johnch,

I have a HP camera for personal up close photos, it's only a 2.5 meg. pix. At work I use two Olympus cameras, both are no longer made but they take excellent photos. I use the cameras to take photos of crops and farmland/timberland, rarely do I have to take long shots, so I can't tell you how they would be at that. One is 5 meg. pix. and the other is 2.5. Both have 3X lense, auto focus.

My suggestion would be a 5 meg. pix or more, these are better if you plan on making enlargements of your photos, 8x10 or larger, however, they normally will cost more.

A friend of mine swears by Nikons', both 35 SLR's and digital. I have a 35 SLR by Pentax (had it for over 20 yrs) and never a problem, so that said, I would imagine Pentax probably makes some good digitals.

Check out Wal-Marts web page for digitals, even if you don't buy from them at least you would have a bunch to look at and read about.

Dog1