A digital camera for everyone.

I've toyed with the idea of getting a digital camera for months, but I own two 35 mm. cameras and assumed there was no difference; so why waste the money. I'm also somewhat intimidated by new technology and have been known to buy something and let it sit for months before I'm brave enough to tackle it.

But I was going on a Christmas cruise and when I arrived in Miami, I realized my cameras were in Los Angeles. So two hours before boarding the ship, I went to Best Buy and bought the Canon PowerShot A75 on the recommendation of a friend and an article I read in Consumer Reports.

The salesman said it was a wonderful camera, but I would need more memory and more batteries. I had no idea what he was talking about, but I agreed to buy a 512(?)mb memory card and four rechargeable AA batteries, and was rather annoyed when I later discovered he'd forgotten to sell me the extra memory card.

Fortunately before leaving Best Buy, on impulse I bought the HP Photosmart 375, which enabled me to manage with a 32mb CF (compact flash) by deleting pictures after I printed them. [I'll write separately about the HP Photosmart 375.]

The PowerShot instructions were so easy to understand that in about 60 seconds I'd turned the dial to auto, put in the compact flash memory card (think of this as re-useable film), inserted the batteries, and was on the balcony taking pictures.

The first minor problem I encountered was viewing the picture I'd taken because it did not remain in view long enough to get a good look at it. So I went back to the instructions and in 2 minutes was able to change the viewing time to 7 seconds, which was plenty for me. But from what I could tell, there is no limit on the length you can set for viewing time.

By setting the camera on auto it did everything except snap the picture. It not only focused, but used the flash when it was needed without me doing anything. At first I used the viewfinder because it was more comfortable for me. But I'm already using the LCD and viewfinder interchangeably. The best part is I can see the pictures immediately instead of waiting days or weeks to have them developed, allowing me to take a second (or third) picture if I'm not completely satisfied with the first.

By the second day I found the zoom lever, and realized I could not only zoom in on the picture I was taking, but could zoom in when viewing it, making it a lot easier to see.

I also discovered that by pushing one lever I could look at any, or all, the pictures I'd taken for as long as I wanted to. And deleting a picture is not only easy but safe, because after pressing the function key to delete a picture you are asked if you're sure and it defaults to no, forcing you to press two more keys to actually delete the picture.

This camera is easy to use, fun, and the pictures are beautiful. My only complaint is that the dial for auto or a customer setting can shift to a different setting, causing the picture to come out blurred or dark. That happened three times in the first few days, but I'm trying to train myself to make sure the dial is on auto before I start taking pictures. For me it's a minor problem, because each time I noticed a picture was not sharp I checked the dial, pushed it to auto, and had time to re-take the picture.