My two cents:

I have: (By Myself)
Torn down walls, hung kitchen cabinets, layed tile floors, built a garage, dug and planted a 150 x 50 garden, raised 4 children, been a Teller, Claims Analyst, Accounting Manager, Payroll Manager, and helped a ton of friends get out of very severe, complicated debt, along with a million other things.

HOWEVER, to learn a digital camera has just about killed me. My brain freezes and my mind goes blank.

I would have taken a years vacation first, if I had known what learning a digital camera could do to me. I am not a bad learner, I learned a computer program in a heartbeat, BEFORE programs were even known to exist, and this baby has made me crazy.

I pray you copy, at least, the ENTIRE website of ANY CAMERA you are considering for purchase.
You will need it.
Forget manuals, they are the very reason for nightmares today.
The list above doesn't even begin to list the things in my life that gave me no problems at all, there are MANY, MANY, more, but nothing in the world is like fighting the instructions, and a manual for a digital camera!

Digital deletes Brain Cells, Honest!

If you are a Digital Expert.... Nevermind, and I will pray for your children.

Sheila,

If you will just add a floor above my kitchen in Show Low, AZ, I'll be happy to train you on the use of a digital camera. I'll even pay for the materials!

I remember using my first two digital cameras; a Nikon 900 and 950. They were both somewhat intuitive but it was the software that came with the cameras that kept me dumbfounded. Luckily, there was good 3rd party software available that allowed me to work with my pictures.

In a couple of months you'll be a digital wizard. Like Charlie Daniels, you just got to do a little fiddlin'.

Hi John, I have been fiddlin forever!!

I can tell you, repalcing a floor, (the actual wooden one) in, and then tiling it was a snap compared to this. The camera is getting easier, but the program has had me up all night and I am still at ground -zero. I guess I should have never learned to use other photo programs, it messes you up. The very thing you think is correct, is the most un-correct thing you can do. I have yet to find out how to save a picture right.
It took me so long to find them when I did save them, I was about to find my nose in my keyboard from dozing off.
You are correct, the program is the clincher.
Now if I can get the pictures to ALL come out the right size, and not be as big as my kitchen, then I will have won the fight.
Then all I will have to do is EVERYTHING ELSE.
I think I can learn how to make better pictures, that takes just doing it over and over, but the program is going out the kitchen window soon. Between the lighting, size, program, flash, red eye, and the like, I think my brain is fried for good.
Time for me to get some sleep. These all nighters are tough. Watch out, I am gonna pick your brain when I get up tonight.

Oh, and I have already done all the kitchen floors I will ever do. Now I will let the pros handle that sruff. (Except building my home)

Completely rebuilding a house in hours takes a lot of work, I will never do that again.

Sheila,

Your PC-screen resolution is possibly only 75 dpi (dots per inch), so any high-resolution pictures that you have will likely appear rather large on your PC screen.

You may want to produce high-resolution pictures if you intend to print them out (like regular photos) or use them in a publication such as a magazine, but if you only intend using your pictures on the web or your PC, resolution is not that important. More important is getting the lighting, color, contrast etc. correct.

Glyn,
Thank you for the info. I don't even know about resolution yet, but I did find something on the Kodak program, that lets me save a picture that is listed "Best for the Net" so I used that one, and it worked. Horay!
I will check out what resolution I have on my PC, I didn't think about that, and I should have. However I have posted in here and it took almost the entire page to download, so naturally I had to delete it. I'm getting there, I'm just not used to something taking me this long to learn.
I did notice that the lighting, contrast, and color is key to everything. No matter what, you can't get a good picture if it's too dark, the color is off, or there is no definition.
I'm working on that now. I have had to use the program to fix things like that and it works, but I want to figure out how to do it myself and learn how to take a good picture too.
I'm getting there, slow but sure, and thank you again for the information. I will check that now.

Sheila,
I am in agreement with you. I think the problem lies with those who design the system and write the instructions. It is likely they are not photographers and do not have an idea of how conventional cameras used to operate.
I got stumped on a term, looked it up in their glossary, and still had no idea what was said. That was my first danger sign. Is it that the "space cadets" who make our lives miserable with directions for cell phones, DVD players, and cameras now have the upper hand?
You are correct. Learning to use a digital camera is not like learning to swim or ride a bike. As was said, you will eventually be able to make the thing work. Thank goodness one easily forgets all of the detours caused by poor communication. I can't think that those are normal friendly people that do that to us (they are deviates).
Best Regards,
Dick

Dick, lololol You are so right.

To think that these are the ones that one day will run this world!!!!!!!!!!!!! aaahhhhhh!

It's also true, that the only way around this things is, to become super good at it, by doing it over and over again until you learn it, or toss the camera. I have NO intention of tossing a camera I spent too much on, so I'M IN IT FOR THE LONG HAUL!!! The practice has helped, and I'm sure as soon as "These Shoes Fit" I will be fine, until then, it's sure nice to have a place to go to, when you have to let off steam while on the journey.
I WILL WIN THIS ONE, and thanks for the good words along the way!

I got so frustrated with the first digital camera I bought (not so much the camera, but trying to get the darn thing to down load pictures thru its docking port), that I finally gave up and when out and laid out some bucks for a Nikon D70. In the process, I bought a multiple memory card reader, guess what, on a hunch, I stuck the memory stick from the first camera I bought into the card reader, and poof, the images downloaded onto the computer. Anyway, I kept the D70 and added a couple of flashes and now I'm a photographing "fool".

I spent one whole weekend, trying to get the D70 to trip the flashes using its remote flash option. I guess I read the camera manual and the flash manual 10 times plus trial and error before I finally halfway figured out how to get the camera into it's flash commander mode and the flashes into their remote trip mode where they would trip and sync up together. I must have flash burned my eyes three or four times before I figured it out.

Derek

You Don't Know Nothing, Joyce and I were given a new state of the art "Surround Sound DVD Player" Last Xmas, Here we are soon be Xmas again, Guess what, "SHE" gave the old perfect Video player away and-----------------------. I can take Pic's with my Sony DSC P92, Though. Regards, GED.