the way I am using a camera and photos, will more pixels really help. No, the way you are using your camera more pixels will be excess. However, the newer cameras have improved so much that you will get much much better pictures with the newer camareas even though you don't need more pixels. I would recommend you do not go below 2 megapixels in selecting a camera but since a 5 Mp is so cheap you might as well get the better camera which includes a better lens and more options all for a very reasonable cost. I have used the Canon coolpix 900 and I now have the Canon coolpix 5000 with 5.1 Mp. I wanted the features and the close focusing capability more than the extra megapixels. Also the 900 was a battery hog whereas I can shoot all day with two batteries using the 5000. I have read that the human eye sees up to 1024 x 1024 pixels which equals roughly 1 MP per sq inch but as soon as you expand that image to a 17" screen then you are at a point where if the image fills the screen you will see pixelation. You need to take into consideration not just how it looks at a 1:1 ration but how it will look at a 17:1 ratio. If you buy a camera and you are not happy with it then you will need to buy it again so a mistake is never a bargain. With digital cameras I feel you should buy the best one you can afford.

Papou, I can easily go full screen with the video. The quality is just excellent. The only thing that I see a problem with is when you zoom in and the action is rapid. The camera has to readjust focus so you get some blurring until it adjusts. This doesn't happen unless you are zoomed for a closeup shot - as in one player (Megan of course :-) instead of several players or a wide angle. There is a big difference between video capabilities on different models of cameras though. I had a little Kodak Easyshare model that takes very nice photographs, but videos much the same quality as you describe. There is absolutely no comparison between those videos and the ones from the new camera. I can show you some examples of better video, one from my new Canon S5 IS and one from an earlier model Canon Powershot that belongs to my stepdaughter.... at least if you don't mind downloading some good sized avi files..... Go to the URL below. The video on the left (fishing) is taken with the earlier model Caonon Powershot. The one on the right (hockey) is taken with the Canon S5 IS. They can both be played full screen but you should notice some difference between the quality of the two. The S5 IS video is a much large file and will take a while to download. Here is a link that might be useful: Videos to compare

Jonny, I am sure you remembered the Sports Illustrated swim suit shoot for its great dialog, as well as its gorgeous examples. Ah, Jon-Boy, you left yourself open for that one. ...... ....but I know what you mean. These days, my hands shake more. Not so easy to hold steady. There comes a breeze just at the wrong time, and the scapes wiggle on me. My back gets a twitch in it. I suddenly forget everything I knew about operating my camera, for some reason. Guess I should try reading the manual again. I have three things I take pictures with, depending on where I am. My smarty phone is Atrix 4g, which I use in a pinch--I can upload direct and immediately to Flickr from its WiFi connection to my account at Flickr. The ASUS TF201 Android tablet takes pictures nicely, but I have a hard time composing the picture since the brightness function with daylight sort of fades out the screen and what I'm focused on. I regard it as a point and shoot camera. Then my Nikon Coolpix or whatever it is, does fine, but I don't know how to stop it from turning spots of sunlight into burnt out spots in the photo. I have broken shade in my Back40 hosta area, and waiting for a cloudy overcast day could take a long time. I take my shots when I can get em, for better or worse. In the month of May, I took over 1200 garden shots, mostly of the hosta. I mean EVERYTHING was picture worthy in my eyes. In June so far, 2/3 over with, I've taken 800 garden shots. Averaging 400 shots every 10 days it seems. Could not begin to do that (or afford to do that) if it were a film camera. I'm more likely to keep less of the shots that are bad though. Although uploading direct from the cameras is a good thing, it can also lead to out of focus and blurry images if not reviewed before uploading. And shooting in the rain can lead to unexpected problems. I took a lot of pictures and they looked fine normal size. But when I viewed them in slideshow full screen, I saw that there was a spot of dirty water or something similar, in the same spot on a series of photos. Oh boy. That was irritating. Someone mentioned a little before this happened, be sure to clean your camera lens. And the lesson came home to me, loud and clear. Those spots on the lens can ruin all your beautiful photos, and flowers and leaves do not stay the same for very long. It might be the only chance you get to shoot a fantastic plant.

Nice work by lazypup! One other way to think of it is to equate what the camera sensor sees to how the human eye sees: Think of shutter speed as how quickly you blink your eyelid. A quick blink is like a fast shutter speed like 1/1000 of a second. With a quick blink you hardly expose your retina to the image you are looking at. A longer gaze where you stare at an object would equate to a slower shutter speed like 1/30th of a second. Think of aperture as being related to the size of the pupil in your eye. A wide open or dilated pupil is like a low f-stop number (a more open lens aperture), it lets a lot of light through to the sensor. A pinpoint-sized or very small pupil is like a high f-stop number (small lens aperture opening), it lets little light through to the eye's retina or to the camera's sensor. In the daytime in bright sun, your pupil will naturally decrease in diameter/size. It's trying to not overexpose your retina to bright sunlight, it's like using f-stop settings toward one end of the scale, f/8 to f/16. At night when light is limited, your pupil will open up wide to let light in, like a camera's f-stop settings in the f/5.6 to f/1.4 range. Think of ISO as how good your night vision is, or how well your eye or the camera's sensor sees at night. A high ISO number means you have excellent night vision capability. You might not always use the high number, but you have the capability. So a camera with a sensor that goes from ISO 100-1600 will be fine in bright light and at dusk, but in darker situations (indoor or theater photography) you'll wish your sensor was from ISO 100-6400. In general, the higher the ISO setting, the more artifacts or "digital noise" can be introduced into the picture. So you want to keep the ISO towards a lower number when able. Just because you can see at night, it doesn't mean the picture will be perfectly clear. One other thing, it is relative: ISO 1600 on a camera with a 100-1600 range will be grainier or noisier than 1600 on a camera with a 100-6400 range. The closer you get to the highest ISO setting your camera offers the more likelier you are to get noise. It's not a hard rule, just a guideline. You can still use a camera's flash to illuminate what you are photographing, much like a person would use a flashlight to see better at night. But a sensor with a high ISO rating allows flashless photography in low-light situations. Plus, a camera's flash can only illuminate so far out in front of the camera. At an indoor graduation ceremony you'll want to be in the front row to effectively use a flash. With a high-ISO camera you could be in the rear of the auditorium and still get nice shots with no flash. These three things; shutter speed, aperture or f/stop, and ISO, can be thought of as sort of making up the three corners of photography. There's fluidity between the three, shooting one of your camera's manual or priority modes allows you to vary things as needed for what you are shooting. Like lazypup wrote, shooting outdoor sports you'd want a fast shutter speed (a quick blink of the eye) so the fast moving athletes won't be blurred. A fast shutter speed limits the amount of light that gets to the sensor. So you can increase the amount of light that gets to the sensor by using a lower number aperture setting like f/4 or f/2.8, and an ISO setting like like ISO 200 or 400. In bright sun you could be ISO 200 for example, if there are clouds, the 400. These are just theoretical numbers mind you, not real-world specifics. If I'm in bright sun shooting outdoor scenery for vacation photos, I can have a low ISO number to maximize photo quality like ISO 100, a smaller aperture opening (smaller opening means higher numbered setting) like f/14 to maximize depth of field so everything in the photo, from foreground to background, is in focus. Then whatever shutter speed is required to make the desired ISO and f/stop work. Shooting indoor theater I want flashless photography. There is some motion on stage, maybe a little dance here and there, so I can use a somewhat slower shutter speed like 1/200th of a second to keep the moving actors from blurring, a sort of medium blink of the eye. I still need more light though, so I'll open up the eye's pupil with a wider aperture setting like f/2.8, and I'll give the sensor better "night vision" by increasing the ISO to a higher number like 800 or 1200. If I'm taking photos of a non-moving sleeping baby in a quiet room, blur really isn't an issue, so I can use a slower shutter speed of 1/60th of a second to let light in. I can use a medium-ish ISO like 400, and I can open up the aperture with f/5.6. All of the above are sort of wags of numbers to try to convey the idea of how the three things can be adjusted to compensate for what you are trying to shoot. The thing you'll find is that based on what you are shooting, one of the three things will be prioritized. Fast moving athletes might lead you to prioritize shutter speed to control blur. I might shoot in "S" mode to prioritize shutter. Shooting your child on stage in a school play might lead you to open the aperture wide open to maximize light to the camera's sensor. I might shoot in "A" mode to prioritize aperture. Lazypup said he'd write about depth of field, that can be an important criteria that leads to using a certain f-stop or aperture setting. So lots of variable. But you only learn by shooting, analyzing your shots, and trying different settings. The "delete" button is one of the beauties of digital photography.