The last one stands out for me from the point of view of composition. I don't know what the light was like (although it looks good), but I would have preferred more depth of field so that the background was only slightly out of focus (if at all). That way both characters would be as significant in the shot, contrasting the serious expression with the playfulness.

Actually, I'm switching between 2 pc's, work and personal. Work is where I pick up the emails and that is BT 0.5mb, XP professional and IE7. Still no problem!!

Tony

Beginner - I think "freeview" is on the tele - and I wouldn't want to watch that through a viewfinder! I complained about liveview (:wink and got into trouble, but a proper implementation is, I think, useful as it does enable you to take the camera away from your face and experiment with different views. I love giving cameras to my 5 and 7 year olds because their take on the world is so different from 2 feet further down!

Tony

I can only praise SRS as well. When a lens I ordered didn't turn up I called and they put another one in the post immediately, making sure it made next day delivery even though I called at about 4. They sorted out the problem without me being involved again. Park Cameras I have placed orders with on three occasions, where the price was good, and every time had to cancel the order because of no stock, even though the website said they had stock. (BTW - I'm not particularly dissing Park, more praising SRS...)

Tony

Virgin broadband 5mb, Vista and Google chrome - no problem!

Tony

Bodyheat - I'm very wary of gimmicky things, but in this instance I think the ability to move the screen is a natural progression. I don't know if you've ever used a camera with this facility - before I had the Fuji I saw it as pretty gimmicky, but I soon found myself using it: shoot from the hip, as the lomo guys would say!

Tony

I had one of these, sold it, regretted it, bought another one off ebay (I say bought - it actually came bundled with another lens and body, both of which I sold on at a small profit after fees.) I am simply amazed by the quality of this lens. Not only is it sharp across the frame and at either end of zoom, but the colour and contrast seem to be alive. And there's a reasonable attempt at macro at the 70 end.

It's also extremely ugly and noisy and can't focus that close (which certainly describes me after a few pints), but that just makes me want to love it more.

So stop moaning about the price of the 50mm prime - I'm selling mine because this beast can match it for quality, just fails with the other things like speed. And the small zoom range means you have some of the prime discipline for composition and using your feet. Seriously, these are popping up on evilbay and the 40-odd quid I think is a real bargain!

Tony

My old Fuji S9600 had a screen that flipped both ways (!!) and seemed pretty robust to me, although I admit it did stick out a bit. But I found that just gave so much extra low/high shooting options.

Get proper live-view with a flippable screen! And give live-view a separate button, so you don't have to dis-engage the other preview methods.

Agreed on the first one. I think the second suffers from lack of composition - it looks too much like "here are some toadstools". Perhaps moving slightly to the left, removing the debris at the bottom, and emphasising the three left-hand toadstools would give more opportunities?

Regards

Tony