Wow, a coachwhip, speckled kings and red milks all in one short outing! Sounds like some great glade herping. I'm looking forward to your having a camera and posting pics of some of your finds soon. Congrats on a great outing!

This is such a late post. I don't know if Jen will read this or not. I, along with others, have been very disappointed with Consumer Reports recommendations. Most reviewers, CNET and Consumer Reports included, are bestowed, let us say "favors", instead of monetary rewards, for favorable reviews. CNET authors and editors, in the past, have answered me directly when I have had a critisism, or question, or disagreement with their review. CNET reviewers let you know who they are, they haven't hid under the name CNET. Also, I have found that CNET reviews are very thorough and tailored to each item and each product they review. CNET is not afraid to enter obscure companies and their products into their reviews. The truth is, I bought one the first five disk DVD changer/player's on CNet's recommendation, and low and behold one of the generous and knowledgeable experts contributing to this forum, who was the owner of an electronics shop in Michigan, had the same model, thought it was terrific and believed there was nothing better in its category. Something was in the player that wasn't supposed to be, and he walked me through getting it out. That player must be at least five to six years old now, and it is humming along perfectly, with a gorgeous picture and all the optical, componet, composite, svideo, hdtv hookups imaginable. It was a product before its time. Strange that other reviewers didn't have it at the top of their list. I had never heard of ABS or the Falcon or Polywell or even the ACER Travelmate before I started to read CNET. Back to photography, one other opinion I highly, highly recommend is Phillip Greenspun, and his brain child Photo.NET. He is a highly respected Harvard/MIT professor and computer whiz. Five years ago it was between his and CNET's endorsement of Canon that made me skeptically give Canon a try. Through the past years, companies are catching up to Canon. On photo.net, there are detailed comparisons of photos from several brands of cameras in the same category. As I post this, Canon may have become a leader of nothing more than the past. For this thread's sake ... such as one of the competing Olympuses' and Canons'. If anyone is interested in photography, Photo.Net and Eric Greenspun's personal pages are more than worthwhile to investigate. His and his colleague's tips and tricks for taking good pictures are invaluable. I hope this is a satisfactory answer to your question. marf Here is a link that might be useful: Camera Comparison's on Photo.Net

My son enjoys making films and we want to buy him a digital camcorder. He is in the process of defining which features are critical vs. desirable, but so far, they include the ability to transfer into dvds, good zoom, and editing capabilities online or otherwise. I've read good reviews of certain Sony, Panasonic, and Canon models but am seeking advice from forum users about their own experiences. Thanks in advance!!!

OK, I'll try an explain my thinking... 1.look at your environment and decide what you want to shoot. Since it just finished raining thought take some macro of water on various plants, used the ef-s 60 due to it lightweight for hand held close-ups. Next I look at lighting, low clouds but not too dark so I didn't need to use a flash, I can use settings to manipulate lighting. 2.Determine camera settings to archive the look you want. Take a few test shots at various white balance, shutter speeds, aperture, iso settings to get an idea how the end result will be. Used manual so I could adjust as light situations changed. Also change focus points depending on composition. 3.Take some photos Lighting is everything, watch how the shadows effect the look your after. Direction of light source, your position and so on. Doing this type of photography your able to take multiple shots at various angles to get the looks your after. The thing that I watch the most after camera settings is background objects and color. Find the subject, figure out your aperture/shutter speed, compose your shot, select focus point, check background. I don't want something behind the subject to draw your eye away from the focal point, aperture comes into play here. The bigger the f stop (smaller number) the more the bokeh( background out of focus) you achieve. I took 100 photos to get the 9 that were most appealing, out of those there are 4 that are my faves. f5.6, 1/50s, 800iso f5.6, 1/50s, 800iso Used ef 17-40 f4, settings f8, 1/100s, 800iso