David,

You might stay with Canon and take a look at the new G7.

I did notice the G7, really looks like a sweet camera. Was talking with a local photographer at the ballgame last night. He told me if I wasn't going to blow up any pictures bigger than 4 X 6 that the hight pixel cameras were over kill for what I want. He told me around the 5 range would suit me fine. Do you all think this is acurate?

Yes and no. What you're asking for is a mixed bag of features that not all cameras can do successfully.

If you want to shoot indoor sports, look for a fast aperture lens and shoot at the wide end of the zoom because that 2.8 lens becomes a 4.0 or 5.6 as you zoom into the telephoto range, which means slower shutter speeds. Also look at the shutter delay time from when you press the button to when the image actually gets captured. Both issues are important for capturing sports under low light.

As far as a five vs. ten megapixels, Go for the ten if you can afford it because it's newer technology and will give you lots of image area to crop and still maintain good image quality.

If you also want the camera to be small enough for your wife to carry easily, it's best to visit a store and check it out. Pick it up and feel the weight. Canon's Powershot cameras have a history of being relatively heavy compared to other cameras in their class. But they always get great reviews and can take excellent photographs, depending on the skills of the person taking the pictures.

As for software, I never recommend installing proprietary software. Get a copy of Photoshop Elements (if it doesn't come with the camera) and use that for your editing program.

Quote:
Yes and no. What you're asking for is a mixed bag of features that not all cameras can do successfully.

If you want to shoot indoor sports, look for a fast aperture lens and shoot at the wide end of the zoom because that 2.8 lens becomes a 4.0 or 5.6 as you zoom into the telephoto range, which means slower shutter speeds. Also look at the shutter delay time from when you press the button to when the image actually gets captured. Both issues are important for capturing sports under low light.

As far as a five vs. ten megapixels, Go for the ten if you can afford it because it's newer technology and will give you lots of image area to crop and still maintain good image quality.

If you also want the camera to be small enough for your wife to carry easily, it's best to visit a store and check it out. Pick it up and feel the weight. Canon's Powershot cameras have a history of being relatively heavy compared to other cameras in their class. But they always get great reviews and can take excellent photographs, depending on the skills of the person taking the pictures.

As for software, I never recommend installing proprietary software. Get a copy of Photoshop Elements (if it doesn't come with the camera) and use that for your editing program.

a couple days ago I was over at my local camera shop looking at small cameras that worked like a range finder camera. I looked at a couple Canons and one Fuji. The Fuji just flatly blew the Canons away in everyway. But the other one I wanted to try was the one from Samsung. It's a tad bigger than what I want, but have heard good things about the picture quality. I never really noticed the extra weight in the Canon, but did notice that the size was a little bigger than the Fuji (not much). I would like to be able to put the camera in a coat pocket. Getting back to the other cameras, The one I'd like to shoot some pictures with is the Panasonic LU-1 (the $1800 one!), but it's not a very compact camera.
gary