i have a fuji and although i like the camera i would not rave about it, i tends to take a lot of out of focus shots on auto focus without me hsving any acachol at all, i have canon at work that cost less than mine and takes excellent pics. i do suggest you get greter than 5 mp and the higher th optical zoom the better as this actually takes the lens in and out whereas the digital zoom only blows up the pixels and you can end up with blocky pics

On top of the camera and photo taking techniques ... good photo processing software should also be considered. All cameras that do self focusing or light metering make some assumptions on what they're doing. Good photo processing software (like Photoshop) help you to compensate with some of those compromises. There are good magazines (like PC Photo) that usually feature articles in almost every issue on how to bring out the best in your pictures when the camera hasn't achieved what you want it to. Takes some study and experimentation, but I've already gained lots of ideas for photo processing (I have Photoshop Elements ... a somewhat less robust version of Photoshop). Worth the effort.

Here's just a couple of recent photos where I used the manual focusing to help zero in on the subject ...

(except the first dragonfly and the deer picture which I just thought was cute :) )

... and one more.

Cameras on the technological horizon are being touted as almost foolproof, taking a series of slightly differently focussed and light-conditioned pictures. This allows you to choose the best, then discard the others. Thank god for gigabyte chips.

The fuji is the one i'll be getting, i must say i've had a wee play with them both in the store and prefer the Fuji myself...most i've spoken to seem to prefer it over the canon also. Auto focus tends to make blurry shots...thats why i'm after manual focus. i think its a 6 or 7mp camera (cant recall exactly) and has 10x optical zoom :)

I've got Photoshop..but damn ya need a pilots licence to drive the damn thing!...so unloaded it *L*...One day i'll reload and try again.

I use Photosuite, its user friendly and will do the photo adjustments i require easily. (though the darn thing has been taken over by Roxio and now no longer does any updates) So will be after new photo software sometime i'm sure.

I love the digital medium for just this reason...you can take shitloads of pics easily then just pick through to find the best to keep.

I do that with my basic digi cam even now...

OrliFanatic,

These cameras will do it all automatically.

BTW, my new Olympus piece of shit is not focussing well, as I have to hold the button down until I get a clean crisp shot, then fire. Some shots it just won't make.

Yeah they do...but i want the option of manual focus....so i can play with all the options *L*

db, is pic 4 hops by any chance? pic 5 looks an awful lot like poke sallet, considered something of a delicacy by some here in the south, but to me just a menace of a weed, especially when the birds eat the ripe purple berries, then crap on my car & anything else that gets in the way...

Go with the fuji if you are happy with it, i did shop quite a lot before i decided on my fiji, i have had some really go pics come from it but i have also had a lotof bad ones, this may not be a camera error rather my fat finger or i cant stand still, fuji also have a good online photo pint as part ofthe package
and i use the kodak software you can download from the kodak website because its simple

Would'nt it be easier to just flea dip the mice?

Why would i flea dip them?

I want to take pictures of them *L*...detailed pictures

Not absolutely sure. It was just growing along the trail and I thought it was an interesting plant to look at. :shrug: You could very well be right. Looked up a picture on the internet and there is a resemblence.