Then, near the bottom of the ad, was this disclaimer.

DSLR Sony Owners: please advise if you shoot with a Sony DSLR. These great camera’s use a proprietary hot shoe for the trigger system, which the studio currently does not have in stock.

I think that Sony has had some awesome equipment in the last few years. But always, ALWAYS, a flaw. They always seem to have some proprietary way of doing something that EVERY OTHER MANUFACTURER has a common practice for.

It used to be a proprietary memory card. Notice that they have finally caved on that one? Most new Sony photo/video equipment allows SD as well.

Now it is a proprietary (what a horrid word to make sure I spell correctly!) hot shoe. So the studio does not bother having a Sony version of the radio controller for their studio lights. I do not blame the studio. I blame Sony. I mean, come on, doesn't every one else's hot shoe work the same? Except Sony's??

What a pain. Way to ruin great stuff Sony.

Regular DVD formats are not compatible with the signal an HD video needs to use.

Most TVs that people have cannot utilize the memory cards that some modern HD camcorders use.

[ReviewAZON asin="B0023B14TK" display="inlinepost"]You can burn a Blu-Ray disk, or use a Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 to play HD video, but your friends may not have any of these gadgets.

You can plug your camcorder into your HD compatible TV. Obviously you cannot loan your camcorder to all your friends, and some camcorders are not compatible with the cables on some modern TVs.

Click here to read more details at the Physorg dot com website.

p.s. Don't let the above hold you back. In you are thinking about HD, go ahead and get one. You may have to provide SD versions of the movies to friends today, however, you will have gorgeous HD memories later when the industry catches up to you.

The Pros of Digital

Digital cameras are great for most people. Perhaps the best thing about a digital camera is that you have instant access to the pictures you have taken. When you use a digital camera, you can immediately see the picture that you just took and determine whether or not you need to re-shoot that particular subject. In addition, when you take digital pictures, you can easily download the prints to your computer. You can store your pictures, enhance them and print them on your printer. In addition, digital prints make for easy storage. You can shoot thousands of digital pictures and store them on a couple of disk. Compare that to the boxes of printed pictures that you probably have in your home.

The Cons of Digital

There are many cons of using digital as well. For example, digital pictures are easily lost. If you are like most people, you probably download the pictures to your computer and never do anything else with them. If you do not back up your digital pictures to disk, all it takes is for your computer to crash one time and you have potentially lost hundreds of valuable pictures. Many people feel that digital pictures do not have the same look and feel as film prints. For this reason, most professional photographers still prefer to use film, instead of digital. Digital pictures can also become pricey if you print them out at home. A good quality printer paper, plus colored printer cartridges for your printer can add up quickly. .

The Pros of Film

As mentioned earlier, many professional photographers still prefer to use film to digital. If you take pictures for hobby, you can adjust your film camera to get the exact look that you want. This is not always the case with digital pictures. Some people prefer to use a film camera, so it forces them to have their pictures developed right away. Rather than leaving your memories on a disk, you have to have your print pictures printed. You will always have them in your hand to look at.

The Cons of Film

It seems that film cameras are losing popularity. Film is not as convenient as digital. He must wait to have pictures developed before you can look at them down is also expensive and having pictures processed, adds extra expense. In addition, when you use film, you must have everything on your roll of film printed out. You do not have the ability to scroll through and delete bad pictures on the spot as you do when you use digital.

Final Decision Time

When considering film over digital, one is really no better than the other. The choice has more to do with your personal preferences than anything else does. If you are considering buying a new camera, look at both film and digital to determine which ones are right for your use. I have three digital cameras, a 35mm camera and a standard film camera. If I had to choose, I would choose the digital because of the option to view pictures right away. This way you know if you are capturing the image the way you intended too. I have been caught to many times with fuzzy pictures, missing heads and so on. Another thing is with a digital camera, if you need glasses, you will still be in focus, where as with a 35 mm focus camera, you might have a surprise, fuzzy pictures, and you may never find another opportunity like that again.

Features

New 15.1 Megapixel CMOS sensor (4752 x 3168) with improved noise reduction, wide range ISO 100-3200 (H1: 6400, H2: 12800), 14-bit conversion for smooth color tones and gradations. Uses the APS-C sensor, so we still get the 1.6 factor on our lens.

Next generation DIGIC 4 Image Processor for faster processing, 6.3 fps (this is what I love about my 40D) up to 90 JPEGS using UDMA CF cards; 60 consecutive JPEGS or 16 RAW using standard CF cards.

3.0-inch Clear View LCD (920,000 dots/VGA) with multiple coatings for improved viewing and smudge-resistant protection.

Enhanced Live View shooting includes Face Detection Live mode.

9 cross-type high-precision sensors for accurate target subject acquisition and diagonal center cross-type AF point with f/2.8 and faster lenses.

New Lens Peripheral Illumination Correction setting to automatically even the brightness across the image.

Updated EOS Integrated Cleaning System with a fluorine coating for better resistance to dust.

HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) output for displaying full high-resolution images on a High Definition TV.

Compatible with over 60 Canon EF/EF-S lenses and most EOS System accessories.

For more details, visit the Canon Press Release site.

(1) less chemicals are being used to develop traditional film

(2) many of us actually print less, as we post them on the internet, and only tend to print the very best ones.

More on this topic in the article at Richard's Photo Articles. A similar article is here.

The challenge is this - how are you storing all those digital pics?

Will your future generations have time to look through the stacks of CDs you will be leaving them? And even if they do, will individual memories become less precious because there are so many?

What if disk drives fail or software formats change, rendering photos unreadable by tomorrow's computers? Will CDs even work? I for one found some old 8 mm home movies in a box my dad gave me. There was, however, no 8 mm projector in the box.

That same box had old negatives and slides mixed in with photos. Those negatives are still reproducible. Yet if you have a hard drive fail on your computer, it's all over. Do you make backups to mitigate the risks?

Many parents acknowledge their kids may never want all the photos, but they say they would like to have them available just in case they want them - particularly as they become parents themselves.

Just because you have taken thousands of digital photos of your children doesn't mean they will ever get to see them. Hard drives can corrupt. CDs scratch. Photo-storage sites can go bankrupt. And formats change.

In a future posting I will share some ideas on what to do.

Richard