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Hi All This looks like it is going to be a list of people's favourite cameras, so I felt compelled to join in. On the Linux front, most cameras look like a USB drive these days, as others have pointed out. I use gimp for any modifications (eg. cropping) that I need to make. Which camera you buy really depends on what your needs are. I've found that a small compact camera can be carried around in the pocket, so I always have it on me. Anything larger and you tend to leave it at home. Most people think that megapixels are everything. However, the size of the sensor is important too. The smaller the sensor, the more noise you get on the image, so compacts will always be noisier than cameras with bigger sensors. Another limitation is the dynamic range of the sensor. With 8-bit images you get a very restricted range. I hope that the market will move towards higher dynamic range cameras. Consumer products are all 8-bit. The zooms available on compacts come in 2 sorts. Optical and digital. Digital zooms simply trade off zoom against pixel resolution, so you rapidly get an unusable image. Optical zoom does not suffer from this. I would recommend the Ricoh Caplio R6. At 7.1 x optical zoom it is way ahead of most other compacts, most of which are 3.5x. Also the widest angle is better than most at 28mm (35mm focal length equiv.) rather than the more typical 35mm, giving you a wider angle of view. It also has exceptional macro - you can focus down to 1cm from the subject, and it gives very sharp pictures. This is the first camera I've owned that can see better than I can. If I can't make out a signpost in the distance, I simply zoom in on it. Bigger cameras will give you better optics, but I don't know of a better compact in this regard. If you are doing lots of low light work, then an image stabilizer of some sort is a good idea. This can extend the usable slow shutter speeds right down. The flash is not great on this camera, and the sensor is a little noisy, especially in low light, but overall I would give it top marks. The optics are remarkable. I disagree with the last poster about needing a viewfinder. I never used it on my last camera, and don't miss it now. I think it is better to see what the photo will actually look like. Live histogram display is useful here for getting the exposure right. He is right about the display using up more battery life, but I can shoot all day, 800 photos on one battery. I didn't bother buying a spare. Most of the time you can leave it on auto, but you can choose the usual focus lock, metering modes etc. that you would expect. The Ricoh does not run on AA batteries and does not charge over USB, so you will need a mains charger. But the charger is reasonably small. D On Monday 05 May 2008 23:08:08 chronicdee@xxxxxxxxx wrote: > Hi there > > I have to agree with the earlier posts in that any main stream digital > camera should be saving to the memory card in a standard form (my > nikon f50 has Raw and jpeg. i can literally stick this in a usb card > reader and drag and drop the pictures to my pc). > > Any half decent camera will come with a wall charger which will > typically take 4 hours to charge. A point to note about battery life > is that using lcd screens (ie compact cameras) uses the juice really > fast - with a camera with a old fashioned eye site you can take the > photos without the lcd ever turning on - increasing the life > dramatically. I can take up to around 1500 photos ( i study > architecture and take lots) on a single battery life - that is about 6 > gb of data with my camera. > > Ultimately the camera you should get is determined by the photos you > wish to take. if its animals you need one with a larger optical zoom > if its family photos you want one with low light as alot of photos are > indoors and this stops them from getting fuzzy. If you want to take > photos of plants a good macro is desirable. > > I would recomend the fuji compact range, i have an f10 - there first > generation and it is still fantastic today - i would never get rd of > it. the f20 is good as is the f30. (though i like the f20 more) these > cameras are simple to use and very good at low light - ideal for every > day use. > > lastly i would like to point out that you really dont need anymore > then 6 megapixels. you will find that if you get the larger ones you > will end up not using the ful amount as it goes through your memory > reallly fast and what many people dont realize is you sacrifice > permorance for the extra pixels. the reason is that the cmos (the > light receptive chip where the actual pixles are located) is > physically limited. so it makes sense that the more pixels you cram on > there the smaller each pixel will physically have to be the less > actual light can hit that pixel. This means that the larger number of > pixel cameras require more light to achieve the same shot - meaning a > larger aperture, higher iso or longer shutter speed is required - each > of which has its draw backs. though a larger aperture is the least of > the three - so take this to max first. > > Sorry to bable on but the only exception to this statement comes from > learnign the hard way - i have found that my 6 mega pixels is > absolutely fine for almost anything - but for architecture and > graphics the higher quality images are desirable and so more mega > pixels are required. > > I am using an slr nikon d50 with 4 lens and am now looking to buy a > new body called the fuji s5 - but i still sware by the f10. apart from > that i would get a fixed slr cannon with the biggest optical zoom i > could fined. > > my tippents > dan -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html