Cybersouth

Digital cameras are awesome. Investing in one of these now may be a good idea. You can use it on vacation, shoot wonderful summer landscapes, or blackmail your friends that imbibe too much on the 4th and Labor Day. All this will lead to better pictures during the Christmas holidays due to familiarity.

Buying the cheapest one will probably lead to frustration and a complete waste of money. Don't make the mistake of not having the LCD readout on the back of the camera!. Megapixels?

http://www.digicaminfo.com/resolution.htm

This site has a concise, easy to read explanation of the mysterious megapixel. At first I decided on a unit with extremely high megapixels. After some research it became obvious that 2 to 3 megapixels would suffice. I made the purchase to capture precious family moments, post pictures on the web, re-learn lost skills, inventory personal belongings, and so forth. One does not need the extreme high end camera to do these things. If you have the wherewithal or are downright insecure and have to make impractical purchases because you think it impresses others buy the high end Sonys, Nikons, Canons and anything with a German-like name.

Stan and Charlotte recently purchased a Sony P-50 series camera and brought back super photos of their trip out west. Buffalo fighting in the road, Old Faithful erupting; it was a hoot to sit down and listen to the stories that evolved from the trip while viewing different pictures.


I opted for a Canon S-200. It's extremely small, does short movies WITH audio, has had consistenly good reviews and has an all metal case. Yes, all metal. It's been a joy to use and it absolutely amazes me when I see some of the shots that have been produced with a camera you can hide in the palm of your hand.


After you take those Pulitzer Prize winning shots the results can be edited to the max. Software abounds that can manipulate photos. Okay, Adobe Photoshop is awesome. It also has an awesome price tag. Before I go any further let me make a simple and important statement. Adobe Photoshop is hard to use. Again. Adobe Photoshop is hard to use. You geniuses out there that want to flame me and tell me how easy it is, please go find some rare chickens or almost extinct mosquitoes to 'save'. There is an alternative.

http://www.ab.wakwak.com/~knight/download.htm

The name of the program is Pixia. It is of Japanese origin and the patches for English need to be installed. The online tutorial will help get you started and it's free! I discovered this program on TechTV's Call for Help when Leo interviewed a dude that does cybercamps. They use this software in their summer programs to help young people get started using digital cameras.

Now for the deep dark purpose of getting a digital cam - the real truth. When those frogs and catfish show up on my veranda wanting out of the rain again, ZAP! Then I'll have my proof...