Portability won out for me too when I bought a new camera recently. Ideally, we amateur photographers would have three cameras: one slim point-and-shoot for easy carrying, one nice point-and-shoot like you and I bought for good family and garden photos and macro shots, and an SLR camera for the occasional "serious" photography session. If only money were no object.

I'm jealous :-) My digital's on it's last legs, and I'm just dying for a new one. The 18x optical zoom is the feature that has me drooling...I'd love to do more macro photography, but my digital just doesn't cut it. My SLR is awesome for that, but I'm terrible about taking the film in to get it developed.

And, since you asked...YES, please add a flickr module to Blotanical! I'd love to see that.

Congrats on the new camera, Stuart. As to the SLR snobs--piffle to them! I have an SLR, and love it, but it does have the drawbacks you mention; however, in my work as a journalist, I decided about 15 months ago it was time to get one, and it's long since paid for itself.

The only recommendation I have--if you don't already have one, and you probably do, get a tripod. I used to growl about lugging that places, but no more. I just finished a short course with a longtime professional photographer who taught me so much (and made it user-friendly) but the thing he stressed to anyone, be they using an SLR or point and shoot or the sort of model you have, is to use a tripod, especially with macro work. And the other important thing he stressed is not to drop or bang the camera. Larger models like yours are a little less fragile, but digitals just aren't forgiving of being dropped or given a hard bang.

And the most important thing: take lots of photos, and have fun!

I peeked at your photos and love them--but I don't have a Yahoo id so I couldn't comment. The buddleia is especially wonderful, with the insect (bee or bee-mimic? I couldn't tell)

Pam - if only!

Colleen - yep! The 18x optical zoom was the thing that got me too. And it's incredible.

jodi - good tips. I do have a good tripod and while I was using Deb's camera (the flat-packed point-and-shoot) it looked incredibly disproportionate so it stay in the cupboard more often that not. However, it will see the light of day much more often now.

I'm quite a novice with digital cameras, so I won't be passing judgment. I think your pictures look great, so you made an excellent choice.

Flickr would be nice on Blotanical, though I don't have a Flickr account, so I'd have to set one up. I do have a Picasso account by virtue of having a Blogger account.