I paid too much, but I love the camera

After researching and shopping for over a year, I bought the Minolta Z1 and took it on a 14 day cruise. I was able to get 644 photos on a 128MB SD card at resolutions acceptable to print 4x6 or use as screensavers. I bought one set of 4 AA alkaline batteries and they lasted me the whole trip plus 3 months more. My friends spent most of the time feeding their digital cameras cards and batteries, and did not have any where near the number or quality of pictures I returned with. I paid over $500 for the camera, and I am about to buy another one for my college bound daughter for under $200. This camera rivals my Minolta Maxxum SLR in picture quality because it has a real optical lens instead of one of those "button" plastic lenses commonly found on inexpensive digital cameras. (That is why I spent the extra money to get the Minolta Z1). What a bargain you have now! Also, I bought two 512MB SD cards to carry with me when I travel. Each one has four times the picture holding capacity of a 128MB SD card, and they are usually on sale with rebates for about $50.00. You will never run out of "film" again. Plus, you can increase the resolution of your pictures to over 1600 and still take lots of pictures of much higher pixel density, making it nicer if you want to blow them up when you print them at the photo shop. It is easy to operate, and has useful features instead of a lot of things you would never use. I purchased an optional full sized digital external flash that works on both my Minolta Maxxum and the Z1. It is an adjustable angle bounce flash that helps with big group pictures indoors. You can do as much as you want with this small, lightweight but very full featured quality camera. I would highly recommend it to anyone who either has never owned a camera, or an old pro like me.