Ok just so you know, im on a college budget, but i want something with good quality. whats the best way to go? all i know is that i want digital with better quality than my girlfriends 99 dollar pink poloroid one, lol And yes, the whole reason i want this, is to take pictures of my chams for the contest, lol

I like what I've seen from the nikon coolpix, for a decent point and shoot.

The canon g9 is a great camera but fairly pricey. It takes great pictures once you learn how to use it.

If you're going to get an SLR - the canon rebel xti, or xsi is a great camera and that's what I shoot with (an xti). If you buy and SLR, it's my opinion that the lens you use is more important then the camera body. Save up for a good lens.

That's all I know.
The real key is to know how to use whatever you buy. Read the manual, learn what each setting does and use the camera's strengths to your advantage.

That's the key.

I'm sure vertex and justin could chime in from the nikon side of the rainbow

Thanks a lot for the input, i need to do some more homework on the matter, but at least now i have a starting place. I am still interested to see what everyone uses, it amazes me to see the detail some of these guys are pulling out of their photos!

canon makes good cameras. anything like the sd600 ig pretty good. the g-9 is awesome (I know several professional photogs. who use them as back-ups and in places they don't want to take a big slr)....and the g-10 comes out this month, so you may find some great deals on a g-9

my nikkon coolpics was garbage compared to the canons.

check here: http://www.dpreview.com/

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1.0 Ambanja (bluebar born 07-05-02)

Canon Point & Shoots rock the dock.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000NK6J6Q/?tag=kenrockwellcom

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0012YA4YK/?tag=kenrockwellcom

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Sunshine Chameleons
SunshineChameleons.com

I only use Canon

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2.2 F. Lat. Lateralis, 4.3 F. Pardalis, 1.1 jacksonii xanth, 1.0 Veiled, 1.0 Rieppeleon brev., 0.0.1 Melleri, 41 Pumpkin eggs

I'm super happy with my Nikon D40

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Derrik

so what makes these cameras good? the MP rating or something else? whats a good mp number 7 8 9 10?

megapixels is the way the marketing gets people to measure one camera against another. We were passed worrying about mp size when we surpassed 6mp. From what I understand, 6mp is big enough to blow up an uncropped image to the size of a billboard. So what really is the point of 7 or 10mp?

For me, I'm often recropping images so it's important to me. When my zoom lens isn't enough, I'll crop away half of the picture to physically 'zoom in'. If that makes sense to you.

To be totally honest, I don't know what makes these camera's different at all. For someone shooting chameleons, I'd test all camera's MACRO function. It's usually the automatic setting that looks like a little flower. Set the camera to the little flower and then see how much detail you can shoot. Some of these little p&s's are incredible.

The only other thing I'd be concerned with is the lag time between pushing the FIRE button, and when the picture is actually taken. Some p&s's are desperately slow. So much so that it nearly makes shooting action in any form..impossible! So keep an eye out for that.

That's all I know!

Good luck!

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/mpmyth.htm
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/notcamera.htm
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/camera-adjustments.htm

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Sunshine Chameleons
SunshineChameleons.com