I would say probably anything above 5 megapixels would work for you..

It doesn't sound like you would need need a super zoom lens. So try to keep it under a 4:1 zoom lens. (in general, the shorter the zoom, the better the lens quality) I should think a lot of your photos will be taken in doors, so you will want one that has a hotshoe and external auto flash capability (your flash phots will improve considerably)..

It might be difficult to find any more, but a lens with an f2 or f3.5 maximum aperture would be great. It would really help with indoor shots without flash..

Ideally, you ought to be able to buy and fit exteral WA and tele auxillary lenses and other accessories..

I think you'd be happy with a Canon G7. It meets most of the above requirements, can use most of the existing G series accessories. And it has been on the market for about a year now, so the prices have dropped considerably..

I used to own the G3 before I moved up to a DSLR, and I really like it still. My son is using now. Rugged as all heck..

Now that you've judged the quality of my typing, take a look at my photos..http://www.photo.net/photos/GlenBarrington..

Ann Baker wrote:.

My sculpture is tall and narrow 4' tall x 8" wide. I willoccasionally be making large format photos but mostly gettingphotos for my web site and portfolio. One shortcoming the A95 hadwas a 3x zoom, because of the size ratio of my art work I oftenneed to get further back and zoom in to get a good perspective..

I would recommend a wide angle that goes to approx 35mm (in 35mm equivalent). Wider and you may suffer from image distortion, and longer lenses will mean stepping back too far. Your canon A95 had a lens that was 38mm at the wide end. I know you say that wasn't wide enough, so you may choose to ignore my advice and go for something with a zoom that starts at 28mm but make sure you are happy with the image distortion you may get. (of course if you buy a camera with a 28mm wide zoom at the wide end, you can of course still zoom in to about 30 or 35mm to reduce any distortion you see!).

Check for macro mode/the ability to focus at a close distance..

I.

Am considering the Cannon A640. I've been told Cannon has the bestquality lenses on the point and shoot cameras,.

Canon is good, but no better than a few other makes. (I am not brand biased). Panasonic, Olympus, Fuji are also brands you should not discount..

Check out the panasonic Lx2 - it has an extra wide 16:9 image format option - sort of like shooting as wide as a widescreen image at the cinema/on your TV at home. Could be very useful for your 'tall' sculptures. It also has a 28mm focal length at the wide end..

Any opinions or advice on thing to consider?.

Lighting..

Your images will be greatly affected by the light you shoot them in. If you can shoot them in lots of good, even (non-direct) light, then you will be really helping your camera to deliver a good picture. Compact cameras can deliver excellent results in good light, but only average results in average light..

Tripod.

Get a tripod, (and make sure your camera can take a tripod!) and you will eliminate/reduce the affect of hand shake, and get sharper pictures. You may also then use the self timer on your camera, so the very act of you pressing the shutter doesn't blur the picture..

If you are serious about presenting your scultpure in the best possible light then the two tips above are extremely important!.

Ann B..

The Fujifilm F10/20/30... series start at 36mm equivalent and do an excellent job with natural light conditions...

First the bad news, the camera that will be best suited to you is just coming into the market place, there are a few out there but not that many. As you have discovered, you don't really need a long zoom, in fact it gets in the way of what you want to do..

You are in the fortunate position in that you are in essence as "studio" photographer taking pics of your sculptures; this is great as it means you have control over the critical items such as lighting. What you are looking for is a camera with the widest angle 35mm equivalency out there, which is as of this writing a 24mm lens..

Forget zoom ratios, zoom ratios are for camera newbies who don't know what they are doing so they assume a 12 ratio is better than a 3 times ratio. Ask them what the 35mm equivalency is and they won't have a clue; they suffer from the male syndrome of bigger is better. Your needs are best served by a good wide angle, you don't need the zoom. Right now there aren't that many 24mm angle 35mm equivalency lens but there are a couple, heck might be even up to 4 or 6 models..

The one that has been recommended by some in dpreview is the Ricoh GX100 (don't worry about lens quality, the Ricoh will do you just fine - and I'm a Canon fan)..

Here is a link to a comparison of it against a Panasonic - a great camera. What you will notice is that at higher ISO's the Ricoh is better - you might not need this since you can control lighting but it's a nice option:.

Http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/leochan78/article?mid=29.

Here's a thread started by a guy who just bought the Ricoh GX100 here in dpreview, you'll see the camera has it's flaws but overall he quite likes it. It should be noticed that some of the flaws are meaningless to you as your shots are "stills" not "action" so for example you don't need whizz bang fast auto focus..

Http://forums.dpreview.com/...forums/read.asp?forum=1013&message=23439200.

Here's some shots from a guy who recently bought this camera:.

Http://paulobizarro.com/tema.asp?id=34.

I don't know how well the public will accept these very wide angle cameras, which means I'm wondering if they might be doomed; here's why. If you are new to photography and see a lens that 35 - 200 you might think it is a better bargain that a camera that has a lens 24 - 135. An experienced photographer is more likely appreciate the wider angle and the greater angle of view if provides. There really isn't as much difference between a 135 lens and a 200 lens, less than you would think, but there's a greater difference between 24 and 35mm angle, quite a difference. The newbies want "higher" optical ratios which are meaningless at the very long end can get you into trouble unless you know what you are doing..

Even in landscape photography, I'd rather have a 24mm lens than a 35 or heck even a 28 lens. Can you imagine a shot taken of a section of the grand canyon with a 24 versus a 35 or even 28 lens, much more scenery in the "scene." Or the same in the Canadian or American Rockies, more mountain for the buck..

You obviously know what you are doing as your photos are good, go widest angle you can in a P&S, a swap out your background every once in a while to add interest in public displaying your sculptures..

'I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.'- Sir Winston Churchill..

I don't really think many understand your photographic needs with all the continuous talk about wide-angles. The value of the advice is therefore questionable..

If you needed to stand back and zoom in (that is use moderate telephoto focal lengths) to get the correct perspective with your old camera you will still need to do that on your new camera. A new camera will not alter the laws of optics. Your photographic situation/subject (4' tall) is most like full hight portraiture and moderate telephotos are the norm in that venue..

I think that whoever told Canon make the best lenses is primarily self serving (self-justifying their own descisions) but since you have already used Canons and are comfortable with them I'd suggest either Canon A710 IS or the S3 IS. Both have enough telephoto range to get the perspective you need and are otherwise very versatile cameras..

Kodak Z612 Owner...

Thanks, good advice, do you have another brand's model that you recommend? So far I've been looking at the Canon's S3 IS or the A640. Unsure whether more pixels or more zoom is most important, I really like having the exterior button for light and WB adjustment that my friend's G3 has, I looked at G7 but it doesn't have the swivel out LCD screen and I REALLY use that. I'm interested in any recommendations you may have...

Unfortunately, the trend seems to be away from the fully articulated viewscreen like th G3 had. I don't think it was because they were structurally weak, because my G3 is still going stong in that area..

Probably it's a cost issue. You might wan't to look for a good used G6 if that's a major issue for you..

As far as which is more important megapixels or long zooms, I'd say it probably depends on what you want to shoot. Genereally speaking, super zoom cameras tend to be a little less sharpe than cameras in the same price range with shorter zoom lengths. But that may be an acceptable trade off if you need that extra reach..

Also, generally speaking, image quality tends to drop by cramming more megapixels into the same size sensor. But then again, extra megapixels are nice to have if you want to crop a photo to make up for the fact that your camera doesn't have a super long zoom lens..

If you don't expect to shoot sports or wildlife, a long lens isn't necessarily a strong need for you. If you don't intend to make prints larger than 8.5 X 11 inches anywhere from 4 - 8 megapixels is plenty (depending on how much you expect to crop your pictures).

I would say a medium amount of zoom with a medium amount of megapixels in the most expensive camera you can afford will give you the sharpest photos overall..

Now that you've judged the quality of my typing, take a look at my photos..http://www.photo.net/photos/GlenBarrington..

Ann Baker wrote:.

I've been told Cannon has the best quality lenses on the point and shoot cameras.

Untrue. Any number of FujiFilm and Panasonic cameras have best-in-class lenses while the Canon Talk forums are loaded with complaints about soft corners and lens centering defects. Not that Canon is bad but there's no way to rightfully state that they have "the best quality lenses" across the board on P&S cameras. The over-simplification is laughable..

Group Captain Mandrake: 'I was tortured by the Japanese, Jack, if you must know; not a pretty story....Strange thing is they make such bloody good cameras.' (Dr. Strangelove, 1964)..

Ann Baker wrote:.

My sculpture is tall and narrow 4' tall x 8" wide. I willoccasionally be making large format photos but mostly gettingphotos for my web site and portfolio. One shortcoming the A95 hadwas a 3x zoom, because of the size ratio of my art work I oftenneed to get further back and zoom in to get a good perspective..

I saw at least three replies interpreting this differently from how I read it and pointing you to cameras with wide angle lenses..

The way I read the above, you *want* to get back for purposes of desired perspective and would prefer a long lens - is that true ? .

Instead of a 3X zoom, I suggest a 4X would be fine; a few models with 6X are available. Note that 3X, 4X, 6X etc. are magnification ratios that tell you how much more magnification you have at the tele end than the wide end. So a 4X zoom could conceivably give you more magnification than a 3X zoom if the 4X zoom starts out at a very wide angle. In practice, you can probably expect a 4X zoom to have greater magnification because most cameras start out at the same lousy 35/38mm equivalent WA ... but your best bet is to look at the actual (equivalent) telephoto coverage.



I'm a fan of Canon digicams; they seem to offer a nice set of compromises. There isn't a lot to distinguish most cameras, so just look for price & features you like. Since you don't need a superzoom, there's no reason not to go for a camera with a larger sensor (like the 1/1.8" in the A640 versus a smaller 1/2.5" in more compact cameras or superzooms). The A640 has a 4X zoom giving 35-140 equivalent and with a bit better aperture than the run of the mill. I have the 5MP A610 and like it quite a bit. A 5MP A610 or 7MP A620 would be adequate, while the A640 is fine, too ...



P.s. Beautiful sculptures !.

- DennisGallery at http://kingofthebeasts.smugmug.com..

Just saw there's an A630 which is an 8MP version of the A640 ... I'd opt for that if there's $$$ to be saved, just as I intentially opted for the 5MP A610 over the 7MP A620 (lower noise and 5MP was more than sufficient)..

- DennisGallery at http://kingofthebeasts.smugmug.com..

I'd be inclined to go with the S3 since the prices are dropping due to the S5. It has a versatile lens, good image quality and a swivel tilt screen. The Fujifilm FinePix S6000fd also has fine image quality and it's screen rotates but doesn't tilt...