Sensei, no way but the hard way. A few at a time. :-)

George you are perfectly correct. All these photos are our individual history and should be preserved but sadly, many are lost and fade over time.
I too embarked on an exercise of scanning all our albums, when I retired. I ended up with about 8000 photos stored on my PC. I also had further photos from my Mum and Dad (both passed) sent from the UK and I scanned those as well. (I am an expat Brit.)
As I said, they are all on my PC and backed up to an external hard drive as well. One day I want to get them all on to archival CD/DVD and then they will be really safe.

Have a great Thanksgiving and keep taking pictures. One day, your descendents will thank you.

John.

when saving as jpeg the slider you refer to is only affecting the quality (ie; compression). It does not change your new picture size. One site I upload to has a limit of 900 pixels high or wide and also 400k max file size so I resize to 900 pixels and then save as jpeg at 5-7 compression and I meet the criteria. When you are saving a jpeg at best quality, the slider is usually at HIGH quality or 8-12 on the slider.

Hope this helps.

John.

All the above info is perfectly correct. You cannot transfer a program in windows from one computer to another. You must use the installation disk.
With Adobe photoshop elements particularly, Adobe puts a 'ton' of bits of code into windows registry, that would never transfer and therefore the program would not work.
When I tranfered my copy from one computer to another, using the installation disk, I was also careful the "de-register" the program on the old computer and then "re-register" on the new. Adobe keeps a record of what computers their programs are used on and will spot multi-use.
Sorry for all the "geek" but hope this helps.
John.

Also check out the new Sony HX9V. It is getting stellar reviews and with an "Inteligent auto" setting will get all the shots of the kids you need without too much input needed from you. It also takes video at 1080p. The highest resolution/definition.
Just type 'sony hx9v' in you computer search engine and watch.
Good luck.
John.

All the above info is great for you but I would add one little extra. My son-in-law has a canon Xsi and the kit lens is pretty good. Probably the best kit lens around.He has also shot at ISO 800 with very acceptable results. ISO 800 should give you a fair amount of shutter speed even in low light gym's. Also would suggest you come off Auto and use the "Sports" setting. That is biased towards higher shutter speed and will let you catch the action.

What you are talking about is the Hoodman Loupe. I use one all the time when out and using live-view on my Sony.
Makes viewing the LCD in bright sunlight a snap.
You can google Hoodman loupe for sources of supply, or try adorama.com. They have them in stock arounf $47

Sounds like the camera is a return for replacement.

Computer; run a virus check. you may have picked up a 'nasty'.

Photoshop elements 9 added the 'content aware' brush to the available tools. It was previously ony available in full photoshop. It is an amazing tool.

I have tried this trick myself using one file and using camera raw to get the three images but I always start with a raw file. That way most of the image detail is there. None is lost in the jpeg compression.

I agree with the Sony line. There is a load of great lenses on the second hand market for the old Minolta line which can all be fitted to the Sony's, and are priced very reasonably.

I use aperture priority to lock the depth of field and then use EV from -2 to plus 2 but I had never thought of the ISO being changed in auto. A tripod is a must of course. An absolutely great tip. I will watch that in future. :-)

Many thanks for reply. Would love to go upmarket (A55) but can't justify the expense for the shots I take until I learn more about the one I have got. :-D

Hi I am John. A retired, very amateur, photographer.
I Have a DSLR Sony Alpha A300 and various lenses.
I bought the Alpha as I originally had a Minolta Maxuum 9000 and a few minolta lenses that went with it. With the Sony Alpha I am able to use all my legacy lenses from the Maxuum as Sony retained the Minolta mount when they took over Konica/Minolta. I also got a very good deal on the Alpha as it was a return to a big box store and they did me a price that I could not refuse.