What about flickr? Seems you retain all rights there.

According to their TOS:

<i>With respect to photos, graphics, audio or video you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Service other than Yahoo! Groups, the license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display such Content on the Service solely for the purpose for which such Content was submitted or made available. This license exists only for as long as you elect to continue to include such Content on the Service and will terminate at the time you remove or Yahoo! removes such Content from the Service.</i>

That's good. They are only using it for the purposes you posted it and only until you delete the photo. (I had one site that kept copies of your images even if you deleted them).

P.S. All the sites will state &quot;you retain all rights&quot;, but it's deceiving - they're only talking about half of the problem.

As the photographer, you automatically have copyright to your photo the moment the image is taken. If you are under employ as a photographer (i.e., staff photographer), the copyright is often assigned to the company per your employment agreement.

As the copyright owner, you have all rights to sell, distribute, modify, etc. that photo as you wish.

Now, if you sell your photo to me, you can identify in the agreement what rights you wish to confer with the photo. You may agree to give me rights to publish the photo in my 2nd edition &quot;What's a Fodorite?&quot; book, or you may give me rights to publish the photo in all editions of &quot;What's a Fodorite?&quot; book. In these cases, I am not legally allowed to publish the photo in any other book I might write or publish.

Perhaps, I want your photo to use to advertise my business, Fodorville, LTD. In this case, you would give me express rights to use it for print and/or website use for the sole purpose of advertising Fodorvile, LTD. This means I cannot legally use your photo during a tv commercial.

While you as the photographer have retained full rights to your photo, you have granted me, the buyer, specific rights to do certain things with your photo without additional compensation to you.

In the case of the photo sharing websites, they all say (usually right up front) that you &quot;retain all rights&quot;, but they don't make it so clear as to what rights they claim in return for posting your photos. Flickr is good - they claim only enough to post your photos while you are subscribed with them. Others are not so good.

Be wary with photo contests also (online and otherwise). Some claim rights, for any purpose, to every photo submitted without any further compensation to you. Others claim only the right to use the winning photo(s) to advertise a specific thing.

The former is bad because they can then sell or use your photo in anyway at anytime for any purpose without your ever seeing any compensation of any kind.

The latter is good because they only use the winning photo for a specific purpose in exchange for your receiving the prize.

It's dizzying to get a grasp on it, and many people think &quot;oh, no one's going to steal my photos&quot;, but you'd be amazed. A friend in Africa explained it this way:

Suppose you took a photo of an elephant at your local zoo. You posted it on an online photo sharing site who claimed all rights. Three months later, your photo is promoting a business offering &quot;Elephant hunts&quot;.

Do you want your photo used for something that you may not agree with, without any right to complain, deny, etc.?

Makes sense... I actually was immersed in legalese recently as we went to work on the details for a photo contest that we are about to run on the site. (It actually launches tomorrow---and is for Alaska specifically.)

Thanks for explaining the ins and out from your perspective.

My pleasure. I'm looking forward to seeing the Alaska contest (and the TOS ;) ).

I get long winded on this subject, but it's near and dear to my heart - hopefully others will learn from this info and companies will start to make their Terms of Services less one-sided.

I have a Canon Rebel XT, which I love. When I bought it, the XTi was not out yet. Before that, I'd had a Canon EOS 650 (film SLR). I love the feel of the Rebel XT, and I, too, use only the viewfinder. Using the viewfinder actually makes the camera more stable, as you hold it against your face.

The lenses that I have are the 18-55, and a 100 to 300 zoom. At least that's what I think I have. The former is the Canon lens that came with the camera, and the other is a Tamron lens. I'd love to have been able to afford the Canon version, with stability control, or whatever they call it, but at over 2 grand, it was way over my price range.

I, also, bought 2 extra batteries. The first one from the dealer, than a 2nd later at discount. I have several 1 and 2 GB Compact Flash memory cards, and recently purchased 2 4GB cards. Unfortunately, my husband used the camera, and has no idea what he did with those 4GB cards. Grrr. I think they were around $50.00 or so each. Maybe less. They're going on sale at Costco on the 9th of June, if you have one of their summer Passport coupon books. I think I'll get a couple more.

Actually, I also bought a Nikon Coolpix S52 a couple of weeks ago. I can keep it in my purse. It is about credit card size, 9 Megapixel, ISO 3200, with a 3 inch LCD screen. Since it has no viewfinder, I have to use the LCD screen. I must admit, I love the little thing. I comes with a case and strap, and that VR (stablization). One &quot;bad&quot; thing, is that the shutter response is much slower than the Rebel XT. By that I mean the time from when the shutter is pressed until the camera takes the picture. I apologize for using the possibly incorrect terminology, but hopefully, you'll know what I mean.

So, when I go on my next trip, I'm trying to decide if I should just take the new Nikon Coolpix, or carry the Rebel in its case, with the extra lenses, and throw the Coolpix in it, too. Unfortunately, it uses SD cards, so I have to buy extras of those too. My husband never goes anywhere without his notebook computer, so we can transfer the pictures, each night, of the trip. We're going by plane, so weight is a big problem. Sigh.

Maxine - At first I worried about getting a third party lens like the Tamron. I read all the comments that you should buy L glass only even if that means you only buy one lens every 10 years.

Then I started shooting and realized that if it took me 10 years to save up for a 100-400 L lens, then I'd spend 10 years missing shots. My first third party lens was the Tamron 28-75mm and my work had purchased the Canon 24-70mm L - no quality difference at all between shots.

Now I read reviews and judge them (similar to hotel reviews) to what I feel is important. If the review only dings the lens in comparison to L glass, but doesn't ding it against other lenses, then I know it's a good choice.

As for travel, my logic is that I bought the equipment to take photos - if that means all my carryon is camera equipment, then so be it. If it's not worth bringing the equipment, then it's not worth photographing. :)

Maxine, your Rebel should have one big advantage over the Coolpix: sensor noise. Do you know what I mean by noise? It's kind of like &quot;grain&quot; on film. Speckles kind of. If you ever shot high ISO film like ISO 800 film you'd probably know what I mean.

Anyway, with a Canon Elph point and shoot - lovely camera otherwise, about the size of my wallet - I found that pictures shot in good light (low ISO) were excellent. But if the light wasn't good and the camera needed to use higher ISO, the Elph pictures were pretty poor quality. Very noisy. By contrast, my Canon 5D's pictures are fantastic even at ISO 400 and not bad at 800 (and acceptable even higher).

Digital SLRs like the Rebel should have much lower noise sensors than the little point and shoots. At ISO 400 or 800, I think you'll see a big difference in image quality between the two cameras.

So if I were you, I'd take the Pepsi challenge: shoot some pictures (same image) in low light with both cameras. Print them both. See if you can tell the difference.

Another difference: the Coolpix shoots in a more square aspect ratio than your Rebel. The Rebel shoots in the same ratio as a 35mm camera (3:2) which means it's the perfect size for 4x6 prints. Your Coolpix shoots pictures are more square (4:3); when you print 4x6 prints, the top and/or bottom of each image will be cropped off to fit. Try it and you'll see what I mean.

I started using a SLR 15 years ago. I was in the army for 5 years and it went everywhere with me. I was stationed in Egypt for 6 months. The worst mistake I ever did was have the film developed there. Sometimes got back scratched negatives and some of the film was never returned. Apparently they were notorious for removing shoots of their antiquities and monuments at the local film shops.

About 5 years ago I got my first digital point and shoot. Sadly the SLR went in the closest and collected dust. After two models of point and shoot I have just bought my first (used) Digital SLR. A canon 20d. The professional photographer I bought the camera from gave me the starter lens it came with (18-85mm). Not a great lens (or so I been told). I did however find an almost new canon lens (24mm-135mm US IS) off of someone on Craig’s list.

My tip is that you can sometimes find a better lens than the one supplied with the camera from someone who is a professional and doesn't use a &quot;lower&quot; standard lens. The lens I got was never used (came with his Canon 40d) and I got it for $250 dollars (they sell new for $470).

Now the question I have is...Does anyone have tips for traveling with a DSLR as opposed to Point and Shoot.

I am traveling to Italy (Rome, Florence, Venice) in September and will be taking the camera with me. Of course we plan to do a lot of walking. Are there restrictions in museums or churches for using cameras (lens, flashes, tripods)?

I had never heard of a PSD until the tip above. Thanks by the way. Any other tips about carrying that weight and protecting the camera would appreciated. Thanks

Arteagac - Welcome to the dSLR club, I think you'll enjoy it!

Take what's said about the 18-55mm lens with a grain of salt. Actually, take a lot of what you here about any lens with a grain of salt. :)

The 18-55mm is a great little lens for under $100. I've seen photos taken with it that are amazing. For that focal length, you won't find anything better for less than at least 3-times the cost. If you don't have a lot of need for a wide angle, the 18-55mm is a great lens to have - it doesn't take money away from lenses you'd prefer to have and it will get the shots you need when you do want a wide angle.

I've actually used it with close-up filters and extension tubes - it makes a great inexpensive macro lens.

Also, don't discount the third party lenses. The Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 is an extremely nice lens for under $400 new. It actually beats the Canon 28-135mm IS in reviews at fredmiranda.

For traveling, first you have to decide what you want to travel with. Do you want to take ALL your lenses or do you plan on just taking one lens? What type of shots do you usually take when you travel? These questions will help identify what you need for traveling.

Until this year, I was using the Lowepro Photorunner beltpack for my XT, 18-55mm, 28-75mm, and 75-300mm, PSD, extra battery, charger, memory cards, remote, 3 extender tubes, cleaning kit and cell phone. It was small enough to carry on the plane as a personal item and was convenient for switching lenses while I walked around.

Since my purchase of the Tamron 200-500mm lens, I've had to rework my bag and am now using a Pelican softsided PCS152 and I slip it over a wheeled platform by California Innovations (it came with a softsided cooler, so I took the cooler off and put the bag on). I'm very happy with this setup.

The slingbags are quite popular as they provide more security than the backpacks and you don't have to take them off to get the camera out.

You'll hear a lot of folks comment on using diaper bags, etc. because it doesn't look like you're carrying an expensive camera. My belief is that as soon as you take the camera out of the bag, the thieves know, and if you aren't going to take it out of the bag, then why bother bringing it.

I do recommend buying your bags at a local store where you can bring in your gear and try out the bags. It's VERY difficult figuring out if a bag is big enough vs. too big online. It will cost more to buy it locally, but testing it first is cheaper than having to replace ones that don't work.

Personally, I want a lot of padding in my bags. I really like Lowepro for that - they seem to have the most padding of the companies. Tamrac comes pretty close. I also like the multiple closures - zippers AND clips. Some bags only have a clip closing the bag which means that dirt and dust can get in the bag and things can fall out of the bag. Zippers can fail with pressure. Having a zipper protects the gear from the dirt and dust and the clip provides added security against zipper failure.

Hope that helps.