You know, I guess I never quite understood the expense in a fisheye.

It's such a specialized lens that has very limited uses.

Maybe I don't shoot enough to need one. :goofy:

Still, the ultra-wides are so much fun, i can't put mine down it seems! :)

I have the same Canon AWR68 does and it's awesome! I also have a much smaller point and shoot that I carry while at work. It's also a Canon, the SD780 IS. It takes great photos but working the zoom is a bit off. Only thing I wish it had was better zoom. Still...for the money it does a great job.

Thanks Steve, just read up on those lenses, alot of good comments and comparisons to the canons. My Christmas list just got bigger!!

Thanks now I need to do some reading, I like the g11 and the EOS Digital Rebel XS, I'll do some comparing and see what I like better.

The G11 is a great camera.. it has the RIGHT amount of mp for it's ccd element and takes good low light images. It also has a very good zoom.

On site complained that it didn't have HD video, but it has really good video and in some cases the quality is better than low-buck HD. Why? because HD is sometimes used as a marketing gimmic just like megapixles.

It's also built like a tank and the flip out rotating rear screen helps you to compose some pretty cool shots (and shoot video over the heads of the crowd).

Mine was under $420 on ebay (beach camera) when I factory in my BING cashback.

I like the part about shooting over the crowd!!

Every time I go to a parade those pesky 6 year olds in front of me keep me from catching a glimpse of anything!!

Hey TONY ROSE -- you listening!! We need this G11 camera!!

Telly --

On a serious note -- and I'm taking into account you set a budget... I have a couple of cameras. One of them is USELESS and sits in the cupboard... because it's a nice camera - but CAN'T do what I want to do with it.

Some of these cameras just can't take pictures fast enough... so if there's any "ACTION" to the shot - it will either come out blurry - or I want to take several pixs of the action and then choose which one I want to 'keep'. So the little Nikon Coolpix 5000 I bought (a long time ago) is nice and small and easy to use - but it's "recovery rate" from one picture to the next - renders it useless.

So my "advice" to you -- is to figure out WHAT you want to use the camera for FIRST. Then shop for one that will do what you want. If you just want to take still pics of the family and cars at shows... it doesn't take much more than the camera in your phone to do that... but if you want to go to the kids football game and get some shots of them in action... that's a whole different camera (telephoto capability and Frames per second).

To me - personally - a camera is like a good welder... once you have one that lets you do more "stuff" - then the fun factor goes up. That doesn't mean you have to get the pro version that Steve might use...

If carrying it around in your shirt pocket is what you want.. great - then that's what you should be looking for... but if you want to do that AND take action shots too... then you've got to look for something that will do that. It's like shopping for horsepower - you want to do 800 hp with a small block twin turbo - or a carbed big block?

Thanks Steve, I'm leaning this way I'm not sure I want to mess around with lenses.

Thanks Greg, I'll be using it alot for pics of the family and some better shots of some of the cars I build, I'm sure I'll go with the g11 its probably more than I need but I'd rather buy a better camera that will do more than I want rather than less.

The problem with lenses is that good ones are EXPENSIVE. I have way more money in lenses than cameras. lol

Sure, you can get cheap lenses.. but there's a reason they are cheap.

My big lens was 1900... my wide was 600 and my medium was a bargain basement 450..

The irony is that when we go on vacation I leave it all at home because it's a huge PITA to carry it all around.

Something like G11 is a good compromise between size, cost, and professional quality.