Someone recently asked me to suggest a digital camera to these specifications:

• Small/compact
  

• Expandable memory (at least up to 512 MB)
  

• 3x optical zoom
  

• 4 megapixels
  

My suggestion turned out to be for the Canon PowerShot S400. After looking around for cameras, I realized that the S400 is smaller and has better resolution than my S30 and costs the same price new. Silly technology improvements.

While whale watching, I encountered the only problem I have with my camera: weak optical zoom. Considering that the optical zoom on my S30 is only 3x and very few consumer-level digital cameras offer anything greater, I think I will have to stick with it for now.