I got my wife an Olympus VG-120. Wide angle, shoots video in 720HD, and is super small and easy to carry in a pocket or purse. $79 at Amazon.com and other places.

Nikon cameras and lenses comprised my standard gear for years, along with most others at one time or another (Leica, Canon A1, Pentax, Fuji, Sony, Kodak, Minolta, Bolex, etc.). The Leitz lenses were the sharpest I ever owned, along with my Nikkor 24mm and 105mm (fabulous lenses). When the "megazoom" cameras came out I decided to sell my Nikon D40, two Nikon zoom lenses, Nikon SB600 flash and go with the "all in one" Panasonic FZ100. I loved all the features, the extended zoom capability, the 25mm wide angle to 600+mm and the capability to also take HD movies. Unfortunately the image quality wasn't comparable to my Nikon (and the Nikon zooms I had weren't comparable to the fixed Nikon lenses on earlier Nikon's). When Panasonic fixed the image problem and announced the FZ150 I went with it, and I've been thrilled by the vast image quality improvement. I now have an HD movie camera, and an incredibly flexible megazoom. For moon shots I slap on a Nikon 1.5 teleconverter and get shots that look like I took them through a telescope. It's smaller and a lot lighter than the full DSLR's, has almost all of the same features, e.g., iA, P, A, S modes, gobs of control settings, custom settings, etc., and I'm very happy with it and the improved image quality....

P.S. I bought my wife an Olympus VG-120 for Christmas, but don't tell her. ; )

I agree, Rene! Snow for a couple days once a year is just fine with me!

Wow, beautiful photos! I was born and raised in Michigan, and remember scenes like this from those days. Now retired in Coastal North Carolina, and when we get snow once a year or so it's a huge novelty here. Two days ago we had the windows open and were in shorts and a tee shirt, which I prefer at this point in life, but those Michigan snow scenes sure are pretty! Love the barn shot! Here's one I took last February out my back door of one of those rare NC snow days. If/when it snows again here I'll try to get a few more shots!

Rare backyard snow in New Bern, NC 2/2011

Nice shots. I love graytones for portraits....

I use the free program FastStone for viewing and comparing shots side by side, and Paint Shop Pro X3 for more serious work. Also use Portrait Professional 10 for portraits. GREAT fun software, and so easy to use it's amazing. I've tried Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, and Photoshop Deluxe Home Edition (no longer available, probably because it was easy to use). I've taken courses online, read books, and still could not get comfortable with Photoshop. Takes too much time to learn, even simple stuff....

Thank you!

In the original photo the foreground was blackened out, so I enhanced it a little using HDR software.

Hatteras sunrise

Very nice photo! Exposure is dead on! Sometimes hard to capture detail in dark areas while light is coming at you. Lovely photo!

HDR is short for High Dynamic Range. It's a software program that "averages" or combines two or three images of the same subject taken at the same time using differing settings to create a single, enhanced image. At least that's my understanding on what it does. It also can do a nice job on a single photo. In the photo below the foreground was so dark no detail appeared, but after running it through an HDR process it lightened the foreground without washing out the sky. Cool, huh? There are various versions of HDR software on the market. I happen to use Dynamic Photo HDR5, but Google them and see what you find.

Hatteras sunrise, untouched


Same photo after processing with HDR

Thanks! I was born and raised in Michigan, by the way... in Flint. It was a nice town when I was growing up, before Japan started making cars! ; )

Bob D. here. Been through most camera brands over the 60+ years I've been taking photos. Nikon has been the single biggest brand I've used most frequently, but am currently shooting with a Panasonic DMC-FZ150 and love it. Image quality much improved over its predecessor, the FZ100. Love the megazoom capabilities in one lens, combined with all the various controls I was used to on my Nikon DSLR, e.g., iA, P, A, S, M modes, etc. I am a "semi-pro" photographer, specializing in architectural photography (real estate shoots for agents), along with portrait and new photography. At 73, I'm still learning this craft with the help of forums like this and others. Below are a couple of my favorite photos I've taken recently.

Available light, hand held


Sunrise on Hatteras Island, enhanced using Dynamic Photo HDR

Have three standing, with two seated in front of the standing subjects. Some kind of circular pose is always better than a straight "lineup" group. If it's to be a goofy "fun" shot, set your camera to burst mode and fire off a flurry of shots while having them all jumping in the air at once, arms extended, etc.

I totally agree!

I realize most DSLR owners will turn their noses up at the camera I just bought, but I'm loving it. I sold my Nikon D40, two Nikon lenses, and my Nikon SB flash and am now using the Panasonic FZ150 "megazoom" camera. In addition to an incredible zoom range capability, it also shoots video in 1080p mode, can shoot in RAW, and the new sensor seems to have corrected the noise problem I had on the FZ100. At least take a look at it. The zoom range is phenomenal, 35mm equivalent of 25mm to over 600mm, with very acceptable image quality (at least for me). Very sensitive in low light conditions as well. You can see a typical video shot with this camera in very low light here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D_SRrO4UTs