recommend a good computer and digital camera?

I'll chime in although my views have some definite biases that are probably in the minority. I'm a digital retoucher and illustrator and make my living exclusively using Macintosh computers.

I realize that you're present goals are much simpler than that, but I have a sneaking suspicion that once you have a digital camea, computer and an inkjet printer your interest in image editing and the other fun things you can accomplish will grow.

If you think there's a remote chance of that happening I would encourage you to get a Mac. Apple invented the GUI, their machines look way cooler, apps like Photoshop are optimized to run in Apple OSX, it's my opinion that you'll be able to view and get better color with a Mac and its ColorSync features, and they are very plug and play. How about that for a run-on sentence?

If you don't think you'll need a suped up editing station how about an iMac or the portability of an iBook? All Macs come equipped with Firewire and USB connectivity which makes them a snap to connect to digital cameras, card readers and inkjet printers.

Ok, so I'm biased. Actually no matter what computer or operating system you choose, I think you'll have a lot of fun!

I own a 5 megapixel Olympus E20, but I think the 4 megapixel Canon S45 I use on vacations is much more what you're looking for. The E20 is about the size of a standard 35mm SLR film camera.

The S45 is small enough to put in a shirt pocket, and can be put into action in just a few seconds. It takes great pictures and has excellent tonal balance. I use a 256MB Simpletech compact flash card when empty is good for about 220+ pictures.

Make sure to buy an extra battery for your camera so you won't be caught with a dead camera when that beautiful Italian woman strolls past you in Santorini.

A media reader like the Simpletech compact flash/Smartmedia reader I use when connected to your computer will get all those neat pictures on your machine.

I see a lot of dark or overly flashed pictures posted on Audiogon. An image editing app like Photoshop is a good way to correct strong color casts, open up dark images and pull back highlights from being specular. Photoshop also has a good prepare for web module with export preview built into it that will allow you to make sure the images are the right size and look good even when compressed.

Just in case you ever decide to print out your images, consider the excellent line of Epson inkjet printers. I got turned on to them by a Dallas based photographer over 3 years ago. I use a 2000P and it beats the pants off of anything an offset printer can produce. There are lot's of good inkjets from Hewlitt Packard and Epson starting at $70!

I'm sure some professional shooters like Marco [Jax2] and Albert Porter will have some great recommendations.

Good luck and have a ball!

Agreed, forget wintel boxes, get a Mac and be done with it. Anything else is a lesser choice at best.

canon S500 powershot is a very nice cam for reasonable money. For a bit more, I'd step up to the EOS rebel digital or the EOS 10D. (those make excellent sense if you have an investment in EOS 35mm gear, as they use the same lenses.)

-Ed

Mac all the way

A

While i'm not much of a computer whiz, i know more than a few of my friends do. Having said that, they had me set-up a couple of differnt Dell laptop's for them. The first one was completely "whacked" when we took it out of the box. The operating system had major errors in it from what i can tell so we didn't even mess with it. They did send another one out to replace it right away.

Once we got the second one, my experience with Dell customer support was like that mentioned above. That is, it was horrible. I literally spent two to three hours each on a couple of different occasions trying to resolve problems. On top of that, the Dell branded Wi-Fi ( wireless network ) gear has problems with it, so shop wisely.

As a side note, Sony Laptop's don't come with a copy of the OS or a recovery disc, so if anyone has one of these, you better make a back-up disc before doing anything else to it. Otherwise, you'll have to contact Sony and purchase a disc separately, which could put your computer out of commission for a period of time. Not good and really stupid on the part of Sony's marketing as far as i'm concerned. Sean
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As a professional photographer I have much the same opinion as Gunbei. I have a Mac dual processor tower and the new 17" Powerbook. Both are excellent and you have the choice of several operating systems.

I have OS 9.1 on one hard drive in the Mac tower and OS X Panther (plus OS 9) on the other hard drive. The Powerbook is running OS X Jaguar.

For those who are accustomed to Win machines, the software that makes them so valuable in the business world is also written for Mac. I have Microsoft Internet Explorer, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage.

As Gunbei pointed out, Photoshop and Illustrator are native to OS X and not only run faster, they never crash. With each Mac, comes photo viewing software called I photo which is the "visual" counterpart to I tunes and the I pod.

If you install the editing software provided by Nikon or Canon, the Mac software recognizes it and allows the user complete control over where to view, edit and change images. The FireWire port on Mac will allow you to plug Nikon directly into the computer and control it from the desktop. Handy for time exposures, delay flash or astral photography or a situation where you wish to be remote (or in the comfort of your car).

As for Cameras, I don't know your budget but the new Nikon D70 is pro quality for reasonable price. I suspect it will sell for about 1K. Here is a link to a new test and review:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d70.htm

Good luck with your venture whatever way you decide to go.