glover, oh no, that's terrible. It's so hard to get a quetzal picture too - they always seemed to have their backs to us on this trip.

col, wow, that would be amazing.

Yeah, that's why I carry my camera with me EVERYWHERE when we're traveling. Never, ever will I leave it in a car--don't even like putting it in the overhead compartment on a plane.

Colibri--are you looking at a DSLR or a bridge camera?

I am not happy with what I have now!

RAC - I've been using bridge cameras for my last two which have been Panasonic Lumix. My old one (which luckily I also took to Honduras as backup!) was a 24x, new one was a 60x, but I sure saw loss of sharpness with that long of a zoom.

If I can find a lightweight enough DSLR, I could be tempted to go that way.

Most of the weight (and cost) for DSLR's is in the lens, not the camera, especially if you're trying to get bird photos.

Canon rebel DSLRs start at about 18 ounces.

Bird lenses start out at a bare minimum of 22 ounces (that's for the 70-300mm lens)--the lens I use is 50 ounces (52 ounces or 3 1/4 pounds) with the tripod ring attached.

Thx, RAC. I've been thinking of going the Canon route.

I was reading through this website, which may be a bit old but some of it is interesting. Explains perhaps why I was happier with the image quality in some older P&S cameras with fewer MP.

http://www.digitalbirdphotography.com/contents.html

Great info on the website, mlgb - thanks!

volcano girl: From your previous posts I know you don't like driving. Am wondering if you were able to get Savegre to pick you up? In planning our trip next Feb. I have found only two days that Savegre is available and am trying somehow to work it into our itinerary since it sounds so good.

Hi, vic - yes they came and picked us right up at the airport. You've reminded me that I need to get on my trip report which is way overdue. I don't remember the cost we paid, but if you email Savegre, I've found them to be very responsive; they could tell you the cost. We had our own little cabin with a fireplace - liked it a lot. I posted my birding list on another thread, but we saw about 50 different species while we were there. I'm not a hard core birder, but it was fun to see such a huge variety and especially to see the quetzals.