B&H photo is offering an Epson R2880 for $400 (after a $150 rebate)

I purchased one of these after considerable research and am very happy with it.... and I paid much more for mine.

I've been using the compariaon program at: http://snapsort.com/compare/Canon-S100-vs-Canon-SX40
and the size and weight is a major factor. Also, the sensor size of the S100 is one of the largest I can find for a point and shoot.

I think you're spot on... I'll cancel the order but the SX models are just too big - she wants something more pocket sized. I'm thinking now of the powershot s100. Comments about that one?

After evaluating the recommendations so far and doing some research online, I ordered a Nikon Coolpix S9100 for $240 including shipping from B&H. Can someone recommend a better value in a point and shoot? I can cancel the order Monday before it ships.

This is not over folks... and your biased photos seem to miss the significant point. This isn't about a mess at the demonstration sites... it's about the future of our country and the young people are the ones that are going to suffer if things don't change and soon. - - $400 ipads or no. They can see it and demand that things change. It's us older folks that can't seem to see what has taken place in the last few decades. I sure wouldn't want to be in my twenties starting out in a career now. It seems that few can see that almost all of the "economic growth" of the last 30years has gone into the pockets of the top 10% or even the top %1 of the income/wealth stratum of the population. The middle class has been disenfranchized and you can't even see it.

This whole issue isn't about me personally, my retirement is secure - - it's about the future of my country!!!!

Just be sure that the system you buy will do the job. I just bought the x-rite color munki - - spent $169 and after a couple hours with their support folks, find that it doesn't work with my Panasonic plasma monitor. I'm still trying to get my money back from B&H as I don't have the packaging.

OK... if your computer doesn't recognize the external SD drive (that it exists) and you have verified that the port is fuctional - - then you clearly must have a defective SD drive.

If it was a driver issue, the computer would recognize the drive but the drive wouldn't be able to read the high capacity card.

You might try going to control panel and selecting "devices and printers" and then select "mass storage devices". See if there is a USB SD reader in the list. From what you said, there should not be one there. If there is one, double click on it and then select the "driver" tab at the top of the window and then hit the "update driver" button.

If in fact there is NOT an SD reader in the list then you truely have a defective SD drive.

The first thing you should try is to update the driver for your internal SD drive. This will sometimes work if the drive isn't too old. If that doesn't do it, then the (already suggested) external SD drive plugged into a USB port is the answer. This is about a $20 item. The newer computers usually have internal SD drives that will read the large HD chips. However, I have an old Toshiba satalite notebook that read the large chips after I updated the driver.

I'm not one of the experts here like other responders are (most likely) but I have recently re-entered the photography much as you have. I started out with an Asaihi Pentax spotmatic II which I brought back from Vietnam and after a while, set it aside as careers and family left little time. Now I' retired and am back into my photography hobby.

I know how frustrating it can be.... the technology advances of the photography world in the last 40 years is just mind boggling. I read the little book that came with my Canon and found that the even the incredible capabilities of the machine is intimidating. One thing i did was to buy the boxed set of 3 soft cover books by Scott Kelby - "Digital Photography". They are pretty good and might work even better for you as Scott shoots with a Nikon and the Canon (which I have) is not as accurately illustrated in the books.

The other thing that is working for me is to shoot on a tripod and shoot a number of shots of anything you are wanting a picture of, changing the camera settings and keeping track of how you changed the settings - that way you can see how the setting changes affected the immage. One of the great things about this digital thing is it costs nothing to shoot dozens of images and delete the ones that aren't good. I did what Kelby suggested and bought a good tripod and ball head - - he is absolutely right about the tripod thing. When I just want a snapshot, I set the little knob on the camera for landscape or flower or whatever I am snapshooting at. If you're having an issue with focus, one thing I've found that really differs from the old film SLR's is you have to partially depress the shutter release button for an instant before you push it all the way, to give the machine a moment to work it's autofocus magic.

I'm going to start a beginning photoshop course next month at the local technical college and I'm finally getting some fairly good pictures. I know I've got a long way to go, but it WILL go and I WILL get there. It's a bit different for us older guys but we CAN learn this stuff - - just need to apply a little of that determination that got us where we are today. I took about a dozen images to get the attached photo.

Mackinaw bridge at sunset

Thanks much Merle, I'm going for this one on your recommendation.

Regards, Nick

Merle,
Where do you get this for $150? The best I can find is $169.

My Scott Kelby book says that you must have a monitor calibrator to do "professional quality" printing. He recommends two brands: X-Rite i1 Display 2 @ $116 and the Datacolor Spider3 Elite @ $189.

This is quite a difference in price. Does anybody have any experience with these and is the Datacolor worth the additional $73?

Where was the workshop held? I live in Gogebic county and would be interested in going to something like that.

Hi Cary - I went to school in Ann Arbor.... really love it up here though - we have been hiking in Sylvania, the Porcupine Mountains and the Trap hills for the last couple years. Also like to go up to the Kewenaw Peninsula once in a while. Took a trip over to Mackinaw Island last week which was nice but it's nicer here around home.

Big Mac at sunset


Cliffs at Fayette

The rocks came off my chimney - the picture was in 2005 so things look a bit different now. We are 3 miles down a deadend road from the closest county road. I read the book "Omaha Beach" a number of years ago - that was terrible.... failures of the senior leadership (GO level) caused substantial and unnesssary loss of life.
We are planning to take one last trip to Europe and walking that beach is on the agenda.