The digital SLR. To know it is to love it.

This fast moving sting ray in low light conditions is the type of shot that
would have been tough to capture with my point and shoot.

Last time around I wrote of the convenience of point and shoot cameras, and as improvements continue to be made it makes a lot of sense for the average picture taking individual to stick with that type of camera. Even though I was pretty satisfied with my point and shoot I have to admit it never felt like a real camera to me. Maybe it is a generational thing, after all I was born in the middle of the last century (can you hear my bones creak as I type?). I've worked with 35mm, 2-1/4 and 4x5 film cameras - they were black and silver, sometimes bulky and very often heavy. Point and shoot cameras come in a rainbow of colors, are small enough to fit in your pocket, and are as easy as pie to operate. Any yet I jumped at the chance to buy a digital SLR. The SLR looks like my old 35mm, it feels like my old 35mm and it handles like my old 35mm. You even look through a viewfinder not an LCD screen to compose your shot. When I feel really daring I switch the camera to manual and handle focusing and the exposure settings all by myself. This is a real camera!