After doing a lot of research, I bought the S60 because it got good reviews, Canon cameras got good reviews across the board, it uses CompactFlash which is the cheapest flash memory & has the largest capacity cards, it has full manual control, it has a 1.8" LCD screen (1.5 is too small), it is compact, it has a 3X optical zoom, it has 5M megapixels, and the lens is protected when it's off. It's easy to use in automatic mode -- my 11 year old son picked it up and immediately started taking pictures. It has so many controls I'm still trying to figure them all out. You can have complete control over just about every aspect of picture taking: focus, shutter, aperature, white balance, flash, metering (type and position of spot), ISO speed, resolution, compression, etc., and any combination of manual and automatic control. The LCD screen shows a lot of the settings as little icons. It will show a histogram, but only after you've taken the shot. Sony and Casio give you live histograms. Press one button and you are in review mode, and you can zoom in on the shots you've taken, press the same button or push the shutter button halfway down and you are back to shooting mode. In movie mode you are limited to 30 sec. at the highest resolution, and 3 minutes max at lowest resolution. I've taken all of my movies at the highest resolution, and they look nice on my PC monitor fullscreen. You wouldn't want to buy this camera for its movie mode because of the limited time and you can't change any controls, such as zoom, while you're shooting a movie. You can add voice notes to any picture. I bought a 512MB CF card, and at the next to best resolution it shows an incredible 500 and something shots available. After shooting a bit, I bumped the resolution up to the highest and it still has space for over 200 shots. It has a RAW mode which outputs 4MB pictures, and comes with software to manipulate the RAW mode pictures on your PC. It is compact enough to slip into your pocket, though you wouldn't want to carry it around that way all day -- I bought a little camera bag that hangs on my belt. The manual is excellent, and I've read it and reread it many times trying to figure out all of the features of this camera: time exposures, bracketed shots, several rapid shots in a row, panoramic stitch shots, etc. I used to shoot slides on an SLR, and had to just worry about the focus, the f-stop, and the shutter speed. I still haven't got used to all of the other stuff the S60 allows me to control -- white balance, ISO speed, resolution, moveable spot focus, exposure up to 2 EVs + or - what the camera calculates, etc. I can control what sounds the camera makes for 5 different operations, the volume of the sounds, and I can substitute my own sounds if I want. Sometimes at Williamsburg I turned the shutter sound off when the guide was speaking and I didn't want to disturb the audience. Most of the time I just put it on automatic, zoom in or out, and then snap the shot.
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