Mary, Beth,

Does the new Canon digital have a good lens? I think I would trust that its lens is good enough. As far as the pixels, my rudimentary notion is that 3 mp is too few and 6 mp is plenty. For my purpose, which gets no bigger than 8x10 90% of the time, 6 mp is fine.

As far as lens, I have made good use of two lenses in my portrait photography. I have a 35-70 and a 70-210. The new Sony 828 indicates a single 7x optical zoom lens equivelent to 28-200. That would be a dandy (Carl Zeiss). I do however like the idea of interchangeable lenses. I might one day want to hook up a 600 mm lens for spying on distant field mice.

What I would love to have is a Nikon D100. But, it now cost about $1499 through B&H without a lens. The Nikon is in the 6 mp range. Just on a bang for the buck rational I would buy the Canon Rebel digital today. It's always some kind of compromise between what you want and what you're willing to pay.

That new Sony looks like a fine camera, if I had it on my hip I would be proud.

Thanks for all of your insight Mike.
 

I get itchy and want to run out and BUY NOW! but Im going to have to contain myself and let Santa bring one, what I have at my disposal now is plenty enough to get me through til then. I guess with a couple of months on my side, it will give me the opportunity to REALLY figure out what I should get. Beth, are you getting the sony, or just thinking about it? Keep me posted on what you find.

The simple answer is to buy a good digital SLR type which will take your existing lenses. You'll want to get that kind of body anyway-these cameras do much more besides give you extra pixels.

Nows the time to switch over, these digitals are very good.