I read this thread with great interest. In the beginning of 2005 I decided that my 35mm camera was just not cutting it anymore and that I needed a digital camera. After much phoning and talking to people at different camera shops in our city with my long list of requirements that I needed in a camera to... -point and shoot...easy to use. -ability to take action pictures for insects moving (since our kids were basically gone from home already, so no sports to photograph). -clear closeups without having to bend down to take the picture...so I wanted the best zoom that they could offer for the best price. -great quality because I would be taking lots and lots of pictures of the flowers in my yard. -rechargeable batteries The winner... Canon Powershot S2 1S. Just new on the market in June 2005. It has 5mp and a 12 zoom. I use the foliage setting to take pictures of flowers...since it gives a richer truer picture. I got the first one that came into Brandon into Future Shop. BTW, Staples didn't carry high end cameras, just cheaper models. Individual camera stores were just getting one or two of these new Canon cameras in at a time on preorders. I have put 25,000 pictures through the camera since June 2005. (Not all saved, thank goodness). I love the camera. If I was to ever get another camera (and retire this one to my DH's business for him to use on construction sites or whereever) I would get the newest Canon, a 5S 1S or if a 6 is available that would be it. Met someone at some event somewhere and they had the same camera I had. Their son ran the Don's Photo in Saskatoon. When they wanted their first digital camera he recommended this one also for all the same reasons. They loved theirs and used it all the time. All the pictures in my photobucket album have been taken with my Canon S2 1S. Pictures I took this summer will not be inputted into each individual sub-album until this winter when it is less busy around here. http://www.valleyrimgirl.thenewtonfamily.ca/ By the way if anyone is browsing the albums and find something mislabelled, please let me know...which means it was sold to me incorrectly labelled. I hate that when that happens...another NOID in the yard. Brenda

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!!!

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

Macro capabilities are important to me. But my experience thus far with digitals verses film SLR has brought forth some interesting peeves. Focussing and jitter control are often automatic and a lot of folks just shoot and let the auto feature handle things like this because they don't want to delve deeper into how to take advantage of all the camera's features. Especially when using the Macro setting, the auto focus can be a huge pain. The autofocus mechanism works by picking a point that IT considers the prime target and focuses on that. However, what it picks to focus on is not always the subject. Admittedly, I haven't had my new digital long enough to get comfortable yet with manual control of shutter speed or focal length settings, something every good photographer should have control over. But for the neophyte or beginner, it's not that big a problem as you aren't wasting film and you can review your shot and go back and try again. Most cameras have features to adjust for camera shake or jitter. It can be tough to control this though, even with those features and a tripod is valuable. However, I have tended to repeat shots hand-held because it is so easy and quick to review a shot and try again. I tend to take reasonably good pics and if you go view the photo tours, 'A Place for a New Garden', 'I Think I'm Going Japanese, #1 and #2' and 'Walk Like an Egyptian', you'll see examples where I did not go back and redo a shot that suffered focus problems or jitter problems. For an example of jitter, look at the Golden Head of the Mummy Sarcophagus in 'Walk Like an Egyptian'. That is not a focus problem. It is jitter. Note that in other shots, there is a pane of glass between the camera and the subject and the shots suffer from light reflection off that glass. But OK. So what I'm saying is that the very good device that cameras have built in to control jitter ... does not always do the job. Be aware and use a tripod or be prepared to make several tries if the shot is important to you or you want to make sure your work is good. I've generally found that the digital cameras are extremely flexible and useful, but the old SLR can still do things that digitals can not. When rating digital cameras, a lot of folks condemned the early ones because their controls were hard to finger and they made 'noise'. The newer cameras are very quiet and the control surfaces and interfaces have been much improved. You can find my latest photo tour of South Bay Gardens in the California Gardening Forum. It is called 'China Grove' and covers San Jose's Overfelt Gardens.