Thanks Bakki for the tips, recommendations, and answering my lens question. :-) Library eh? Sounds like a most excellent idea. I will have to check out some photography books. I have already been reading some Photographic Magazine. It seems a good publication w/many helpful tips and cool technical info. That's how I learned about this particular Minolta. (They reviewed it in their May 04' issue) In H.S. I took a photography class (when I showed up)and remember I even learned how to develop B/W film. I will have to get a lens filter as you recommend. I have already scratched my Panasonic's Leica lens. It is a very small scratch and doesn't seem to cause any noticable problems, but I will probably get a lens filter for that cam as well. I have a scanner, but it doesn't have slide/negative scan capabilites. Earlier this morning I had a thought that I could scan a negative with my scanner then use PS to change it to a negative. I wonder if this technique would work, and if this would yield the same quality results as using a comparable scanner w/slide/negative scan capabilities. One thing I do know about film...hard copy enlargements are typically higher quality than digital as if film has more megapixels. -Jeff :-)