Sunday Final

I need to rest my eyeballs.
No really.
My nephew had a birthday party at an indoor putt putt place called Glow Putt, aptly named:

I'm not going back there any time soon.
If you know what I mean.
Anyways, so yesterday I went and took some pictures at the football game, using three cameras.
Lemme tell you, I know a lot more about what I want in camera.
I mean I took a little over three hundred images last night using all three cameras and now I see some strengths and weaknesses.
My carry all the time camera:

My Nikon Coolpix expired a couple of weeks ago and did a hasty search for a new pocket camera, one I would also take on my bicycle rides.
When and if I ever ride my bicycle again.
I didn't really do any research, well not much anyways, for I saw this on sale at the local office supply place.
It was on close out for it has already been replaced by a new Elph model, the 110.
I only wanted a cheap camera so that if I crashed, I wouldn't be crying  too hard.
Well at a hunski, it wasn't really cheap, but cheap enough and slick enough,  I mean PRO, that I picked it up anyways.
First of all, it's a really nice camera and it takes really nice images.
It has all the bells and whistles most cameras of that size have, the only drawback is size.
It's smaller than my Coolpix was and I find it hard to get a good grip on.
Because it's so small, the controls are small too and it's a bit difficult to navigate through the features.  No way with full fingered gloves.
On the other hand, it has a CMOS thingy and decent low light performance at f/2.8.
I used it last night after my other camera died.
Well, it didn't actually die:

It's just making really bad grinding noises now when the lens goes in and out.
Top of the line P&S when it came out, my S5is is over five years old.
Which is like 1,000,000 in camera years.
If you know what I mean.
At only 8 megapixels, it takes really nice pictures, I figure because of the larger glass, and is also packed with all sorts of doodads that I never use.  It has 12x zoom which I like but is considered middle of the road now as far as zoomba cameras go and there are pockets with more than 20x zooms now.
It has a flip out LCD which I really like for you can hold it over your head or on the ground or around corners if you wanted to and still frame your shot.
The only thing I don't like about it is that it only shoots like 1 frame per second, or something like that anyways, it's really slow.
About to be retired because of the grinding noises and for something more PRO.
Like this:

An older Canon EOS Rebel from school.
This camera too may be around four or five years old, the Xsi became available around the same time I got the camera above.
Basic DSLR with more stuff than I could ever think of using while actually taking pictures.
The 55-250 zoom was a burden for the field of view was like looking through a pipe although the magnification helped for across the field shots.
Not as big and bulky as I thought.
I did have a problem navigating through the menu though and shot half the night in the incorrect white balance.  I finally figured out how to turn on the auto right before I left for home.
I really liked using it though I would have liked it better if I had a shorter, faster lens too.
So what did I learn?
A DSLR ain't so bad, not if all you are there for is taking pictures.
A PRO camera.
I looked at them mirror less cameras by the way, and I don't think I could live without a view finder and the lens' are just as huge so the nod goes to the DSLR.
I need to rethink the whole mega zoom range and look again at field of view or lack there of.
When you don't have it, you really miss it.
My present camera is too small.
Great as it is, I should have held it and fooled around with more before I got it.  For whatever reason, it's difficult to operate one handed, a must for riding around on the bicycle.  I suppose I'll get used to it, but I already have my eyeballs on something else.
So I'm thinking of getting a DSLR after all, the question is which one?
More on this later.
Anyways, one PRO camera and one pocket PRO camera should be enough to satisfy my voyeuristic needs for now.
The pocket P&S have really evolved over the years and for what they can do, they are not that far away from mid range mega zooms what with the CMOS detectors and all.
Now comes the hard part.
Choosing one.
This may take a while.
If you know what I mean.