Dueling theology of Photography. "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" call it a photograph, or call it George! Some say a phenomenon that is observed is changed -- same for photos? In the old days, we hand colored b&w prints, we bleached, dodged, burned in, etc. Now we can choose to do a lot more with any of a large variety of powerful tools. Recently spent a lot of time going through my Dad's travel slides. He was a fine photographer with excellent equipment. Beautiful pictures, but unless the images were of a place I had been, there was no emotional "hook" for me. They aren't relevant on their own. Some of us create images to earn a living -- most of us are into this hobby for our own pleasure. Few of us are of the stature to leave a body of work that will be studied or even preserved. That I try most of the time to snap a "finished" image as I see it through the finder in no way invalidates the efforts I make when it amuses me to heavily modify a photo. In the final analysis, I only have to please myself.
Quoting Spock's words, "Live long and prosper."

Thanks for everyone's input. Gave me some places to look. Rjaywallace may have hit the nail on the head. I am a lifelong Nikon enthusiast, but beyond that, discovered that the Coolpix P7000 and 7800 use the same battery as my DF.
A bit concerned by the camera size vs.shirt pocket, but frequently wear a vest ex. in high summer -- those pockets inside and outside are big enough. Again, thanks!

I do enjoy Rockwell's stuff, but occasionally disagree with him. I have an FX format camera and use the 24-120 as one of my main walk around lenses. I have not printed larger than 13x19, but results are excellent. Might be a little like picking the ugliest girl in the Miss World Contest.

Old Nikon lenses results, almost without exception equal or surpass some of the new stuff. One man's opinion.

I have always had a small camera that I carry when the weather is bad or when I have no particular plan to take pictures. A few I remember are a Petri Color 35, a Rollei 35, a high end Canon Elph (with the now obsolete APS film system), and most recently a Canon Digital Elph S 500. Well, after long years of service, the S 500 has recently died and I am looking for a replacement. Haven't had too much luck, since the pocket sized cameras mostly have no viewfinder, or an awkward add on. Any suggestions for a replacement, or somewhere to get the current camera repaired? Don't want to spend a fortune, since though I take care of them, the small cameras are the ones I prefer to risk if necessary -- the expendables. Thanks!

Got to tell you -- I have lenses I have owned for several decades that I have never had to clean. I dust them when I change filters before & after. I am careful with my gear so have never had a filter or hood "save" a lens. With filters, you clean them carefully, and throw them away if / when they have an issue. I have my Dad's Leica M3 that he bought in the '50's and used heavily. Those lenses are pristine as well, and he was a smoker. But everyone gets to run their own game!

Have both the meter and the original instructions, Still a great meter for some uses -- esp incident. I can probably scan or copy the instructions if needed.