Yahoo! released a Digital Camera Preview for spring 2007. I found it to be a very interesting read. And man, technology has come quite a long way since I purchased my last digital camera 2 years ago.

Prior to that we had our original digital camera for 3 years, but while on the beach the camera got swept up by a wave. That was the end of that one. Sand, water, and digital cameras just don’t mix. At that point we purchased an Olympus C-765 UltraZoom (Awesome camera!). A few weeks later my wife and I were canoing (actually we were canoe racing another couple with the camera on board) and got to paddling a little to hard. You can guess what happened - tipped the canoe. There went digital camera #2. So, we headed out and bought the exact same camera again. The only consolation was that we paid $150 dollars less than we had the first time (thank you Amazon).

Okay, now that I’ve got my embarrassing “tech toy destruction” story out of the way (I will leave the story about driving away with the iPod on the truck of the car for later), maybe someone will share one of theirs. Now, back to the point . . .

We were talking about advances in technology. The story lists the features you can get on a $300 camera these days. Mind you, I paid $300 twice for my Olympus and got most of these, but not the 7-8 megapixels. I was psyched to get 4 megapixels!

• 7-8 megapixels
• Large view screen (at least 2.5 inches)
• 4x to 6x optical zoom
• ISO speed of at least 800, more likely 1600
• Automatic and manual settings
• Image stabilization
• The ability to print and share photos directly from the camera
• Use of Wi-Fi
• GPS positioning options
• Face detection

Here are the models that Yahoo! expects to cause the biggest buzz:

1. Samsung NV11
2. Olympus Stylus 770 SW
3. GE Gizmodo
4. Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W100
5. Kodak EasyShare Z712
6. Kodak EasyShare Z885
7. Canon A570IS

So, take a read. All of these sound like really good cameras. Kind of makes me wish I was in the market for one. I guess if I get desperate I’ll get the canoe out.