Not to be picky but I actually consider Stewart, et. al. to be comprehensive. The 'new Ang bible' as I fondly think of it, covers all the (known at publish date) 690 species of Angraecoid orchids. I definitely hope Brooke is right and it will not be the last Ang book written. It has elevations for all the species, you can't ask for much more than that. If one is resourceful, one can find the 'old Ang bible', "An Introduction to the Cultivated Angraecoid Orchids of Madagascar" by Hillerman and Holst, published in 1986. Oh to have been Ang-aware in the mid 80s...*sigh* It is out of print and remains the most expensive book I've ever bought. Last I saw one available, the price was $100 MORE than I paid. :) (get it on inter-library loan) One might also consider "African orchids in the wild and in cultivation" by Isobyl and Eric LaCroix, available quite cheap on amazon. "Orchids of Kenya" by Stewart & Campbell. "Orchids of Africa" by Stewart & Hennesey. "Orchids of Tropical Africa" by Stewart & Campbell. I even have "Orchids of Malawi" by Morris. Good luck finding that! :) Three cheers for Stewart! Three cheers for Hillerman! Three cheers for Angs!!! -MB

Thank you bevinga, ...we do work at it. But it's a labor of love to be sure. :) From what I've read and seen, there are only incremental differences amongst the Sx-IS Powershot models. Each offering some additional features and minor improvements over the previous generation. But I've seen S2 shots that were very good indeed (some of them from posters in this forum), and I expect you can get comparable results with yours. We've had our S3 for a little over 2 months now, and have taken about 7000 pictures with it. We use no additional lens systems yet, although I am tempted to try a teleconverter. I do use a tripod for these closeup feeder shots; and use Manual, or Tv modes to allow adjustment of exposures, apertures, and shutter speeds. It's taken a good deal of experimenting and research to learn how to optimize our results. But in truth, we're still learning. We use ISO 80 (equivalent to ISO 50 on your S2) almost exclusively and simply never shoot above ISO 200 in daylight. We've found this is essential with this camera to avoid visible noise in our images. I have been using manual focus whenever possible also, because I find it difficult to judge the accuracy of the autofocus through the view finder in many situations. And lastly, I crop, adjust levels, and often perform VERY minor unsharp masking in Photoshop. I know this workflow will likely be more effort than most people want to expend with a point and shoot cam. But to us, the beauty of the S3 is that it allows us to optimize the photographing of our birds by using its manual features. hth, Kenn

Vacation time is coming! Yea! I'm done with this. Post and be critical as much as you want! That's what some of you so enjoy doing the most. Seems like walking on eggshells here with some of you. And some can't wait to make an issue out of something that was not intended the way you twist it to appear. DONE!

I am surprised by how small of type I can read without reading glasses with my monovision. Unfortunately my eyes still feel kind of strained by the difference in the two. My discomfort comes from the unevenness of my vision rather than an inability to see things. If on,y my brain could adjust to this, It wold be amazing. However, I just went upstairs and tried to thread a needle and I cannot do it With my reading glasses on, no problem. I also need a lot of light to see well. I also had great near vision before my cataract surgery. I'd always take off my glasses to read or work at my desk or at a restaurant. I had to put them back on to see far. I miss that too, especially being able to read in bed at night without glasses. If I could do it over, I would get good distance vision and use readers. You also can get bifocal type glasses where the top part is clear glass and the lower portion is your reading prescription, so you don't have to keep taking them off and on. Good luck with your choice. I use a magnifying mirror for makeup.