tony cooper wrote:
On Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:07:29 -0500, Kris Krieger
wrote:

What I definitely do not want is an "automated" thing that takes away my
control over the photo, focuses eveythign in the center (as opposed to where
*I* want the focus to be), and other such interferences. So I've been leery
of "power shot" types or other types that sound like they are merely for
taking nice little snapshots (as opposed to decent-quality photographs).

I know of no digital camera that focuses everything in the center. I
have a low-end point-and-shoot that my wife uses and a dslr that I
use. In both cases there is one or more focusing brackets in view.
In both cases, if you focus on an object using in the focusing
bracket, depress the shutter button half-way, and move the camera, the
camera will retain the focus as set. In other words, you can focus
using the center focus bracket and then move the camera to have what
is in focus in the edge of your image.

Furthermore most (all?) dSLRs allow you to select which focus area(s)
should be taken into consideration by the camera. If you know that your
subject will be in the upper right corner for the next 20 shots, then
set the focus to the upper right corner.

jue