Hi<BR><BR>I'm an amateur photographer as well and like GreenDragon I have to take a lot of pictures to get a few good ones. So when I bought my Canon Powershot S30 last year it was like a new world for me. When we went on a vacation in Thailand last September I ended up taking like 500 pictures. If you want samples please take a look at my homepage www.gardkarlsen.com<BR><BR>Check out www.dpreview.com for info on different models. They have very good reviews and also samples taken with the different cameras.<BR><BR>Regards<BR>Gard

Hi Green,<BR><BR> If all you currently have is a &quot;point and shoot&quot; for snap shots, you can get a digital camera for about $150, but:<BR> <BR> The cheaper cameras don't have a viewfinder. You look at the screen to compose the picture. This uses up the batteries.<BR><BR> Cheaper cameras don't have optical zoom. They use digital processing to enlarge the image. This gives you a fuzzier picture.<BR><BR> If you combine poor optics, large power usage, and only 1 Mp resolution, your final product will be of lower quality than you are currently getting.<BR><BR> If you want a reasonably good camera that you will be happy with, I suggest the Canon A60. I got mine from Amazon.com for $240.<BR><BR> It has 3/1 optical zoom and 2/1 digital zoom on top of that, 2 Mp resolution, a viewfinder, various manual overrides (should you wish to use them), built in flash, and records movies with sound.<BR><BR> It weighs about 12 oz, with batteries.<BR><BR>

Hello,<BR>I have an Olympus D-380 that I'm quite happy with. It's a 2-megapixel camera, which will do very nice regular-size and good 5x7 prints. <BR><BR>I ended up getting it for $129. If you shop around online, you should be able to get it for $150ish. <BR><BR>It uses SmartMedia cards (128MB maximum -- about 255 photos at the second-highest resolution setting), which are reasonable. I've seen them at Sam's Club for $40.<BR><BR>The camera is very easy to use, and I've been pleased with the photos.<BR><BR>Enjoy!

The recommendation about slide film is a little misleading especially for someone who says he takes a lot of pictures to get one good one. Slide film is very unforgiving--it has very little latitude for getting a good print as does print film. But back to the digital--lots of good info. And I believe that digital pictures are quite equal to print film now, particularly with regard to P&amp;S cameras and at the<BR>3MP level. My Olympus and former Kodak can use normal AA batteries if needed. I use rechargeable NiMH batteries. The charger fit in the shaver receptacle in Paris for recharging.

OK, thanks for all the wonderful help and advice! There were aspects I hadn't even thought about!

I ended up finding on ebay an HP Photosmart 812, which has 4MP and a 128MB card, has optical as well as digital zoom, for $200. I picked up an extra 256MB card for $50 -- I figure this should be enough to tide me over on most vacations :D

Thanks so much for all the great ideas!!!!!