I agree with Jerry, travel light.
Where do you plan to hide your gear while you are sitting having breakfast or getting on a crowded bus. Enjoy the trip.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 14 for PC/Mac
$40 w/ Prime Membership
Exclusively for Prime members, Amazon offers Adobe Photoshop Elements 14 for Windows and Mac, model no. 65263875, for $69.99. During checkout, it drops to $39.99.
I was ready to post, but WD Ross beat me to it. If you look at the pancake lenses so popular with street photographers they are usually around 40mm (full frame).
In the initial post to this topic Charles Brwn says "photographs posted on Facebook or sent to me by e-mail".
In my experience most phone apps reduce the size of the image from the as shot resolution to something far less. I try to get phonetographers to use Dropbox to autotransfer images when a wifi connection is near the phone. Even a phone like a three year old Samsung Galaxy S3 takes a 3664 x 2448 image (8mp) with a .jpg file size of around 1.2 to 4.5mb.
Using the default messaging settings reduces this image by 90%. The Android email setting can be reset to send original size, but this will quickly eat up the phones data allowance. (Some photos sent to me by an iPhone 6 came in at 320x240 pixels. This is not a phone issue, but an email problem)
Yes, I use ON-ONE Perfect Resize, and true a VERY LOW RESOLUTION image can not be helped much. It does wonders with a good quality image, especially when cropping reduces the image size to get a good printable product.
No, I do not advocate replacing cameras with phones.
But I think it is important to understand the technology involved and how best to use it.
Here is an information sheet from Epson.
http://www.epson.com/cmc_upload/pdf/tech_scanner-resolution.pdf
Interesting side note: they use "dpi/ppi" when referring to resolution.
Here is the link to a FREE pretty full featured FTP client, PC, MAC and LINUX.
https://filezilla-project.org/download.php?show_all=1
SO much more flexible than anything built into a editing program. Simple drag and drop interface.
In the 70's I was bringing in Japanese camera equipment in from Kowloon and saving as much as 25% even after paying duties. Sometimes the postmaster would make me deface the trademark (scratch an xacto blade across the brand name).
In 2000 when I finally went to HK, prices were only about 10-12% lower than the US price. Then I might have to pay an import duty at US customs. Lastly Canon and Nikon and probably others have an "International Warranty" which is good just about everywhere except the Americas (Canada and Mexico included). So not gray market, but not repairable under warranty in the US.
Same is true of most better audio equipment.
My last 2 cents on this topic:
I looked into KompoZer about 5 years ago, and decided to spend money to update my Creative Suite from 3 to 5.5 which then also gave me newer versions of Photoshop and other Adobe programs.
This thread caused me to take a second look at Komp0Zer. The web, HTML and CSS are a rather dynamic world. It was surprising to see on KompoZer's website "Latest stable version: 0.7.10 (2007-08-30)" It looks like there is no longer a development team, and even the support forum is now an independent group.
It looks as though the code generated with KompoZer is adequate. I searched the support forum looking for sample websites created with the program and most were "fair."
If you are willing to learn some of the newer HTML and CSS commands and schemes and manually enter these to the generated code you can get a modern look a site. FO people wanting the satisfaction of creating their first site, the price is right.
Features like support for mobile, adaptive and responsive design (where the same source is displayed in different proportions to fit different devices) are not a part of KompoZer and never will be. HTML5 the new set of CSS conventions was introduced in 2014.
My opinion after looking at all of the reviews I could find and downloading the free program is that to create modern looking websites will require much manual coding and study of HTML and CSS.
ByTheWay - a good resource for HTML and CSS is found at http://www.w3schools.com/
I am active in a local community of Adobe web developers using Dreamweaver. You can still BUY a coy of Dreamweaver Creative Suite 6 (CS6) for $399 or you can lease Creative Cloud (CC) for about $20/month as a single product. CC will keep you current to the latest updates in web technology.
There is a pretty advanced WYSIWYG mode where little code is required although you will need to learn the names of the different elements to insert. Or you can flip to the code view and enter html code manually. Most of us do a combination of both; using the Design view and then toggling the page into code view for more robust editing.
Good support in the number of books and on-line tips.
There is an included FTP client, however many of us use the FREE FileZilla FTP program.
I too started with HoTMetaL. The interface was quick, but the table technology it used for layouts has long since become poor practice. I moved to Dreamweaver in the pre-Adobe era (Macromedia) and have never looked back.
Only a few hours left - Best Buy "Deal of the Day" includes the G16 for $399.
Saturday, 9/26
I work with lots of seniors and have for the last 15 years.
The best service you can do for your mother-in-law would be to spend the %60 and get her a copy of Photoshop Elements 13. The QUICK mode will do all she needs but she may soon move to the GUIDED mode. Many of the nearby adult education and senior centers have classes or an in-house guru to help.
The QUICK interface is very intuitive. The wealth of books from the local library of bookstore will give her a feeling of community. IF she is web savvy then there are many on-line resources as well.
Most of the free programs have only on-line reference materials so her access to tutorials will depend on her surfing ability.
PSE 14 is due out soon. so the cost of PSE 13 at Amazon is way down.
My first was also the Ricoh RDC-2, bought refurbished in 1997 for $495 with a 4MB mmc card (Yes, 4 MEGAbytes).
Traveled to 4 or 5 countries with this guy. I still carried a couple of film cameras - my trusty Pentax SLR and a travel Olympus Stylus Zoom pocket cam.
Second camera was an Olympus D-400 zoom - 1.3 MegaPixels! I again paid $495. It was so much like my beloved Stylus Zoom I was in heaven. By now I was leaving my film cameras at home.
This was also the start of my long love affair with Point and Shoot portability up to today's Sony Rx100.
Already said, PSE uses pointer not copies.
I would like to suggest an alternative to all of the good advice from my fellow posters.
Take about $100 of your budget and get a basic fit-in-a-pocket point and shoot. Start taking pictures. Every day, every where. Look at your compositions. Decide what features you may have read about that you miss. Think about what pictures you most enjoy taking.
Are you planning to travel? Do you want to get deeper into post processing? Are you leaning towards studio work, portraiture, action & sports, family gatherings?
No equipment in the world, at any price point, will aim your camera for you and frame your shot. You need to train your eyes to see in 2d.
When you have some answers as to what you want to do, repost your question with more specifics. You will still have $500 and a gift you can pass on to someone.
Good luck, happy shooting.
214 pages in English - free from Sony
http://helpguide.sony.net/dsc/1410/v1/en/print.pdf