The absolute best is the camera you have with you. The one at home, the office, in your car, or back in the hotel is worthless. Buy a camera that fits your lifestyle and carry it with you at all times.

That makes my best camera the one in my cell phone. :) I do take lots of pictures with it and wish I had something better in hand. But the Rebel won't fit in my purse.

Hey Jeff, how ya doin? Been awhile. :)

Hi Lorinda, Chris still lets me in here from time to time. Actually, family and work really pulled me away. I subscribe to several of the forums and read the emails I get from the discussions several times a day. I miss the old place and the many friends I made here.

So how goes it with you? I see you've been promoted!

The "promotion" came about because Dylan got too busy running his own biz plus the DV Challenge. Other than that I'm still the one asking all the questions. ;)

You must be teaching a lot. And are you still catching birds at their best with your camera? If you've got a link to your current work I'd sure like to see.

"True dat", I believe people say. People say that, right? Yeah. I'm sure I've heard it somewhere. Anyway, as long as we're reviving years-old threads I figure I'll be a little narcissistic and link to my Flickr photostream, which is a testament to the value of an always-there camera. In particular, these shots of the Highbridge Water Tower as seen from the southbound Major Deegan in New York, and a supernova sunset over New York City, taken on the way across the Throg's Neck Bridge.

Just this morning my Cybershot T500 came back from Sony's service center, and I'm ecstatic at having my baby back. I have an SLR (one of those big four letter F word SLRs, actually), but even hanging around my neck it'd get in the way of me carrying tools and materials on job sites. I've gotten it up and running in the past few days, but it's usually too big to bring anywhere. The little point and shoots fit me perfectly. This one's the size of a deck of cards and is always in my pocket, ready to go at a moment's notice. For all the concerns about battery life and lack of manual control, with the way I use it the drawbacks all but vanish, and that's the best part of "fits your lifestyle", as Jeff describes it. To find a tool whose pros and cons match up to your personality and fit your usage like a glove is a great feeling.