Canon PowerShot A650 IS

Pros: Lots of manual options, using fine or super fine resolution, was able to enlarge up to 16 X 20 with near gallery quality prints. Amazing quality for a p & s. Love using AAs ... nice heft if you like a bigger camera (and i do). Was a real workhorse!

Cons: Regular alkaline batteries are useless. I had to use either rechargeables or lithium to take more than a few pictures. Lousy focus in lower light levels.

Summary: It has finally started to die. To be fair, it has served me extremely well for several years and has never, until now, failed me. It had a long run and it's time to retire the old girl. I got astoundingly high quality images using this camera. Used it for everything, with a lighting setup for ebay business, for extraordinary landscapes ... as good as ever I got using any 35mm camera I've owned, including my Leica back in The Good Old Days (wow, I AM getting old!). Never was much good in low lighting conditions, but frankly, low light and tripod are the answer unless you are a lot steadier-handed than I've ever been. Am getting a new Canon 130, which is very close to this one and probably has the same issues, such as they are. Gotten too old and tired for an SLR and all that extra equipment and my aging eyes delight in auto focus! If you've got one of these and it still works, use it to death.