Capturing babies!

… on camera.

A while back I posted about how feature-rich and easy Picasa is for sharing family photos. Since that time I’ve begun realizing that with a child on the way I will in fact need to upload quite a few. Right now I’m shooting with a years-old Sony digital which takes tremendous shots, and have some seven thousand frames from this camera stored on hard drives. Of those seven thousand shots, less than a hundred have ever made it to paper.

Not having to put images to paper is the beauty of digital photography, but with a child arriving in less than 70 days, I realize that I will have an increasing number of requests for prints. I no longer own a traditional film SLR and some friends and family in distant locales will be expecting photos via U.S. mail rather than email. Furthermore, photos make great inexpensive gifts. For the cost of  a print and and a cheap frame, you have a very thoughtful, personal gift without breaking the bank. I will most likely just use the development services available through Picasa, but I want to make sure that what I’m delivering to people is worthwhile.

With all of this in mind, I’ve decided it’s time to start looking for a new digital camera. Prices have begun to drop in advance of the upcoming holiday shopping season and I’ve narrowed it down to a few models: the Canon EOS Digital Rebel, Canon Digital Rebel XTi, Nikon D40x and the Nikon D80. They range from approximately 8 to 10 megapixels and seem to be relatively solid platforms.

That all said, what do all of you use for over-documenting your children, events and milestones? If any of you have any experience with the cameras listed above, suggestions for others or just random tips about how you photograph your children, I’d love to hear them.