At 7:52 AM +1100 12/18/07, Brett Conlon wrote: >Thanks for your thoughts Shawn & Zane. > >Unfortunately it really does need to be compact - for this purchase. >As I mentioned, I purchased a DV camera a few Chrissy's back >(Panasonic GS-400) which takes 4mpix shots but the shots ain't so >great and it's quite a bulky beast. After hefting that big lug of a >thing around in the black camera bag all over the place for a few >years, my wife simply wants something small and compact that will >take better shots than the DV camera. I completely understand that >and want to oblige her. I was also hoping to maximise the purchase >and get something that might suit us both (of course not >*completely* suit _me_ but gives me *something* kinda decent I can >work with until I can get a decent SLR). I can understand the need for being compact, while my primary camera is a Nikon D70, I occasionally use the 3MP little Kodak (4x optical) that we had before the D70. For an early Christmas present this year I bought my wife a little Nikon Coolpix (3x optical, 6MP) that is a lot smaller than the Kodak. I think your best bet will be to research which "pocket camera's" offer Macro options. I've seen a couple with "clip-on" Macro Adapters. I don't know how well this will work though. With a digital SLR camera, macro lens, tripod and shutter release you have major control of depth of field and camera stability for Macro Photography. I use the Nikon for everything from Macro shots, up to Trains. Believe it or not I think you'll be happier with a "pocket camera" than your wife will be. You had better not show her the Nikon R1 flash kit for Nikon SLR camera's and Macro photography. :^) I don't know if it's possible, but if you can, try to find one that will last. If you're seriously thinking about a Digital SLR in the long term, you'll still want to be able to use the "pocket camera". Sometimes it just isn't practical to lug a SLR camera around, and we've been at least one place that allowed our Kodak, but wouldn't allow our Nikon (we knew in advance). Zane -- | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator | | healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast | | MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. | | http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |