God, I haven't even opened the box to my new digital camera, and already I'm missing my Pentax K1000.

Both the SD880 and the SD890 are 10 MP, but I wasn't thinking I would be shooting at that high resolution anyway because the file size would be so goddamn huge

The memory cards are so cheap that it really makes sense to shoot at full resolution. Take a shot at full resolution and then just crop and resize. You'd be amazed how tiny an area you can crop down to and still keep very sharp detail. Much closer than you would ever get with an optical zoom system inside any compact camera.

I know I've asked this before, but I'm curious about any change: who here shoots in raw? Why? What's the resolution of your camera?

who here shoots in raw?

I am usually at least wearing socks.

I occasionally shoot in RAW but to be honest don't end up using what it gives me very often. If I'm shooting in really low light or something like that I'll shoot RAW so that I can do some extra tweaking to the image in Aperture after the fact.

We shoot in RAW from time to time, but it really depends on what we're after. Are we shooting desert landscapes to blow up and sell? (Err, that didn't sound like I meant it to sound.) Then we might choose RAW. But not all that often.

Drafty, java, drafty.

I think I need to experiment in RAW more, but I never think about it until after the fact. Not much point to use RAW for well-lit portraits.

Anyone done HDR?

Haaaa ha ha ha, wow, Adorama must really want to get rid of these things. I'm glad I didn't buy the SD890 earlier in the day; it just went down from $202 to $196. It's "We can't show you the price" low now. I guess that six bucks I saved paid for the fish burrito I just had.

Remember my monitor problems? When I tried to connect my new 25.5" monitor to my computer, it wouldn't boot up or even post. I was able to use the monitor with a VGA cable, but the picture was pretty sucky. Anyhoo, I think I finally got the digital connection working!!!1! Here's how I did it:

With the computer all booted up and running in Windows, I connected the digital cable to monitor and computer. Windows and/or the graphics card recognized this as a second monitor and ran a short setup routine! I flipped the monitor over to its digital setting (it has a button), and voila! there were the grassy plains of Windows.

Next, I noticed that the graphics card allows you to switch which is the primary monitor and which is the secondary, so I flipped them and made the digital connection the primary. Then, I disabled multiple displays, making the digital connection the only monitor. Finally, while holding my breath, I disconnected the VGA plug (digital display still worked!), and rebooted (it booted!). Then, I breathed.

It took a lot longer than my description lets on, as I was poking around trying to figure out what to do next. This involved a lot of mouse dragging from one screen to the other, flipping the monitor's A/D switch back and forth. But now a have some sharp huge-ass screen real estate to work with. Yay!

My HD cable box arrived this morning sans the promised HDMI cable. (They did send me a full complement of component video & analong audio cables.) BOO CABLEVISION.