i have to say, the folks at moultrie are very courtious, friendly, and best of all responsive to problems (thanks Amy D.!). i shot them an email with just my first problem with the pics not jumping up to the 6.0 enhanced setting and they were emailing and calling me to try fix the problem.
well when i actually made the call to let them know what was up and they could not believe what happened (the smoke problem). they said that i must have put the batteries in wrong but i know i did not. they said to ship the cam back to them and they will find out what is up. they also said it is a fire hazard sodo not put it in the field which is where it is right now (not woried about fires, rains every other day).
i did find out that the pic settings were possibly caused by my SD card (kingston 1G). I have not had any problems with this brand in my 3.1 cams ever but this is a whole new line up too. they stated they have had many many problems with this brand but i have not till now. recommended brands are san disk and lexar (the instructions say any name brand).

well iwill post the findings as soon i get'em.

CC