When I was in my late teens (over fifty years ago)the time came when I finally put away the old family Kodak Brownie and got my first really good camera, a Kodak Retina Reflex. Over the succeeding decades my cameras were always single lens reflex cameras. In 2000 the company I then worked for sent me to Bangalore India for a month. I had been toying with the idea of getting a digital camera, but it was the imminence of the trip which forced my card. Single lens reflex digital cameras probably existed at that time, but they were well out of my price range: I settled for an expensive (about $1000) Kodak point and shoot model. I purchased it the day before I left for India, and opened the box on the flight over. It served as a good introduction to digital photography (wonderful color by the way - and I still have one and use it on rare occasions). I was probably the first person in that office to take a digital camera to India - the photos I sent back in emails amazed everyone. But I was never happy in the point and shoot world, and for years I kept telling myself that when a single lens reflex digital camera came onto the market under $1000 I would move in that direction. I wasted no time when the Canon Digital Rebel became available. That has been my camera for the last, I forget, maybe seven or eight years. Only last week I heard a radio discussion of the emerging dominance of single lens reflex cameras in the market. But something has happened to disturb my comfort level with my Rebel. My partner Wayne went out and bought a Canon PowerShot SX280 HS earlier this summer. It's a point and shoot camera and cost about $300. It does amazing things - many of which probably remain to be discovered as he plays with it more. In addition to still photos it will do brief videos (with sound - he has done dogday cicadas and katydids so far). When I look at the images he gets, I just can't believe that they come from a point and shoot camera. I can't wait to get one for myself. I've posted lots of his images on my blog; you can take a look here for yourself and I'll bet you'll agree with me that this is not the old world of point and shoot. Look here: there are three separate posts, be sure to see all of them (especially the moon in the last group). http://mcwort.blogspot.com/2013/07/… http://mcwort.blogspot.com/2013/07/… http://mcwort.blogspot.com/2013/07/… After I made the first post Wayne asked my how much Canon was paying me: full disclosure, not a cent. Jim McKenney Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7