[Alan Bauer]

That should be a fun camera. MCaver---I got to play with a friends Olympus E10 a week ago for an afternoon and found it to be a fun setup. Alas, after months of figuring out if it's the right time for me, I'm getting close to fully head into digital capture. I'm sure I'll still shoot slides with the F5 often as well, but for how I'm finding my work is going in getting images to publishers now, digital will reap me many benefits. My only hold back is to assure myself I have the time to do the office end of image management---the digital workflow end of things, to assure I'll be able to get from pushing the button on the camera to having any image easily found, filed, and archived. I can pull a slide in moments now out of tens of thousands on file and I need to be able to do the same digitally. I have the software and my workflow...I just need to promise myself the time commitment to get it done. That said, I doubt this is a good place to ask, but I will anyhow: if anyone has comments regarding the Fuji Finepix S2 Digital Pro SLR vs. the Nikon D100 I'd enjoy hearing from you. Both will fully give me what I will need and also fully utilize my truckload of Nikon gear. Both are about the same expensive price (but still they are 1/2 the $4000+ for Nikon D1h and D1x rigs). Time to sell my old baseball card collection to buy this and a new monster computer?

[MCaver]

Welcome to the digital world, Alan! I've found workflow to definitely be my downfall. I shoot so many photos I can't keep up with cataloging and archiving them, so I end up putting them off, which makes things even worse. Thus I haven't put any photos online in 1.5 years. If you find a solution, please let me know! I really like my Olympus E10 and it has really served me well for the 1.5 years I've had it, but I'm trying very hard to resist the impulse to upgrade. There are 14mp cameras coming out in a few months! I told myself I'd only upgrade every time the resolution doubled, not realizing that would be every year. The new line of cameras are over 3x the resolution of my poor E10. I'm not in a financial situation to upgrade right now, so I guess I'll have to wait. I mean, it's not like I need that kind of resolution. But you can never have enough, right?

[Damsel Adams]

What good is an awesome camera with resolution good enough for projecting Mt Shuksan at Grand Central Station 40 feet wide, if you don't have time to look at your 40,000 images? You have to be ruthless about deleting any image that isn't in the top of the zone system: Zone 1: clicked picture with lens cap on Zone 2: clicked picture with lens pointing to sky Zone 3: clicked picture with macro lens focused at infinity Zone 4: photo of broken down car at side of road for insurance purposes Zone 5: photo of gang in front of trailhead sign (yawn) Zone 6: Yet another picture of fir tree-lined trail, mostly in focus Zone 7: grand landscape of 417 peaks with ultra wide angle lens Zone 8: dramatic sky, but dark contrasty landscape below with no detail Zone 9: tightly cropped image of incredible scene Zone 10: destined for next Outdoor Photographer calendar Toss out anything from zones 1 to 8. In fact, envision the final print before pushing the button on scenes in zones 1 through 7.

[Allison]

Those Zone 7 pictures are really neat if you shoot them as panoramics!

[Bushwacker]

Currently looking to possibly purchase a Minolta DIMAGE 7i. Anybody on the board have any experience or input regarding this model. Thanks, BW

[MCaver]

[Tom]

The 7i isn't bad, assuming you don't mind a heavy camera and can live with AA batteries. Key advantages are the 28mm wide angle and 7x zoom. If Canon were ever to update the Pro90 (same 10x image stabilized lens as the Oly C2100 UZ) I'd buy it in a heartbeat. Image stabilization gives you a huge advantage at long zooms. On a non-image stabilized lens like the Dimage 7i, plan on carrying a tripod if you want to take advantage of the long zoom.

[MCaver]

[Tom]

It's kind of like sleeping in a hammock. Once you experience a good lithium ion rechargeable you'll never go back to AA. Sony and Canon use high capacity lithium ion rechargeables in their higher end cameras like the G2 and F707. Note the battery life indications in the Dimage 7i review: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/minoltadimage7i/page10.asp (scroll down to the bottom of the page). The F707 lasts 60% longer than your typical 4 AA setup. The "stock" Canon G2 battery lasts 30% longer, but you can purchase a higher capacity aftermarket version of the Canon battery for $40 or so which gets you an extra 30% (equivalent to the Sony). I can shoot all day with the viewfinder on and never run out of battery life. Two batteries will easily last me a 4 day trip - I'll run out of my (544MB of) memory before I ever run out of battery.

[MCaver]

My Olympus E10 came with a few Lithium batteries that last longer, but they aren't rechargable and cost $12 each. I fail to see how that's better. I paid something like $50 for 3 sets of 4 rechargable AAs and a highspeed recharger over a year ago and haven't had to buy anything else since.

[Tom]

These are lithium ion rechargeables (not lithium batteries). See http://www.battery-direct.com/faq.htm. In addition to being lighter, more compact, and more powerful, lithium ion rechargeables hold their charge much better than NiMH rechargeables (NiMH batteries lose about 5% of their charge a day per dpreview). This is important if you don't use the battery immediately after charging it (i.e. longer trips).

[Damsel Adams]

[MCaver]

Tom, thanks for the info on lithium rechargables. I'll have to look into that. Do they make AA lithium rechargables?

[Damsel Adams]

Michael, I went through a long phase of serious photography. Then I realized there are better photographers out there. So I take far less photos -- getting a lot more selective when I press the shutter. The best thing about photography is I learned to see more. Even if I leave the cameras at home. It sure is great to see some of our excellent photographers around here pouring out some great images. Got a few buddies who are hard-core photographers. Always fun to see their images too. An excellent book on photographs of trees was put out by Andreas Feininger about 30 years ago. Check it out if you can.

[Tom]

Nope, they don't make AA lithium ion rechargeables. I think it has something to do with voltage issues. BTW, I'm not saying that digicams that take AA are necessarily bad. Obvious advantages of AA are that you can re-supply at your local store if you run out of juice. This might be important to someone like a thru-hiker who re-supplies along the way. Also, many smaller cameras (such as the Canon "S" series) come with fairly small lithium ion rechargeables. You save bulk and weight over the equivalent AA, but you don't necessarily get the capacity benefits (meaning you'll probably need 2 spares for longer trips).