Aaaaaaaaah, bella Italia !!! I'm still ploughing through some 700 pics I made on honeymoon (making collages etc...) Rome is definately one of our favorite holiday destinations. I like the Gladiator. LOL Misha ! 10 for a pic ? hmmmm, I guess they have to make a living too.

...in addition : it should be easy to prove your copyright: with film, you have the original negative and with a digital cam, you should have the original file (possibly RAW, including exif data etc...). The photo is yours unless you choose to put it in "the public domain" (if stated explicitly on your website) or grant some particular right to an individual (in which case you should put it in writing). More exciting (from a legal point of view) is the question about artwork derived from your photo. I'm a lawyer, but not specialised in this matter and certainly not familiar with the US law... but i've encountered some amazing jurisprudence in Europe. e.g. If an artist decides to create a collage of pictures and your photo is recognizable (beyond discussion, that is), you can claim your copyright. I've seen this happen to a large pharmaceutical company whose advertising agency used a small fragment of a picture (a small, but recognizable detail in a photographic composition) from a photostock book without clearing the copyright. Needless to say that it was an expensive fault on the part of the advertising agency.

I turn my back for 5 min. and I miss a very interesting discussion ! :-) I'm an enthousiatic digital cam user, having rediscovered photography after almost 20 years. I still remember those magical moments developing B/W pics in my fathers darkroom and -equally- remember the frustrating experience of developing colour pics in the same darkroom. The smell of the chemicals, the laboratory equipment, ... About 6 months ago, I finally decided to go for a digital camera and try to do something interesting with it. I had (and still have) to learn a lot about exposure, f-stops, white balance, ... while going from full-automatic to entirely manual operation of the camera. Am I playing ? Is my digital cam a toy ? Sure thing, I'm having a ball ! But the same would go for any traditional film cam I would have bought. In my view, this discussion is "only" about the technical aspect of our hobby/passion/profession; and doesn't even touch the essence, which is about what I call the "photographic eye" (composition, painting with light, conveying atmosphere, ...) In the hands of an experienced photographer, even a humble 2Mpix cam can produce pics that are far, far superior to the results i've seen from high-end SLR's. Technically, we can all see that digital is quite quickly overtaking traditional film in terms of quality and versatility. This has very little to do with the amount of Mpixels, but more with the quality (technology) of the CCD and the in-camera processing. Eventually, we'll get into a discussion similar to the one between audiophiles : CD or vynil record ? And yes, we tend to be protective of our investments (just read the discussions over at dpreview.com), we all want to think we have the best equipment (having invested thousands of $ or ), and we are very much set in our ways. I hope that in a couple of years I'll still be as enthousiastic with my camera as I am today and by that time, this whole discussion will have been settled comfourtably in favour of digital. Maybe with mixed feelings, but inevitably non the less...

I'm "using" the grandmother :-) of the D7i : a Dimage 5. "Only" 3 Mpix, but absolutely a killer cam ! A great lens, very versatile and -for me at least- tons of fun learning to make better pics by tweaking the manual controls. Personally, I prefer using a camera to make pics instead of a computer, meaning that I prefer to use the manual controls (zoom, focus ring, etc...) to working with menus on the LCD. If I had the money, I would certainly go for the 7i... or better still : the new Dimage 7hi ! One word of warning though : this is not a cam for "point-and-shoot" work; be prepared to learn to work this camera. I've read quite a lot of critiques from disappointed people who just didn't understand how to use it. jme, the "overheating" problem is a myth. It only occurs when you're using the wrong kind of batteries. I've had my D5 for 6 months now and after approx. 4.000 pics, I've yet to encounter the "overheating problem". My best friend has a SONY F707; I've used it quite a lot and must agree that it's a great camera too. But my D5 has "grown on me"; I can now understand that there are "NIKONists", "CANONists" and... "MINOLTA-ists" Finally, as Michelle said, be sure to visit www.dpreview.com, the absolute reference site for the digital camera user.

Spider, I just posted it on the PS forum... Always ready to share (...geeez that sounds so boyscoutisch) Anyway, I'm glad you all like the tip... till later, folks, I'm going to do some real damage (photoshopwise, that is)

...my favourite flowers ! Where did you find those growing this time of the year ??? Very nice pics (I particularly like the DOF; adds a lot of atmosphere)

Minolta Dimage 5 (+ filters and a 3600 HSD flash); a very versatile little camera. Slow AF, so action photography is out of the question. The 3.3 Mpix res. is enough to make beautiful A5 prints on my Epson photoprinter. And I never leave home without my IXUS V digital cam. My trusty little digital companion : a fast, reliable and overall very cute camera. I bought these cams 6 months ago and until now i have taken about 4000 shots (most of which are -eeeeeeeeeeeeeer- experimental ;-) I tend to play around with my pics in Photoshop 7 and Painter (for those "artzy" effects) and sometimes use them as refs for my 3D work (Rhino + Max5). But most of the time, I just limit my work in the "Digital Darkroom" to colour ajustment, a hint of sharpening and gentle retouching. (you know, removing that fat tourist dressed in yellow in the background of an otherwise beautiful pic)

Maybe there's some hope (if the disk still runs and if you didn't try to hard to recover it); check out this nifty piece of software : http://grc.com/sroverview.htm I consider http://grc.com a must for every Windows user !

Hi Spike, The Nikon D100 sure is an impressive machine... However, before you make any decisions, be sure to visit www.dpreview.com !!! Don't be too impressed by resolutions, however : a 6 Mpix cam is not necessarily superior to a 3 or 4 Mpix ! Some of my friends are using 5 Mpix cams and are struggling with the huge filesizes, so they tend to work at lower resolutions... I use a 2 Mpix (Canon Ixus), which i carry around each and every day and it's an excellent snapshooter; as well as a 3.3 Mpix Minolta with a very versatile lense (great for those A4 prints). In my view, don't spend your money on high res CCD's (you should do fine with 4 or 5 Mpix), but look at the quality of the "glass" (lenses, versatility, ...) and the type (and price) of storeage (CFlash, MStick, ...). Other considerations are : sensitivity of the CCD, autofocusing (very tricky with digital cams!), and your general "user profile" (but that goes with every purchase...) Still... the Nikon D100 is a very fine machine ! I hope I could help you out some...

Apparently, the D7i is a much improved version of the D7. I currently own a D5 (i'm just a starter and i'm on a budget...). All I can say is that i love this camera (most of the controls are identical to the D7 or even the D7i. But with the D7i, you get much, much more. I read that there was an issue with the grain in pics at higher ISO values, but that it could easy be corrected using simple (freeware) software or even the standard PS filters. Most important reason for choosing a Minolta Dimage must be the excellent quality of the lense and the versatility you get with the manual optical zoom. One word of caution though, Dimage (5 - 7i) cameras require you to do a lot of learning; you'll soon find out that the manual controls are there for a reason. Most of the negative critiques i read were from people who just didn't know how to operate this camera properly. I'd say, go for it.

Thanx a million, PC !!! Nice modeling challenge... I needed this pic to get a feel for the different textures. I'll post my final rendering here.