These are the cameras used for the kLog:



The Canon PowerShot A60
Canon A60 The first has been a real work horse. The Canon PowerShot A60.
What's good about it? It's cheap, light and small and very easy to use. If you're walking for miles carrying it, that's a good thing. It comes with a mere 16 MB memory card but that's easily upgraded (who uses 16 MB anymore?). Now I have 512 MB and can get plenty of pictures on it. Literally hundreds. It takes really good close-ups but it's sometimes hard to tell by looking at the display if you actually have a good picture, especially in bright sunlight. To make up for that you can take quite a few shots varying light, shutter speed, and focus, that you'll later be able to sort through to find the good one. That's one reason why you need a lot of memory. You're going to throw away a lot of pictures, but you won't be able to tell which ones until you're looking at them on your monitor.
What's bad about it? It's only 2 MegaPixels. You need to have the perfect picture to blow it up to even an 8 X 10. The largest picture size it can take is 1600 X 1200 pixels. It is also hampered by having optical zoom of only 3X. Not really good enough for skittish birds and bugs. But I've made do fairly well.
Here are some resized, but otherwise undoctored shots from the A60.


The Canon PowerShot S2 IS
Canon S2 IS The next camera used is the Canon S2 IS PowerShot.
What's good about it? It's still fairly light, not too big and has a 12X zoom feature that yields very clear shots. It has a 5 MegaPixel CMOS so resolution is quite good. The lens is Image Stabilized (IS) so zoomed shots can be quite good even at fairly slow shutter speeds.
What's bad about it? It's just a little too big to fit in my pocket. The lens cap falls off as soon as you turn on the camera, so now I never even bother with it. Low light pictures are sometimes a problem. Changing the ISO number is a pain. Manual focus is very user un-friendly and difficult to the point that I rarely use it.
Here are some resized, but otherwise undoctored shots from the S2 IS.


The Canon EOS Rebel XT
Canon EOS Rebel XT This one, the Canon EOS Rebel XT, came as a surprise to me. A fantastic gift for retirement!
What's good about it? It's hugely versatile. Dozens of different lenses can let it be what you want it to be. All you have to do is buy them! It came with a 18-55mm Image Stabilized zoom lens (shown in the picture at the left) that is really quite adequate for many day to day pictures. I took all these with that lens shortly after I got the camera. Since then I've added two more lenses to the collection. An f1.8 50mm lens for low light and close-ups & a 75-300mm zoom lens for those distant shots of wildlife and racing. The CMOS is pretty big at 8 MegPixels. The settings you need frequently are readily at your finger tips. Manual focus is great, and used quite often.
What's bad about it? The cost of Image Stabilized lenses is truly astronomical. To get the full use of the versatility of the camera, you might find yourself lugging around quite a lot of stuff. The camera with the 75-300mm lens is a heavy load after a while. The camera comes with a 16M memory board in it! About 4 pictures worth!! (Now it has 2G of memory.)
Here are some resized, but otherwise undoctored shots from the EOS Rebel XT.