Having some experience with digital photography, you might be tempted to set yourself up with a new Canon Digital SLR Camera. Canon has just released a perfect new model, evenly balanced between the (somewhat seasoned ) novice and the professional.
This new camera has a 15 megapixel sensor for fine detail and excellent color reproduction. For reference, a ten megapixel photo can be reliably printed at 180 dpi up to about fifteen by twenty inches. A fiftenn megapixel photo would probably be good for up to eighteen by twenty-four ( Check the linked article for the actual math ). Do you fancy taking a great shot and making poster-size prints? This size of camera would be great for a solid two foot long poster ( scrapbook pictures would charge about twenty five dollars for such a print ). Or perhaps you don't want a huge picture but you do want an excellent 5x7 or 3x5 of your kids at the soccer match. They're all the way over on the other side of the field, and you're having trouble tracking them with the telephoto lens?
You already have experience envisioning your frame broken up by the "rule of three." If you can get the kid within one of the nine imaginary "third by third" squares in the viewfinder, you should be able to crop and print this photo to the size you need for grandma, the scrapbook page or the school newspaper.
This camera will capture that speed too- with an ISO range from 100 to 3200 along with two high speed increments of 6400 and 12800. And you can get up to 6 shots per second.
Yeah, that's a poster-sized print of your kid kicking in the winning goal, with the ball in motion. Or the blue heron taking off from the marsh near your house.
I could write about "canon's digital photo professional" software, included free, or the automatic noise reduction, or even the peripheral illumination correction ( fixing the brightness of dark images so they appear brighter, perfect for shade and backlit shots ). But I don't need to. You should definately check out this fantastic camera; it's a real step ahead of your digital elph.