I use a Canon G12 -- pretty much the biggest and heaviest compact camera you can get, but still small enough that you can stuff it in a coat pocket if you're on the run. It has extraordinarily powerful automatic features, but lets me go totally manual if I am in a complicated lighting situation where think I can outguess the sensors. I like the flip and fold viewing screen, which lets me preview interesting angles on the guns I am photographing without having to stick my upper body into the illumination. I previously had a G9 with comparable imaging abilities, but whose viewer was a fixed pane on the back of the box.

Sometimes I wonder if I ought to buy a big new digital body with extra glass to get back into the flowers and bugs thing I had going 15 to 20 years ago, but so far I have not succumbed to the temptation.

__________________
David Wilson