It has been a while since I have been on the conversation side of the FN. So, I totally was missing this thread. Congrats Sharon and Susan on getting Canon cameras like mine. You both will love them!!! Good choices you made! I bought two sets of 4 AA rechargeable batteries in 2005 when I got my camera and kept recharging them over and over again. I just threw out one of the sets about a month ago. They sure lasted a long time! The other set is still going. The third set I used at the start were batteries I found at home but I misplaced one or two of the batteries and so, never used that set much. Now, everytime I go somewhere with my camera, I throw the recharger in my purse with the 4 freshly recharged batteries in it. It is amazing how often I will be in the middle of the Westman Gardeners meeting taking pictures and the batteries will die then or in the midst of another function and they die. Just taking the few extra seconds to throw in the freshly recharged batteries in the purse sure has been a lifesaver. I have now taken about 25,000 pictures with my camera...it rolls over at the 9999 number to 0 again....of course, I haven't kept all of them but have a lot in the computer though! Thanks Susan for the fun sites to explore this winter. I have all the pictures I took this summer to label, crop, adjust lighting on, etc etc. this winter when I can't work outside anymore. It will be fun to work with some of the pictures with the fun techniques. I was given a Manfrotto tripod with a joystick head (pistol grip) for my birthday in June to use along with my camera and haven't taken the time to experiment with it and my camera. I am hoping for time this winter. Just wait...that will be the next thing on your wish list, Sharon and Susan. Brenda

My story. I have been photographing on and of for many years. About 9-10 years ago I have decided that I had to take it to the highest level possible. At that time digital was already advancing rapidly, in full swing forward. But I had decided to continue with film. I bought a Hasselblad with several lenses, and shot a lot of 6x6 film. It felt so good to hold in my hands a real camera that was on the moon and made history. It was also very heavy to carry around on my trips. I had been shooting only Velvia slides and the cost to buy the film and develop it in a professional lab was $20 for 12 frames. And than, to complement the equipment I already had, and to complement my workflow, I purchased a Hasselblad scanner which was touted as the best professional scanning solution. And it was. Except that the whole process from capture to print was extremely costly, cumbersome and lengthy. At some points I realized that I was a dinosaur growing older. I sold all my film photography equipment. I purchased a digital camera. I keep shooting and never looked back, I got film out of my system, the workflow is so much easier and quicker, the bag is much lighter on my back, and the results to my eye are not less artistic than the output during my film shooting period.

I've got a Canon Power Shot S2 IS. Its a great point an shoot camera, but with a few gripes. The good stuff: 1. Fast boot up. Ready to go 1 second after turn on. 2. Quick auto-focus. If the auto-focus is turned off for general viewing and composing, it will focus when the shutter button is pressed to the first detent and immediately fire the shutter when the button is pressed all the way down. You press to the first detent, wait for focus, then shoot. Focusing in good light takes nore more than a second or so. Focus lag can be eliminated if the auto-focus is set to full time, but uses more battery power. Usually, by the time you compose the picture it is waiting for you. 3. Auto-focus continues while shooting a video. 4. Great lens 12 X Zoom, 6.0 - 72.0 mm; f/2.7 - f/3.5. There aren't many lenses out there (in this price range) that will have an arperature of f/3.5 at 12 X zoom. 5. The S2 model has 5.0 MP. This has been plenty for what I do. Later models have more. 6. Battery life is average with the Hybrid NiMH rechargeable cells. Regular NiMH cells are disappointing. These do not hold charge very well. The Hybrid NiMH cells leak rate is acceptable and superior to the regular NiMH cells. 7. The view finder brightens in low light to aid composition. The amount of brightening is amazing. When the shutter button is pressed to the first detent, a small green led light beam turns on to aid focusing and turns off for the shot. 8. Raising the flash lamp activates it. It needs a few seconds to charge. 9. Lens distortion is low. Swing-out and swivel rear screen. The agravating: 1. The sensor does not seem to have as much dynmaic range as a Nikon or Kodak. 2. Default settings causes burn out of highlighted items. This can be remedied by switiching to the "P" (program) mode and adjusting exposure down by 1/3 F stop. 3. Although the lens has 12X zoom, I would sacrifice a litte zoom on the long end to get wider at the low end. The low end is not wide enough for close-in group shots. 4. The worst failing for the S2 model. Viewfinder is too dim in bright light and the rear screen is hard to see (and increases battery drain). 5. There is no optical view finder; it is electronic. It is a little short of pixels to make good judgements about fine focus and there is a lag as one adjustes the focus. However, since the viewfinder is using signal from the main sensor, it accurately frames the scene. These comments apply to the S2 model. Improvements have been made in later models. It will be difficult to beat the performace of this camera in this price range.

Clam Digger, OK, this one isn't cropped (from a P&S Sony with an amazing flare resistant lens). The point of the cropped photos was to show the level of quality available from a viewfinder camera. Sorry about the dig with the pelican photo but you asked for it when you patronized my cat. I understand that you have a long lens on an SLR and that's a capability that few viewfinder cameras possess. And if you want to shoot wildlife then an SLR is the way to go. Long lenses is the biggest reason for an SLR. People are different. The most important lens for me on a 35mm camera is a 28mm and I must have a 24mm as well. Using a lens longer than an 80mm is an occasional experience for me and I could do without it. Different cameras for different people. As for stubborn denial, I prefer to think of it as stubborn assertion. I assert this and I'm right about it: It is fair to say that the much more expensive DSLRs as a group are more capable cameras than the cheaper consumer oriented viewfinder cameras. But there are enough exceptions in both groups that the groups overlap at the edges. A novice like Jean may be very happy with a camera like Susan's 5 megapixel Lumix... And when did someone say something bad about Tokina? I said digital sensors and film have different requirements and lenses designed specifically for digital maximize the performance of the digital sensor. Tokina knows that, that's why they're making a series of lenses for DLSRs. That doesn't mean older lenses are useless, it's not a B&W world. Back to the original point of this post. Jean is shopping for a camera and buying a DSLR isn't the only or necessarily best option for her. Joe, you're a nice guy trying hard to keep the peace. You and Susan are right it's about the photos first. Clam Digger, that's a nice shot of the water bird, what is it? is it some species of tern? Joe