Do you normally wear glass? If so, could it be that the dioptric on the camera is set incorrectly? If you look through the viewfinder, on the right, there's a little + and - sign with a small rotating button, try turning that while looking through the viewfinder and see if it gets less blurry one way or the other. For me, it needs to be turned all the way to the " - " side. I'm even thinking I might need to replace the dioptric because I'm so blind :P You can order them at the Canon site under Accessories, though probably somewhere online has them cheaper :) I hope this info helps :) -A P.S. Now, if I could just figure out how to set the 9 dot thing properly when working with depth of field, I might get some photos that don't need to be "Sharpened" in PhotoShop! Here is a link that might be useful: Dioptric

There are several good telephoto lenses (the kind you want to buy) available for your cameras. Since your current lens can cover distances to 80mm, you should look for one with a focal length of at least that. Bigger numbers indicate the ability to handle longer distances. A 160mm lens will focus to twice the distance your current lens will. A 240mm lens will focus to three times the distance. However, as this focal length increases, three things will happen to the lens: it will get more expensive; generally larger and heavier; and less able to handle lower levels of light. Expensive is expensive; there is not much you can do with that besides buy a used lens or a third-party lens (in your case, a lens by anyone other than Canon). The inability to handle lower levels of light can be compensated for several ways. You could keep the camera lens open longer to admit more light -- but that can cause blurring if you're shooting a moving subject or holding the camera without a tripod. You could use flash, though the flash that comes on the camera likely won't have enough power to light something far away, so you might have to buy a flash unit. You could spend more money :-) and get a telephoto lens that has a wider maximum aperture. These are sometimes dramatically bigger and heavier than less-capable lenses. Or you could buy an "IS" (Image Stabilization) lens; the lens largely eliminating blur caused by handholding. Neat feature; not cheap. If you choose to buy a used lens, it's best to buy one in person at a place that sells used photographic equipment and will give you at least a little warranty. Bring your digital so you can see some results right away. Since Canon is a popular brand, if you live near an urban area you shouldn't have trouble finding a good lens. If you buy a third-party lens, stick with better-known brands (Tamron and Tokina come to mind, but try to avoid their very cheapest lenses). A good third-party lens will have a metal lens mount and operate smoothly and quietly. You also will have to make sure it works with your particular Canon camera model. Sometimes third-party lenses don't work well with a given manufacturer's camera, so you may lose some automatic features or exposure information. That's a lot to digest at once, I'm sure. There also are several Web sites which discuss lenses for Canons -- but be warned that there is just a firehose of information out there because Canon is such a popular brand.

I've got a Canon Power Shot S2 IS. Its a great point an shoot camera, but with a few gripes. The good stuff: 1. Fast boot up. Ready to go 1 second after turn on. 2. Quick auto-focus. If the auto-focus is turned off for general viewing and composing, it will focus when the shutter button is pressed to the first detent and immediately fire the shutter when the button is pressed all the way down. You press to the first detent, wait for focus, then shoot. Focusing in good light takes nore more than a second or so. Focus lag can be eliminated if the auto-focus is set to full time, but uses more battery power. Usually, by the time you compose the picture it is waiting for you. 3. Auto-focus continues while shooting a video. 4. Great lens 12 X Zoom, 6.0 - 72.0 mm; f/2.7 - f/3.5. There aren't many lenses out there (in this price range) that will have an arperature of f/3.5 at 12 X zoom. 5. The S2 model has 5.0 MP. This has been plenty for what I do. Later models have more. 6. Battery life is average with the Hybrid NiMH rechargeable cells. Regular NiMH cells are disappointing. These do not hold charge very well. The Hybrid NiMH cells leak rate is acceptable and superior to the regular NiMH cells. 7. The view finder brightens in low light to aid composition. The amount of brightening is amazing. When the shutter button is pressed to the first detent, a small green led light beam turns on to aid focusing and turns off for the shot. 8. Raising the flash lamp activates it. It needs a few seconds to charge. 9. Lens distortion is low. Swing-out and swivel rear screen. The agravating: 1. The sensor does not seem to have as much dynmaic range as a Nikon or Kodak. 2. Default settings causes burn out of highlighted items. This can be remedied by switiching to the "P" (program) mode and adjusting exposure down by 1/3 F stop. 3. Although the lens has 12X zoom, I would sacrifice a litte zoom on the long end to get wider at the low end. The low end is not wide enough for close-in group shots. 4. The worst failing for the S2 model. Viewfinder is too dim in bright light and the rear screen is hard to see (and increases battery drain). 5. There is no optical view finder; it is electronic. It is a little short of pixels to make good judgements about fine focus and there is a lag as one adjustes the focus. However, since the viewfinder is using signal from the main sensor, it accurately frames the scene. These comments apply to the S2 model. Improvements have been made in later models. It will be difficult to beat the performace of this camera in this price range.

OK, I'll try an explain my thinking... 1.look at your environment and decide what you want to shoot. Since it just finished raining thought take some macro of water on various plants, used the ef-s 60 due to it lightweight for hand held close-ups. Next I look at lighting, low clouds but not too dark so I didn't need to use a flash, I can use settings to manipulate lighting. 2.Determine camera settings to archive the look you want. Take a few test shots at various white balance, shutter speeds, aperture, iso settings to get an idea how the end result will be. Used manual so I could adjust as light situations changed. Also change focus points depending on composition. 3.Take some photos Lighting is everything, watch how the shadows effect the look your after. Direction of light source, your position and so on. Doing this type of photography your able to take multiple shots at various angles to get the looks your after. The thing that I watch the most after camera settings is background objects and color. Find the subject, figure out your aperture/shutter speed, compose your shot, select focus point, check background. I don't want something behind the subject to draw your eye away from the focal point, aperture comes into play here. The bigger the f stop (smaller number) the more the bokeh( background out of focus) you achieve. I took 100 photos to get the 9 that were most appealing, out of those there are 4 that are my faves. f5.6, 1/50s, 800iso f5.6, 1/50s, 800iso Used ef 17-40 f4, settings f8, 1/100s, 800iso