Well, if you're of the right age it could also mean "Lord save me from Truman."

I'm with Peter. If it were 1/8" smaller all the way around it might be OK but 1/4" is pretty usual.

Making the body the same thickness as a DSLR would eliminate much of one of the primary benefits, a smaller, lighter camera.

Just checked the Nikon site to be sure (as I never use auto ISO), but essentially with auto ISO turned on you choose aperture and shutterspeed but the exposure is still set by the camera by adjusting the ISO to make your other settings "correct". So with auto ISO you are not manually controlling exposure.

The advice from PixelStan77 that has been agreed to by many is surely IMHO correct. I have seen photographers that bias their exposures - 1/3 stop because they like the richer colors that a slight underexposure creates. Those recommending manual exposure also offer very reasonable and good advice. I have long felt that I paid good money for cameras with ever-increasing computing power and Aperture, Speed, and Program mode do a wonderful job. I do use manual exposure when I am taking a series of photos where constantly changing exposures would not give me what I want. Night baseball games played on a well-lit field in a manual mode give me more consistent exposures of the players than automatic modes if framing and moving subjects change the background on every shot. I do use exposure compensation frequently to create a more realistic exposure. An example here is a shot I took of the inside of a bar that had Christmas style strings of lights crisscrossing the ceiling. The bar was dark and an automatic exposure would have made it look like a well-lit room. At 2 stops under the room became dark and the lights showed the color they were instead of over-exposed and white. Also as has been mentioned are snow shots. Shots with large areas of blinding white snow look grey if they are "correctly" exposed and at a stop to a stop-and-a-half over, look white again.

You said that you tried connecting the camera directly to the computer. I'm very surprised that that didn't work. Stupid questions: Was the camera turned on? Is the USB cable good? Have you uploaded photos from the same camera to the same computer using the same software in the past without problems? I've never had a problem with my card reader so I'm floundering with you.

Nailed it. Good shooting and kudos for getting up at that hour.

If you have an eye you are well on your way. I've been shooting since about 1958 and even part time teaching photography. I've actually gotten pretty good. All that being said I truly envy those with an "eye". There are those who's first photos show that they have what I have still not developed and I'm glad we have you all.

If the close up filters fit then they will just work. Auto focus and auto exposure still works. With the filter on you will not be able to focus on distant objects but everything else will just work. Just screw it on and start shooting. Usually they are numbered from +1 to +10 and the larger the number the closer you will be able (and be required) to get. You can also stack them but you start loosing quality.

I remember a letter to the editor (Pop Photo if I remember correctly) that expressed the view of a guy who had spent years with film trying to get the highest shutter speed possible to catch waterfalls with drops frozen in the air. Now he has digital equipment that makes it easy to do exactly what he wants and NOW the "angel hair" look is what is popular (grumble, grumble, grumble). At the time I recalled that I had gone through the same thought process. Now I find myself doing both high speed and slow speed. I'm not a big "realist" I like to make shots my own.

Since it was a rain spot which will dry, I would get rid of it. As to including so much driveway: to me it showed a beautiful setting and how a person might be impressed just driving in.

Bob beat me to it because I was about to welcome another youngster to the site. 73's to you. I've been out of ham radio for quite a while but when I typed my age I realized it is also an old Morse Code way of saying "best regards"

I've never had a problem with Photomatix Pro, but a common genera program fix is to remove and reinstall the program. Photomatix is small enough that it should be a pretty quick try.

My current PC is from Tiger Direct, so another good idea.

Some great ideas, thanks. I've added drives, memory, daughter boards, but hadn't checked price comparisons. Like I said, great ideas and my bank account is breathing a sigh of relief already. So also, thanks again.