I wanted to add find one that has settings and such that are easy to use and to figure out.

No use buying one that has the setting & options but you can't easily use them.

Holly - the lens on mine is a Schneider-Kreuznach. That was one of the features that did sell me, even though I don't know squat about lenses. I figured, if the others were just generic, this had to be better. There is a big diff in quality of pix from my other cameras and this one.

It seems like Kodak has always meant *user friendly* and maybe not focused on having the highest quality, where the other brands you mention are for more serios photographers. I think they are getting down to business now though.

And their software is definately user friendly - if I can do it lol. I can't speak for anyone else's though.

For pix of pets, flowers, this one has been a blast.

My Sony zoom came with 2 manuals. An easy fast access one, that was just folded up, and a regular softcover book (half of which was in Spanish).

My son does fancy things...and he says my camera will too.
White Balance to control color

Adjusting shutter to auto repeat

manual changing of ISO settings (camera does it automatically and sometimes fails with tons of noise in picture)

Picking black/white mode which he likes (I don't typically need this--but it is good for arty effects) There are other color settings I think.

I don't do any of those (and I still don't understand ISO very well). I just point and shoot. The little knob on top gives icons for type... a golfer for speedy fast motion, a moon for pictures in the dark, regular icon, portrait,landscape for far away shots, etc. I only use the fast one with the golfer on it and the regular.

This toad pic was taken in total darkness at 4am--- he is sitting in the cats' water dish...and we wondered where all the water was going from the quart reservoir. He was sitting in it every day. I don't suppose the water tasted very good either for the cats the rest of the day!
Taking a night shot like this is slow...the camera processes and does stuff, so at least 30 sec pass between shots.
The toad didn't like it much, as the flash was bright.
This was the first year I had the camera, so I was excited to catch this event. We had been very low on toads..some epidemic etc. Now they are coming back. We called this one the porch toad. He is probably the same one in my campions that I have in my profile album! LOL

Mrs D - Cool toad! Yeah, I should find the manual and figure that stuff out. Kodak's site has all the tips in the world too, I just never took the time - maybe after I move...


JW - good luck with your choice. You can hardly go wrong with all the good cameras out there. You're just bound to have fun and get good pix, so I look forward to seeing what shots you get.

I agree... the FUN part was totally a surprise for me. LOL
It took me about 2 mons to not be "afraid" of all the techno stuff and once I started practicing I found it wasn't that difficult. Just dunning at first.

I have tons of fun with my camera, which is rather outdated already! I enjoy putting the photos into the computer and making avatars, siggie pics etc too. My program is Jasc/Corel
PaintShop and has many ways to tweak the photos and make them better. My camera is a 5.1 px, and now they are around 9-10 px just 3 yrs later! If you get a pic or situation that is not a good exposure, you can fix it and make it better (can't do that with film). If you have noise reduction feature that is even MUCH better, because some noise may still ruin a shot. The new cameras all have the noise reduction. (when I shoot the deer in the woods, sometimes they are dark, and about 1/2 the time I can't fix them adequately).

So yes, please do come back and tell us what you bought, and how you like it! I am eager to see!

I use Picasa3 & Photoscape the most for my photo editing and such.
both are free:D

http://picasa.google.com/
http://www.photoscape.org/