Happy Birthday Nathan

Nathan's birthday is in April. So actually, why am I wishing him a happy birthday already? We were excited to get (and sort of) give him his present this weekend!! We got him a digital camera and he is "graciously" letting me take it to Haiti with me in a couple of weeks. (can't take my SLR because it's way too big) I needed to play around with it in order to be comfortable using it. One thing I don't need is a learning curve on a camera when I'm only in Haiti for a week. Anyway. I have spent my afternoon taking pictures and I'm ready to give you a review of this camera. It's a Nikon Coolpix S51. 8.1 megapixels. Metallic blue. Very cute little camera. It must pretty much be operated one handed, which worked out well, since i was walking the dog and picking my way over the slush and running water as I walked. I only really had one hand to use. That's because the lens is right at the edge of the camera and it's very easy to get fingers in the way of the shot, which i did several times. The whole back is the LCD screen. Very hard to see in the sunshine. If you're used to looking through an eye piece, as I am, then getting used to using the screen to set up your shot is rather a trick. I think it will be ok though. Focus was not my worry, as it does that for you automatically. Your only choice is to use the wide angle lens or a close up. It has a 3x optical zoom 6.3-18.9mm which isn't much, and a bit of a digital zoom as well, though I really don't like digital zoom. It also does movies, records sounds, can be set up for self timer (which I haven't done yet) and has several other features that I'm working on figuring out. One other cool feature is a scroll button that you roll around like on an IPod to get to a picture as you're looking through them. Very easy to look at pictures you've taken.I have to hope that the battery will hold up well. It's a rechargeable lithium battery. The SD card is 4 GB and should be sufficient for the # of pictures I will take in a week's time in Haiti. (holds over 1,000) The camera does go to 'sleep' if not used after a few minutes. I'm not sure if it will shut itself off though. So. Happy birthday again, Nathan. Thanks for letting me use your new camera. I promise to take good care of it and bring back a ton of great pictures from Haiti. I'll be able to give you a few lessons on the camera, too!