080 HD. All this for less than $700. My research sees that there are similar cameras across manufacturers including very sweet set ups from Olympus and Nikon, and the other great asian brands. Prices vary hugely though, as well as the size of the CMOS cell used (the bigger, generally the better etc...).

So I'm chasing some opinions from the gallery as I know there are genuine photo pros lurking here, as well as super capable amateurs. The "brief" for want of a better term is a camera and a couple of useful lenses for preferably less than $1000. The majority of photos will really only be jpegs for the net, but I may want to make photo books or big format prints for my favourite shots.

I may cross post this into the broader forums too.

Thanks