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First is the cp-950 still available for 400? Thats a shame about the cp-800 though, I could of done that. I just checked Mercata and the current powerbuy for the cp950 is $779. The $100 for new customers promotion (until Nov 31) and the Passport 20% holiday bonus (until Dec 22) will bring the price down to $543. You'll have to print the Nikon rebate from Nikon's website, [ http://www.nikonusa.com, ] and mail in the appropriate UPC's and copy of purchase receipt for your $150 rebate. That should bring the price down to $393. There are two caveats I did fail to mention and I apologize for doing so. Personally, I like to take pics in 1600x1200 in fine quality mode so the 8MB CF that comes w/ the Coolpix cameras are inadequate for me. If you plan to take pics in 640x480 and/or in normal quality mode, then 8MB may suffice for you. And the serial port connection is slow for me so I use a PC Card adapter for my laptop. I still need to scrutinize a few other camera's but of the ones I've researched so far, I am really considering the Olympus d460 zoom. I can get this for around 350. Im just trying to figure out what makes it worth so much more money then the d360 or 400 or 450. Absolutely. Image quality is subjective up to a certain point. The Oly D460-Z would be another excellent choice. In fact, Steve from [ http://www.steves-digicams.com ] recommended this camera as well as its 2.1 megapixel big brother, the D490-Z, to me before I bought the CP800. Unfortunately, I already had CF and didn't want to invest anymore moolah in SM cards and that's how I ended up w/ the cp800. AFAIK, the D460-Z is the replacement for the D360, which I believe replaced the D350, FWIW. The Olypus quallity seems to be excellent to me, and im not sure I really need 2 mega pixels. If you ever intend on taking photos of subjects w/ heavy details, including trees or scenic views, then 1.3 megapixels won't cut it. But MikeeZ also brings up an excellent point -- find out exactly how many pixels the CCD supports and how many the camera is actually using. I just like to take pictures of cars/carshows and my friends. Then 1.3 megapixels (not 1.0 megapixels like the Kodak DC215) will probably suffice for you. Auto focus is definatly nice, and I will probally get a 64 meg card so I can take the majority of my images on the mid compression higher resolution. Trust me, if you're not a camera buff and just want a point-n-shoot, then autofocus would definitely be very helpful. I took so many pics of w/ my old DC215 when I went to visit my brother in San Jose. Then when I came home and downloaded them, 75% had to be thrown away because they came out so fuzzy. No matter what you get there is always going to be something better. I don't have to have the very best. Basically you just have to look at what you really need or want and draw the line somwhere. And you're absolutely right -- goes w/ technology. The trend I have observed w/ digicams is that newer ones move up in pixels and/or fix the bugs of their predecessors. Thank you guys again for all your input and advice. You have all been very helpfull. Mercata has the Kodak DC215 for $319. If you already used your $100 new customer credit from Mercata, sign up another Hotmail account and get another $100 in credit. Then you can buy this camera w/ both Mercata deals for $175. Then you can post the camera on ebay and sell it as a new product (as long as you don't open it when it comes in) and probably make a profit. But you should check eBay for the going rates for the DC215. Of course, you can probably do this w/ any of the cameras that Mercata sells. Just make sure the going prices on eBay are higher than what you're paying on Mercata. :-) Michael.
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