In a message dated 6/1/2000 10:21:21 AM Pacific Daylight Time, GERMAN-KINGDOMS-D-request@rootsweb.com writes: > What is the smallest & lightest digital camera which can still catch > faint writing or print? > I have tried the Toshiba PDR-2, a very basic fixed-focus 640X480 format camera, no flash or other adjustments. It is not suitable for this work. Although it will record photos and LARGE TYPE reasonably well, even in dim lighting, it does not focus closer than about a foot. It lacks an LCD display and one must fudge the parallax (the distance between the lens and the rangefinder). That's too bad, because on the plus side, it was "free," is very economical of batteries, fits neatly in a sport shirt pocket and shoots pretty well in low lighting. The software provided with it has minimal enhancement capabilities but does do what it advertises and is a fairly good organizer. I am looking forward to obtaining a 1-megapixel camera which should provide the needed resolution affordably. Needless to say, manual focus and aperture settings would be a plus in some situations, as well as flash or flood synchronization. The PDR-2 is so small I frequently get my finger in front of the lens and would prefer a single-lens reflex or LCD display viewfinder. Good optics are a must and a macro zoom capability is most desirable.