You know, my camera is heavy.  I have always just dealt with that fact regardless of weather we were at a family event or vacation, believing that the quality of image that I wanted was worth the inconvenience of lugging around a heavy camera. 

Recently tho I had been thinking about the quality the newer 'point and shoot' consumer cameras claim to possess and I decided to leave the heavy beast behind and get one of those little cameras for personal use.  After doing some shopping I bought a Olympus 8 mega pixel camera with a built in telephoto feature.  Nice little camera, wonderfully PINK, and light as a feather.  The cost was right around $250.

I was impressed.  When we went to our annual 'Simmons Family Camp out' i intentionally left 'the beast' at home and took only my little pink camera along.  My niece had her Canon 20d along with the exact same 'normal' usage lens that I use in the studio but I insisted that she not worry, my little camera would do an equally fine job when it came time to photograph the group and proceeded to do just that with my little Olympus.  Both cameras are 8 mega pixel. 

Well, I was very disappointed in the results.  I photographed a larger group of people at a wedding reception with my trusty Canon 20d and  28-70 mm  IS L series lens with the 550 Canon flash.  I even underexposed one drastically just for a comparison, and it far outweighed the quality of the lovely pink camera. 

Here are some samples.  The first ones are full frame and the second ones are cropped in for detail.