All weekend, I had no end of opportunities for great pictures, if only I had a camera in my hand.

Whether it was a great night sky, a dresser and drawers out on the lawn, drying after a fresh coat of stain was put on them, or just the grass outside our apartment, I had the itch to capture their images.

It doesn't help that Kirsten said, "That would make a great study" when I mentioned one of the shots I would have taken.

I've pretty much decided now that I'm going to go with a film camera, and scan them into the computer. I've even picked out the camera I want, a Pentax MZ-30. It's a mid-range camera, which I can pick up for about $399.

The neat thing I learned about the Pentax, is that -- through a little trick, of course, -- you can get depth of field preview. Apparently this is something that's been "included" with the cameras since the old K1000s.

You simply have to turn the lens an 1/8 of an inch or so out of its 'locked' position, set the metering to what you want, then lock the lens back in position.

It's a little more time consuming, but at least you don't have to pay the big bucks to get the feature.