Dear Celia, I was asking the same question of folk on FH lists about a year ago but although I looked at many, at all sorts of prices, I never really followed it up. However, my wife has been on about getting one for her work, and, not knowing what to buy her for her birthday for a difference, I decided on a digital camera. So I began with Jessops stores, always very helpful, and the started looking around on the internet. Google, Cheap digital cameras. I came up with the Pentax Optio A10 which you can pay all manner of prices for. two weeks ago, I took the plunge with a firm called in London purelygadgets.com. they were about the cheapest at £184. Mind you, you also might need a spare battery £29 and a 1Gb Sandisk SD memory card at £24. one can get these for around £13 but whether they are any good or not. Purely gadgets are about the cheapest for these also. Anyway, I have been playing around at odd moments with it and the manual ( about the thickness of the London phone book) ever since. What a wonderful tool. It has built in anti-shake and two macro ( close up ) mode, as well as zoom, plus.....a specific text setting!!! I have taken pics, in my car (parked) of the manual resting open on my knee at a distance of 2.5 inches and the clarity of results is really excellent. And that's as a rank amateur and beginner of about one week's standing! Guess who is going to wear this new toy out? It is really dinky in size though, a real James Bond job, but then most are. I personally would like a bit more to cling on to and find I have to be careful where I put my fingers.I takes great video footage. As a novice, I cannot fault it. Best of luck, Mike Tebbutt.
Whilst we are on the subject of digital cameras, members may like to take a look at my web page: http://www.btinternet.com/~amsden/archives/camerasinarchives.html A little out of date, but it does show the kind of variations to be expected in record offices. ---- Peter Amsden, Argyll, Scotland Researching Amsden World Wide Outline History: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~amsden Books I have written: http://www.btinternet.com/~amsden AllExperts: http://www.allexperts.com/displayExpert.asp?Expert=38044 Never dump originals - they may be all that is left after the computer age.