[HeyPK]

What Camera do you use?

I have a Canon 10D, also. I had to fork over just about all of my monthly paycheck to get it along with a 28-135 zoom Canon lens and a Promaster (cheaper than Canon) 100 mm macro lens. I had to overcome a great deal of resentment towards Canon to buy this camera. I am still mad at them for deciding to terminate all support for the Canon F1 series of professional cameras in favor of the Eos series. Canon actually destroyed all their stocks of Canon F1 accessories.

Nonetheless, the 10D is a very good digitial camera. You can use external flashes, and the 6 megapixil sensor gives resolutions equivalent to those of most films.

I discovered that I can use the 10D to digitize my slides. I cut a rectangular hole in cardboard, tape the slide over the hole, set up a light source behind and photograph it with the macro lens. Comparing the digital image I get with the original, I find that I lose almost no resolution. The picture of C. lingua was taken from a slide. Actually, the digital picture is improved over the original slide because, using Photoshop, I was able to correct an overall purple cast and fogginess due to overaged film.

 

[HeyPK]

So what does it mean if my camera has " SLR viewfinder" in the specs?

It MAY mean that it has a viewfinder that you can use for pictures taken at a distance of, say, three feet or more, but it also has a viewing screen on the back of the camera that can show what the lens is seeing. Using the viewing screen uses up battery power a lot more, but is a must when you are doing close-ups where the difference between what the viewfinder sees and the lens sees becomes significant.