Openmoon, I have grown 3 of the four roses you have side by side images of, what I see is "spot on"; especially in the heat. In addition to the four you have shown, Crimson Bouquet was another true red rose; it was not orangey- red, deep dark red, and did not turn pinkish in the sun. Mr. Lincoln turned pinkish as soon as it became hot. My favorite however was Veteran's Honor. Seil, your image of V.H. is precisely what I remember. Gorgeous, classic hybrid tea. Lynn

You express your needs very well. The key issue with digital cameras, is the mega-pixel value. The higher the mega-pixel value, the better quality picture you will get for the most part. But, the important determining factor most people use, is whether or not they plan on having prints made and what SIZE. The size of your prints AND their quality is largely dictated by the mega-pixel value. In short, if you only require prints no bigger than wallet-sized or slightly larger, a good 5 mega-pixel camera will suit your needs very well. If you intend to make prints of a size of 8 by 5 and larger, I would recommend a higher megapixel value than 5mp. The reason for this, is that with, let's say, a 3mp camera, and you have 8 by 5 prints made, the prints will come out sort of blurry and lack the crisp & clear details you need. The term for this defusion is pixelation. What that means, is that the lower mp camera cannot "capture" the large amount of detail & crispness that you may want for larger prints. A lower mp camera may take pictures into the camera at a size of 900kilobytes, which does not translate well onto a larger print. Of course I am speaking of generalities here. Many of the folks here in the forum probably learned the hard way by buying a cheaper camera & then regreting it later. The quality of many/most of the pictures here are for the most part excellent! Prices on digital cameras have fallen dramatically in the last few years, so you should be able to obtain a good camera for your needs. Another issue that is sometimes completely overlooked, is what program to use to adjust your pictures to their best appearance AND SIZE. A quality program makes this task a great deal easier. This can be seen by the time your have some super shots in your camera, and then after being reworked, they look really bad. A reasonably good program can be found from several companies. Myself, I have been using Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. It can be obtained for a reduced price and has filled my needs very well for processing pistures of coins which I take through a stereo microscope! Stunning pix can be obtained with a rather easy learning curve. If you want the Cadillac of photo editors, Adobe Photoshop is one of, if not the best of the many offered. But quality comes with a price, So don't waste money on a secondrate editing program, or you will not realize the results you desire! Another issue that many overlook, is the "size" of the picture when it is taken into the camera. For example, my primary digital camera is a 5.0mp Kodak. The "raw" piture inside the camera is over 12 megabytes! Much too large to email easily for all parties! Unless you have a special reason to distribute the pictures in their original size, it is redundant to a degree. My own formula for resizing pictures out of the camera, is to touch up anything like focus, brightnesss & contrast AND reduce them down to a much more managable size of 400 - 450 kilobytes. The reason for this reduction, is to make them more managable for emailing and storage in your computer. If someone sends you a picture, which do you appreciate the most, one or more that just take a few moments to download into your email at a smaller size like 400kb, OR a piture that has not be reworked at all and takes 10 minutes just to downlaod into your computer...in short, downloading a 12mb picture on a dialup, 56k, computer can take considerable time waiting for it to download. Large pix of 12mp for example usually take up the full screen and sometimes even more. The bottom line for this is that you should rework the original pictures from the camera to obtain the best appearance AND reduce them to a size that are easily managable. I am sure others here can recommend a couple of excellent cameras at your price range and advise you on the minimum mp value you have to buy to maitain your standards of quality. This interaction/cooperation of forum members is invaluable and can save you money! best wishes & good luck! I hope I answered some of your questions. And thank you to all of you who post such beautiful roses! : ) Sincerly, "Smitty"

Maggie Sue, thanks so much for the encouragement. I feel a lot better after looking at the pictures in the photo shop. I didn't take anymore today but must get click happy tomorrow. I finished sewing my Bento Box quilt top. Sharon F. posted a picture of a block and I went from there. I really like it so will flick a pic tomorrow. I don't have a computer or printer... it will be getting the pictures from the camera over to Photobucket. Then I will be okay. I have to do this on my DD's computer at her house. I didn't get a user's manual but I found some info at Kodak web that is usefull so I need DD to print some of it out for me to use as reference. I had to call my Sasktel support people because of some E-mail problems. The nice fellow I talked to asked me if there was anything else he could help me with today. I said I have this new digital camera...do you know anything about them. He chuckled...no, not today. I thought it was worth trying!

This will be the third time I reply as Houzz has told me that there is an error on the site. REALLY!! I hadn't noticed. Try to take reds and purples roses late in the day. Morning sun tends to distort these colours. Better still, when there is no sunshine. You should be able to get with your camera at least three different reds in the rose. Nikon is known for getting clearer colours in the reds so that is why I selected a Nikon 90. All Nikons will be good with reds.Canon is a very good camera and even does fast photos better than a Nikon but my roses don't run away so I didn't need speed.