mrn8

Racine, WI

Our offices close for the weekend, starting on Thanksgiving day, so no worries here. At my old job, it was impossible to get out of work for that weekend unless you were a VP.

Rule of thumb - If it's located in Brooklyn, don't trust them as far as you can sneeze. This company is. B&H Photo and Amazon are good online stores for DSLR. They are established and you know you won't get ripped off. I'd lean toward B&H, though, because they have awesome customer service.

I found that if I load my mp3 players up with everthing I've got, I don't listen to 90% of it. With as simple as iTunes and the iPod interface, I'd say ask him which he prefers and get him that. The Touch would be a nice organizational tool, as well as a good music / video player. The iPod Classic is much more pocket size, though, that the touch.

As a current Sam's member, I whole-heartedly support going to Costco. They are more consumer oriented, whereas Sam's is more geared for businesses. I like Costco's Kirkland brand items. They are inexpensive, but good quality. Costco also has much better customer service and an awesome "no questions" return policy. Sam's says their return policy is just as good, but the one time I tried it was almost not worth my time.

Nope, I wish people would just ask. This year, I just told everyone that Sam's Club gift cards are preferable, because I've got to replace the tires on my wife's Durango, at a cost of about $750. Last year, I asked for Amazon GC's and picked up a couple of things that I had on my wish list for a while.

I like the thread tagging and the lightbox feature. I'm not sure the lightbox feature would be used much here, but the tagging would be great for marking threads for future reference.

Currently, Abes of Maine and ZipZoomFly have the Canon S5 IS for less, and they are reputable online retailers.

Since you said you wanted to use it for concerts, I'm going to say that the Canon SX100IS would be a great choice! It's $258 at Amazon.com right now, and it as a Self-timer that can be set for 2 sec, 10 sec, or custom. It's also got a nice long 10x optical zoom, which will be great for concerts and outdoor shots. http://www.amazon.com/Canon-PowerShot-SX100IS-Digital-Stabilized/dp/tech-data/B000V1VG4W/ref=de_a_smtd?ie=UTF8&qid=1195698804&sr=1-15

That's a self timer and most digital cameras do have that feature. What would be helpful is your price-level for the camera and what you will be using it for. We'd love to help!

No, the Kodak is definitely not in the same quality class as the Canon.

Can you spend ~$250? If so, I'd go with a Canon SX100IS.

I'll give you my reasoning for choosing the TomTom One XL-S. First off, the free map upgrades will incredibly convenient and a cost savings in the long-run. My second reason is that I prefer to have text-to-speech. Voice commands aren't bad, but I'd rather be able to get a name and not have to look at the screen. The last thing is that Office Depot will have it, which means it will be easy to get in the store and I can exchange 5 empty ink cartridges and get an additional $15 off.

Wow, thanks for the update and all the research you put into that! I think you've convinced me to get a TomTom One XL-S.

Care to back that up with anything?

Thanks for the ad, Brad.

I've ordered a lot of camera equipment in the past from B&H Photo, and it comes in great condition. I've also ordered a lot of electronics and fragile items from Amazon, and I've never had anything arrive broken. Amazon does a very good job at over-packing items that need to be well padded.

If the lenses are EF or EF-S, then they will work on the Canon Digital SLR camera bodies.

Was it the Nikon D40 or D40x that they were reviewing? Take a look at the review on those cameras at www.dpreview.com. They are a dedicated camera review site and they really know what's important and how to put a camera though some very telling tests.

If the decision is between a Nikon D40 and a Canon XTi (400D), I'd go Canon without a second thought. If it were between the Canon and a Nikon D80, yeah, it would be a tough choice, since they are more on the same playing field.

Oh, not good. It's my last day of work before leaving for a 1 1/2 weeks, and now my productivity will be shot!

Amazon offers a great warranty on cameras, and you could always get a Mack warranty, which is better than anything that a big box store provides.

Yes, it's a D40. Honestly, you could find a better deal at Amazon. The Nikon D40 is $487 at Amazon and you can pick up a Sigma telephoto lens for $110 (http://www.amazon.com/Sigma-70-300mm-4-5-6-Telephoto-Cameras/dp/B000A0UHXU/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&s=photo&qid=1195139894&sr=1-18).

The S3 IS definitely sounds like a good fit for you, then. If you want a slight jump up in mp, you could take a look at the Canon SX100IS. It's got a 10x instead of 12x zoom, but is an 8mp camera, whereas the S3 IS is 6mp.

It's $259.99 at Amazon.com http://www.80stees.com/products/River-Matt-Foley-Saturday-Night-Live-T-shirt.asp $257 at Butterfly Photo: http://www.butterflyphoto.com/shop/product.aspx?sku=SX100IS&cm_mmc=PriceGrabber-_-Canon-_-Point%20and%20Shoot-_-SX100IS&zmam=8564958&zmas=1&zmac=83&zmap=2420B001