I hear you Doug on the special batteries. I actually bought an extra for my camera so I wouldn't run out of juice. They are expensive but I traded some photographic services for the extra battery and an extra compact flash card. The good news is the camera came with a charger.<br><br>It's great to be able to view your photo after you take it on the LED screen. I, like you started taking many more photos when I got my digital. This one has a macro feature too. It will focus within 4 inches. Not as good as yours probably, but adequate for most senarios. Here is the macro in practice. The camera is somewhat controlable in the exposure. I gave it an extra 1 2/3 of a stop exposure because of the black background. <br><br><br><br>If I did not reduce the res on these photos they would overflow the screen. This camera is not professional quality but it will do for most things I do. With the right printer and software it will make a resonably sharp 10x20. For that the pixels have to be interpolated and we have that at work but I just use in on my computer and hardly ever print a hard copy.<br><br>