John Turco wrote:
BaumBadier wrote:

heavily edited, for brevity

People today so often want to blame the camera. They don't realize they are
holding a technological wonder, with a zoom-range far beyond what many of us had
just 15 or 20 years ago. They expect it to perform like a snap-shot camera
because they've been made as user-friendly as an old Instamatic. Realize that
these new cameras are not only pushing the limits of technology but also the
limits of the photographer's own human abilities. Putting lens focal-lengths at
your easy disposal that no photographer in his right mind would have tried to
hand-hold just a few years ago. When we grabbed a 200mm or 400mm lens to put on
our cameras we also grabbed the tripod, as a standard rule of action. If new
photographers today stop to realize this then they'll stop blaming the
performance of the camera and learn to look more at their own limitations.
Improve your own techniques and the camera will happily compensate for anything
that you can't improve on your own.

edited

Hello, BaumBadier:

You make a lot of sense, man! P&S digicams - even highly advanced ones -
are so often taken for granted, despite their proven capabilities and
obvious advantages.


Cordially,
John Turco

Talking about large lenses...
I recently visited a nearby animal reserve (Fossil Rim, Glen Rose, Tx.),
and the car going through in front of me stopped by the Cheetah
enclosure, and poked a lens through the open window, and rested it on
the bottom of the window to take a picture. I would estimate the size
of the objective lens at 6", and the length of the lens to be about 12
inches. The Cheetah was only about 30 feet from the camera. Now I
would LOVE to see the picture he got. As we followed this car through
the rest of the drive, I got other glimpses of that lens, and two or
three others they had as they took pictures. It was obvious that they
were either professionals, or amateurs with MUCH money.