Brian,

The current seems to be flowing toward digital cameras, but there is another possibility you may want to consider. IF you have a limited budget AND a video camera, a video digitizer is a very handy device. The one I have experience with is the "Snappy" made by Play, Inc. The last I knew, it retailed for about $99.

http://www.play.com

This is a little box that screws into the back of the computer, with a wire running to the video camera. It allows you to digitize an image from videotape or a live video camera feed. It can also take a video image from a VCR. The software allows you to watch the video onscreen and freeze it into a still image, which you can save in the common computer graphics formats.

I can't quote resolution figures from memory, but the live camera images I made were sharper than a $600 digital camera (I'm not guessing about that - we had both). The image from tape is probably comparable to the digital camera.

For use in the field, it's not as convenient as a digital camera. The live camera has to be as close as the length of a wire to you computer - tough to do on the lake. But the price is right and the quality is excellent.

Check into it. Good luck.

Jeff E.