2. Don't zoom in on the animal to much as the smallest movement makes the pic real shakey and basicaly unviewable.
3. I really didn't "have to have" this high tech of a dig cam for taking photos of deer. I overused the zoom most of the time and most pics I took sucked. I would venture to guess that 75% of my pics I deleted from them coming out so bad.
First turn off your digital zoom, its worthless.
Second I bought I Panasonic DMC-FZ5...12X Optical zoom with the Image Stabilizer so I CAN zoom in all the way WITHOUT a picture betting blurred! It was a bit pricey around $450ish. Well worth the money! Good luck!
Great pictures guys!