Luckily it turns out I spoke too soon on my camera problem
It's kind of embarrassing but here goes... My camera ALWAYS retracted the lens when the batteries were low and before they got too low, then it would give a low battery warning on the monitor. I replaced the batteries once (I charged them not too long ago... or maybe it was months, I forget these things
).
Anyway I thought maybe I better just get my voltmeter out and see if something unusual was going on and sure enough ALL of the batteries that I thought were charged were quite low except for the one pair that was able to at least retract the lens.
Sigh... I'll dream a little longer about that SLR that has been on my wish list. In the meantime I'll be recharging batteries and marching onward with my little Nikon Coolpix (small and very easy to just drop in a pocket when on field trips!).
