Just got my A260 a couple of months ago and these last few days have used it to take pictures of old letters. With the macro on and the flash off, even the pencil written letters that were quite dim came through ok. Have a three section STITZ tripod T-90BX and it worked well. Had to put the camera at a little bit of an angle to get past the legs but it did not seem to distort the picture any. I am really enjoying the camera. Kay "Robert J. Harper" <[email protected]>