Once again, I call upon your cosmic digital knowledge...

[skypigeon]

... My old computer is working SO well with Windows XP Home and a new mammoth-sized hard drive, that I'm going to get brave and put a PCI card in with extra USB connections... and then, I'm going to get a digital camera.

It would be used primarily for two things:

* Home family pics.

* Church events, outdoors and indoors. I edit a seasonal magazine for my parish and take about 90% of its pictures myself. I've been using either a five-year-old Digital Mavica that belongs to the church, which was the Cadillac of its time but a Pinto today; and my wife's 1985-vintage 35 mm autofocus, paying Kodak too much money to put the results on a CD when I have the film developed.

I'm willing to spend up to $350. Suggestions?

[Jamski]

Buy a Mac.

[HopHead]

Originally posted by skypigeon
Suggestions?

There are a number of great digital camera review sites that can be extremely helpful when trying to choose a camera. My personal favorites are www.dpreview.com and www.steves-digicams.com. I really like steves digicams and used it extensively when researching my own purchases.

I would first make a list of things that are important to you and rank them. Some of the major things to consider are resolution, camera size, optical zoom ability (digital zoom is relatively useless IMO since you can always crop the photos after you get them off the camera) and various bells and whistles like video capability, image stabilization and special effects. The camera that is perfect for you might not be good at all for somebody else. I personally put a very large emphasis on optical zoom ability and have an Olympus C750 with a 10x optical zoom. The zoom is great for sporting events and nature shots. I have been very happy with the camera and have owned it for about 1 1/2 years.

Happy hunting.

[HopHead]

One other thing: If you do decide that an Olympus camera is the best for you, make sure you check out e-bay for cameras sold under the seller name "olympusauctions". These items are actually factory reconditioned units that come directly from Olympus and carry full warranties. You can pay by credit card (no PayPal required or even available). I bought my camera this way and saved a lot compared to buying it new from an authorized seller and when I got the camera it was in like-new condition. Not a scratch on it.

[skypigeon]

Originally posted by ThingsThatExplode
Buy a Mac.

Been there, done that, broke the bank. Any realistic suggestions, TTE?!

Hophead--I'll take a look at the sites you mentioned. Much obliged!