Bigger and more flexible might be better.
I was fishing on the Crystal river in Florida a couple weeks ago and
put the little Canon A530 on the roof of the car when I was loading
fishing gear on the trunk. Even in the case it's a small package.
Back on the 45mph road next to the park a thump was heard.
"What was that?!" my wife says.
"Just my tackle box shifting in the trunk." I said.
A few seconds later, "Where's the camera?!" my wife says.
I was silent for a bit. Thinking.
"Where's the camera?! Where's the camera?! Did you leave it on the
roof?!" I saw you put it on the roof!"
She was getting overcome by panic.
So I took charge, me being a man of clear thinking and a veteran of
the Armed Forces.
"SHUT UP!" I said.
I needed to turn around and she wasn't helping.
Luckily there wasn't much traffic, and about a half mile back I
spotted the camera on the opposite shoulder, still halfway in the
case.
Ran out and got it. Looked good to go, just a gouge on the plastic,
so I gave it to the wife with some pride.
"Here. Everything will be all right now."
Turned the car around and got a bit down the road, and she calmly
says, "The shutter button is gone, It doesn't work."
No way I could find that button, since I didn't mark in my head where
I found the camera, so I just kept driving and thought up a new plan.
"Here's the plan," I said. " We'll go to Walmart and buy a new
camera." And that's what we did.
But it was no different than putting a $160 in bills on the roof of
the car to blow away. That camera was perfectly fine, and the AS1100
I bought to replace it seems no better, but uses twice the space for a
pic, being 12 megapix vs 5.
Still no aperture, focus and shutter speed at the fingertips.
I've rejected fixing my film Minolta 102 and made the digital
transition in my head, but I need a low light, focusable camera.
My wife took some low light evening landscape shots with the new
camera that I could have caught beautifully with my Minolta.
Not worth looking at.
And I like a lightmeter needle in the viewfinder.
Anybody got recommendations for a digital SLR with the manual
adjustments mentioned? Body and a quality 50-200 zoom lens
for less than a grand?
Bigger the better. Little cameras are not good for fat fingers, and
get left on car roofs.
Yeah, I could find info elsewhere, but I'll trust boaters first.
Lots of gearheads.

--Vic