Hi Mark,

I went through the digital camera selection routine about a year ago. My
previous digital camera was a 2MP Hewlett Packard (crummy camera). There
were two decisions/compromises I went through.

1. I wanted an SLR since I would be using the digital instead of my 35mm
Olympus SLR - the problem was that I quickly decided that I was not willing
to pay for what I wanted ($7,000), so the decision was to select the best
digital that would fit into my shirt pocket!

2. Many of my shots were to capture something, but then I would often like
to crop a portion of the image. To get good cropped resolution, 4MP or 5MP
was MUCH better than lower resolutions.

My ultimate choice was a 5MP Olympus C-50 Zoom. It has only 3x optical zoom,
but it is very small. A drawback I found in this particular camera is that
it does not capture sound when recording a movie. It did not seem an
important feature when I was originally doing the selections, but then I
went to my 40 year high school class reunion where Micelle Philips (Mamas
and Papas) was one of our gang. She ended up singing California Dreamin'
with several others. Boy, did I miss having sound on the camera then!

My recommendation to you would be to go for a 4MP or 5MP camera. Look at the
reviews and check to see if there is any focusing problems. My neighbor
bought a Minolta 4MP camera which looks nice, and was a good value (with 4x
optical zoom). However, many of his pictures were out of focus. He sent it
in for repair, and it helped, but reviews showed that the model does have
some difficulty focusing. Close up shots with good focus is something that
you have to get used to. On my Olympus, I still often make errors in focus
for close-up shots, but I am getting better ;)

Some links to reviews:
http://www.dcresource.com/
http://www.dpreview.com/
http://www.imaging-resource.com/WB/WB.HTM

Peter
-----------------------------------------------
The NoSpin Group
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> -----Original Message-----
> I have to decided to move up from my 10 dollar, after rebates, digital
> camera. I am thinking about a Cannon or a Nikon. Close ups
> are important to
> me. I like to take pictures of parts, in the field, for later
> reference,
> and or explanations. I understand the difference between
> Optical Zoom and
> digital zoom. But how can I tell, in the specifications, if
> digital cameras
> support close ups like a SLR micro lens will do.
>
> I see a Cannon Powershot S1 IS on sale, I am guessing this
> must becoming a
> older model. But I likes the looks of it and  It does have
> 10X optical zoom
> and 3.2 Megapixals. Will 3.2 be enough to print out good quality 10X8
> prints. I understand that Megapixals is more information
> which makes for
> better prints for average use .... so do I need more then 3.2
> MegaPixals.

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