Marcia, I thought you lived in Thunder Bay... wow I really did drive past your place, mind you that was at least 7 years ago. Wanna know how embarassingly lost I was? I was going to Rushing River - DUH! Missed the turn! Motherduck, that sounds like a great camera. I was hoping to get something in the sorta $300-$400 range. Just to keep up with the Jonses you know... if you've seen some of the horrible fuzzy pics I have posted here...

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"

Owbist, thank you for your response. With the computer turned on I connect the camera through the USB port. I turn on the camera and I get no response from the computer, whatsoever. I think the cable I have is alright because my old Windows 98 computer finds the camera. I have three USB ports on the front of the XP computer and have tried all three with no success. I will try the back as you have suggested. I will be visiting my parents later this afternoon and I will try the camera on their computer. As far as the software goes, I did install it but I think the software is just photo editing software. (The video camera also takes still pictures and stores them on an SD card) I don't think the CD actually had a driver on it. I will check out the web site to download a driver. The camera is a tape storage model #GR-D37Ou Thanks.

Hi Kudzu9, The next time you want the pictures to stay on the camera, simply copy them to the computer. The picture's were on the camera and I transfered 6 picture's from my camera to the computer. With this camera I can put a lock on them to keep from losing them by mistake. I always lock them in, but for some reason I over looked 2 pictures and forgot to put the lock on them. When I put them in the computer, 2 of them were not locked, had they been locked they would have stayed in the cameras memory card. There is nothing unique about it just because it is camera memory. I understand where you are coming from and you probably are more familiar with the digital camera than I am because when they first came out I didn't go out and purchase one right away, I was still using my old style camera. When I purchased my HP Printer I have never had a reason to use the slots for the memory card until now. For you it isn't unique because there are a lot more of them out there now. I am still learning about my camera and the software that came with it and as I learn I become more familiar with it too, it takes time but, I will eventually master how it works and if I run into a problem like I did this time, I trust that I can come here and get excellent help from you all. "Smiles" Thank you for your reply. Hi Owbist, Just happy to be of assistance Thirdfrt. Thank you and I appreciated the fact that you answered me so quickly with a great solution to my problem. It's nice to know that there are other ways to do things in case you have to go that way and I saved your information just in case I would have to go that way. When my 2 youngest grand children were just little tykes I could take well over 150 photos in an afternoon and evening. Many were garbage as I kept the camera on my knee clicking when they presented a suitable shot. I have two young grandchildren ages 8 and 3 years and I take a lot of pictures of them also but, if I don't like what I see I have the option to erase them at that moment and start over. Why save them if they aren't any good right? You must be well coordinated to be able to keep the camera on your knee, if that were me I would be dropping it and getting pictures of the ground instead of the kids. "LOL" Because of that I went out and bought a small tripod for the camera (it also takes videos)and that way I can get better shots or take a video if I want to. It helps. Thanks again for all of your help. thirdfrt!!!