Hi folks,

Finally took my useless GPS back and traded it in on a decent camera. Got the Canon Powershot S5IS...
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons5is/

I actually would have preferred the previous model, the S3IS for faster handling, but they were long sold out of them. I'll see how it does with a really fast SD card in. For now I'll be using a genericish 1GB card I've got until I get a deal on a 100x or faster one. (Think I've seen 150x ones...)

People have said for serious use, I should really have gone for an SLR, but I like the megazooms for being more compact, and not having to carry a couple of lenses around, and there's actually very few in the lower end that handle as fast as the Powershot S series. Want something that can have you taking pics in under 5 secs. Besides, I can get wide angle and 3x teleconverters for this if I want. Got 12x optical zoom capability already, which is about as much magnification as you can get a decent shot with handheld.

Big convenience feature on this is the flip and twist screen... Why? It lets you shoot from the hip, keeping the camera in a potentially non-threatening position, also can let you shoot over and around cover.

Just got home with it really, so not had time to play much yet. Hoping to get out in the next few days and get some pics of deer, squirrels etc to get some practice. Could just be lazy and bait the birds in the backyard and see if I can get a nice pic of a bluejay or something.

Might take my craptasticam apart now and see if I can dig out the IR filter, and give it a low F# lens for nightvision use.

Flash.