I've finally moved away from entry level DSLRs. I got some great photos with the XS, but I dropped it and it exploded all over the floor.
Upgrading from 10 to 18 megapixels, I was able to keep my lenses, yet shortly afterwards traded them in anyway. Current lineup is the EF-40 2.8, EF-50, 1.8, EF-S15-85, EF-S18-135, and EF-S75-300. This camera is amazing, and I look forward to putting more ghost towns online with it.
After my Powershot was stolen (since returned) by a meth head named Jackie Rivas (from Pueblo, but now living in Denver, who still owes me $660), I bought a DSLR.
ISO 800 shots compare in quality with ISO 80 shots on my Powershot, and ISO 200 or less is even better. Dark images, image stablizer, two nice lenses, and a quick camera give me the best images yet. Look for them to begin appearing throughout the site.
The Canon Powershot S5 IS was chosen because of its extremely long zoom range, ability to control all aspects of the photography, features, and price.
It doesn't produce the color quality of a DSLR under low lighting conditions, but the noise problems of small sensors in digital cameras were not a problem as most of my photography is done outdoors.
This 8 megapixel camera produces very good images, allows for manual controls of everything, and includes panorama functions. Because of the smaller sensor, larger lenses are not required for full zoom ranges, making it more convenient to carry.
The Casio Exilim was a point and shoot camera used to take some pretty good images. It was a point and shoot camera, and as such didn't have manual controls for it.
It was 4 megapixels, and at the time produced some of the sharped digital photo images available. Many images taken from this camera are available on the site.
The major limiting factor with this camera was the 3X zoom; and due to a lense nick, when zoomed in fully there is a 'finger smudge' looking artifact on the right side of the images.
Again, luckily, landscape photos do not usually need much zoom.