I would avoid the smaller point-and-shoot cameras if you are wanting the flexibility to produce publishable-quality images in a range of settings. Those smaller cameras have small, poor-quality, lenses that will not produce superb images, especially if you need to shoot in less-than-ideal lighting situations. Buyers often erroneously focus on the megapixels of a camera rather than the lens. Both are important, of course, but usually the bottleneck for great images is the lens, not the megapixels. A tiny lens on a camera the size of a pack of playing cards is not going to let in enough light to be really useful. If you buy a bigger camera with a better lens it will let in the light that you need. I am not a professional photographer, but I have read the books on how to take photographs of art and artifacts. What I use personally in my work as an art historian is an entry-level digital SLR camera. When I chose a camera for myself I wanted to be able to take pictures of art in a wide-range of settings, from outdoors in a public park to the interior of a dimly-lit cathedral to the unevenly lit stacks of a research library. Thus, I determined that a camera for me should have, at the minimum: * A large enough lens that I could take clear pictures in moderate indoor light with no tripod and no flash. * A fully-automatic mode that makes the camera work like a point-and-shoot. * A mode that is automatic except for manual control of the aperture, which I find useful for shooting 2D images in low light with no flash. * A setting to adjust for incandescent lighting. * A setting to adjust for fluorescent lighting. The entry-level DSLRs met those needs the best for me, and this type of camera costs $550-$650 today. The one I bought is a Canon Digital Rebel, which at the time was the most affordable camera of this quality, and I have been very happy with it. Nikon makes a similar camera, which I believe is the D40. My Canon camera does not do video, so you would need a different camera for that. http://www.amazon.com/Canon-Digital-Camera-18-55mm-3-5-5-6/dp/B0012YA85A/ref=dp_ob_title_ce <http://www.amazon.com/Canon-Digital-Camera-18-55mm-3-5-5-6/dp/B0012YA85A/ref=dp_ob_title_ce> http://www.amazon.com/Nikon-Digital-18-55mm-3-5-5-6G-Zoom-Nikkor/dp/B000KJQ1DG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1269004991&sr=8-1 Travis On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 9:58 AM, Sarah Griswold <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > Any collective wisdom about good, all purpose cameras that can do videos > and collection photography? > > Thanks > > Sarah Griswold > Lebanon (CT) Historical Society > ========================================================= Important > Subscriber Information: > > The Museum-L FAQ file is located at > http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed > information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message > to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read > "help" (without the quotes). > > If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to > [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read > "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes). > -- ================================== Travis Nygard [log in to unmask] http://www.travisnygard.com ================================== ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).