The camera I mentioned takes video as well. A lot of video too. I take videos of my daughter all the time, and upload them onto private youtube for her great grandma to see. It has a ton of settings on this dial you turn. http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/W170/W170A.HTM# That link should show the photo of the back view of the camera where the dial is. My camera is red. They have an option for automatic shooting where you dont play with any settings besides zoom/flash. Then they have a setting one one up where you can change a few more settings. Then a more advanced setting where a lot of settings can be changed. The link says its $300, but it isnt. I bought mine through Wal Mart on sale in Feb. I dont see them there anymore though. You can buy them online though. The camera has a child or adult face detection mode, smile shutter (neat where it will automatically take photos everytime someone smiles). The smile shutter can also be adjusted for the level of smile needed to snap the shot. It also has Backlight, Backlight Portrait, Twilight, Twilight Portrait, and Twilight using a Tripod. Those are more of the settings on the camera. Either the twilight or the backlight option can make a photo taken in pure darkness, light like taken in the day. Standard Scene modes include Beach, High Sensitivity, Landscape, Snow, Soft Snap, Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Fireworks, Smile Shutter, and Underwater. The Sony W170 Menu system gives you access to Twilight, Beach, Snow, Fireworks, and Underwater. The others are on the Mode dial. I laughed so hard using the creative effects to photos after you shoot using any of 10 editing functions, including: Trimming, Red-Eye adjustment, Soft Focus filter, Unsharp Mask, Cross filter, Partial Color filter, Fish-eye filter, Retro, Radial Blur and Happy Face (really funny). The Happy Face effect uses photo retouching to put a smile on faces, with smile levels adjustable from 1 to 5. Danielle

@Bob... You're VERY knowledgeable, sir. I was going to correct you about always needing a tripod for >10x zoom, but then you realized that Panasonics have image stabilization (which has been a god-send for me, believe me, because tripods/monopods are not always convenient). Question for you: would you agree that as often as not, it's the photographer more than the camera? As in, knowing how to frame a shot, knowing your camera, knowing your subject, etc. matters as much or more as having bigger zoom/higher megapixels? It's a trick question, because it's a pet peeve of mine. My first digital camera was a 2.1mp Olympus that most folks would have written off due to its lack of megapixels. But it had a Canon lens, 10x optical zoom with image stabilization, and I got fantastic pics with it, many of which I printed at 8x10 or higher. For instance, this was taken with that old Olympus (Callaway Gardens, 9/12/02): This one is from my front yard in Aug 09 using my FZ20 (replaced the Olympus in 2005)- the swallowtails loved my Buddleias. Is it spring yet? Mary

Well, honestly, those are not ideal conditions...here we go... Open the lens all the way up(aperture). Shutter speed at 1/100, can try 1/80, but that can catch motion Macro mode; that means you need to be within 4ft of the subject. If your camera has presets then I would put it on the portrait mode. That usually has a wide open lens setting. If you're doing it manually, the lowest number for the f-stop. Lighting;I always see people using flash at aquariums, the bad thing is the glass reflects the light and you don't get the pic you hoped for ---turn the flash off. Do you have a polarizing filter? That will take away some glare/reflection, but you lose 1-step of light. My suggestion is to use the tripod with the above settings. Have the camera pre-focused for a specific, predetermined area. When the fish is in that specific space *snap* the shot. This will require patience. Good luck and post your success! Joe

It looks like amazon.com has the same package for $479.00. Buying piece by piece at the best prices wouldn't get you better savings. Two things I would clarify with the ebay seller. The shipping costs are not clear to me. Also, will they take the package back if you aren't satisfied with the quality of the add on lenses? The 2-lenses and 3-filters are items that may not give you satisfaction depending on their quality. I have a Panasonic DMC FZ20 which takes pretty good photos. Some of my complaints have been addressed with the newer Lumix series cameras--according to one of the camera review sites. My camera doesn't do well in low light, the FZ8 is reported to have fixed that noise problem. Also the 8 has a popular lens size so you shouldn't have trouble or high costs finding filters, etc. All Panasonics have good stabilization. Their Leica lens are top quality. The new ones shoot in RAW which is good. All the accessories that come with this package appear to be off brand and inexpensive. That isn't always a real bad thing. It lets you experiment with tele-converters, various filters, tripod, etc. If it turns out you develop a burning desire to take really professional quality wildlife photos and need a better lens/camera you can upgrade later. You should be able to get good portraits with this camera. IMHO too many people jump in and pay $1000 for a DSLR and another $1000 for lenses. All of that stuff sits in a drawer and gets used at graduations, birthdays and vacations. My point is, you can learn a lot with this package. Which ever camera you choose, spend another $50-100 and get Photoshop Elements software and a good manual. Also consider the Cannon S3. A lot of people love this camera. Check out the birding forum. Ken has an S3 and just got a fairly good quality 1.7 tele-converter. His bird photos are wonderful. He's a nice guy, and will answer your questions. Here is a link that might be useful: Ken's bird closeups