kja

B&H, Adorama, Buydig.com, Canoga Cameras and www.sigma4less.com (often has Canon lenses) are all US retailers I've used with no problems. I've always found that the US retailers pound the Aussies into the ground on cost, even after shipping. I have not checked in the past few months so don't know if the stronger dollar has helped things. Lenses (Canon) have international warranties. For macro there are two excellent choices (there are more but these are good starting points): Canon 60 macro - omg, this is a fabulous lens. The only downside on it is that it's minimum focus distance is CLOSE so you can scare bugs and stuff away if you're trying to get 1:1 Upside: small, sharp, great for portraits, fast fast focus Canon 100 macro - now there are two options...one with IS and one without (the older version). Both freakin ROCK. The new one is more expensive. Is it worth it...maybe. If you have the cash, go for it. I won't be upgrading my existing and I'd be thinking hard about spending the extra cash since I know how fantastic the original version is. Downsides to each of these: heavy & big. Upside: you get a little more working room so don't scare the critters away. btw www.pricegrabber.com is pretty good for US based sites comparison shopping I believe there is an "instant rebate" available on the 60mm macro in the US now - which is automatic so no forms to send in and is applied before you purchase

I use Elinchrom triggers for OCF. PocketWizards are super nice, too, but very expensive. Cactus triggers are available on ebay for a fraction of the cost and mine were actually reliable. Go to POTN and search around for the Cactus info as they can be a great, inexpensive way to start. there's also info there on getting the best out of them etc. I found the Canon IR system couldn't cope with our bright daylight and couldn't be bothered trying to figure out how to make it work, so I use the triggers all the time virtually now.

Welcome to the club BeeB!! What did you get?

I hear that! The excellent thing about this challenge is that anything at all goes...last year I shot my laundry

This is such a hard but totally rewarding challenge - way to go, Ash, for putting it up!!

TN - if you're adding a flash, defo go the 580

Either the 430 or the 580 by Canon.

I'm sure we will - they're too much fun not to have Congrats on the new toy - can't wait to see some photos from you!

Hehee, the cats did surprisingly well once I got the little hats and collars on them. There are also reindeer feet to go with the outfits, but two of three of my cats are ahem too big for them LOL I got them from Target in the US - might check online to see if they have any. There is also an elf outfit that is pretty cute

We were going to do a whole family group shot, but with just the two humans it didn't work so well But a very Merry Holiday Season from all of us to you and yours xoxoxo

Good service is awesome to hear about - thanks for sharing it!

Can't wait to see some photos!

The Pentax will happily survive the normal wear & tear of what you've mentioned - they are cameras you can use. I haven't flung the Fuji's around, but a couple of friends say they feel they are pretty rugged. Fuji make great compact cameras I would expect their new rugged range to be near the top of the pile, honestly. no matter what the propaganda says, I wouldn't be throwing these down on the pavement

The pentax Optios are quite nice. They tend not to quite keep up with the other manufacturer's but they are nice cameras. I would own one & be happy, no worries at all (in fact I tried to find one the last time I bought but couldn't find one in stock LOL). My Oly compacts have been to hell and back multiple times and I have no complaints on them lasting. Their photos are simply subpar while their prices are too high. And ignoring the image quality issues, the dang things miss focus more often than not - simply unacceptable imho. Not a option I can recommendm which is too bad coz they are a great idea, just poor execution.

Panasonic makes great compact cameras, but they can be a bit higher priced. Canon's D10 does a pretty nice job, too. I still vote no for the Oly range fwiw.

BTW I see in the other thread you are in New York. Check out B&H's shop front <drool> for new gear purchases. They are a highly reputable company, have very knowledgeable staff and competitive prices. Check their store hours as they differ from most retailers. BTW - I'd recommend that you download Lightroom at the same time. I find resizing in Lightroom to be faster (in fact, I do about 95% of everything in Lightroom and rarely go in to PS much)

Yes, Yes and Yes!! The savings can be quite substantial.

ROFL I just clicked Tess' link - that is indeed a Do Not, imho

You need to resize them for the web - use photoshop or lightroom (download a 30 day free trial at www.adobe.com if you don't have it). you can also use Picasa (free). Here's a thread on DOL with the information you need Making photos smaller!

I just found out that the Kitteh that came to us out of the blue had to be put down while I was away on holidays. His wonderful new family did everything they could do before finally deciding that there was nothing that would give him a good life. I'm sad, but so blessed to have had him for a little while. You can see more of him and the whole story by clicking here If you leave comments at that link you'll help pass on some Christmas spirit to those in need, so please take a minute if you can & help bring some happiness into the lives of those who need a little special thought this holiday season

Batch them in photoshop or get lightroom and do it there. Both have 30 day free trials if you don't have them yet. Picasa (free from Google) might have a feature that should be able to do this but I don't know the program to be able to help. Why do you want to reduce them? For web sharing? I suggest 650 -900 pixels on the long edge, save jpeg at 6 or 7 (65% more or less in Lightroom), change to 72 dpi (which will reduce the file size, too). Most of my images done this way are from 50kbs - 200kbs. don't lose your originals by saving over them, save the smaller versions to a new folder.

thanks for the frontier link I haven't yet done any mounted prints, but am thinking of adding those and some other things this season so always keeping an eye out for other solutions. I've only ordered prints from DW and have only had one issue - a print got a small crease in it. The mailing tube was fine so it had to have happened when they put it in. They reprinted and I had the new print in two days. Easy. I, too, detest bad customer service and one time is enough for me to pull my business. I will never ever in a million years use Genius Print again - omg, just thinking about it makes me crazy LOL

That's cool!

To get a jump start on finding some answers and to guide you to what your needs are, have a look at the Photography area here on DOL as there have been quite a few people adding a dslr to their lives over the past few months so you will find up-to-date information and lots of first hand contributions about a variety of systems. Canon and Nikon are the dominate forces in the dslr race while Sony, Fuji and Pentax also have contenders that some find suitable. I would recommend that you start your search by defining a couple of things as these may knock out some choices right away: - your budget - your goals for your photography (ie: if you are going to web share predominantly, then a compact may suit you better than a dslr; ditto if you prefer something very small, very easy and very light. if you are going to print big, don't mind a pretty steep learning curve & have the time/patience to learn, want the absolute best quality & fastest response times, don't mind having a ton of gear (you will never stop buying more lenses LOL), don't mind something bulkier then a dslr should be on the radar.) - your interest in taking the time to get the best from a camera...the more complex the camera, the more time you're going to need to spend. - your interest in carrying around something that weighs a few pounds and takes up a bit of room. There are fantastic non dslr cameras out there that do a wonderful job for reasonable sized prints, web sharing and the like plus that are portable, easy to master & relatively inexpensive...they also have a smaller learning curve BUT still provide plenty of opportunity to grow and learn (like Canon's G range, for instance).

I use the Edge for my album prints mostly and Digital Works for tons of stuff. Edge comes out just a teensy bit on the pinker tone but now that I know it's easy to prepare for and even if I don't remember it's still so danged close that only I'd notice as I nitpick Digital Works has never missed an exposure, colour or tone on my printing needs - I simply love them. And they are by far the fastest turn around & delivery time to me, too.