My Xmas Wishlist - A Waterproof Shockproof Digital Cameras and the Best 35mm Film Scanner

There are some years that I don't have much on my wishlist for Christmas. I can usually afford to buy what I need and I try not to go overboard with what I want. But this year I've got two items on my Christmas wishlist and am going to be hoping Santa Claus is paying attention.

The first item on my Christmas wishlist is one of the cool waterproof, shockproof digital cameras you can now buy online for $300 or less. I started hungering for one of these last summer so I could use it in the swimming pool to take pictures of my kids, but my desire to get one has increased this year once I saw some of the cool features available on some of the cameras, like built-in GPS, panoramic mode, HD video and 3-D photo capabilities. I'm not sure I would actually ever use all of these things, but those are some pretty cool bells and whistles. And now that I've decided to take up my scuba diving again, I'm going to need a good underwater camera.

I can't decide exactly which one I want, so I'm leaving that up to Santa. I'm leaning toward the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS3 because it's waterproof to a depth of 40 feet. That's deeper than most of the waterproof cameras geared at the general public, not serious divers who need a camera that can withstand greater depths, like some of the Sealife cameras that are designed to go deeper than 100 feet. But even though the Panasonic is cool, I'm torn between it and the Nikon Coolpix AW100. First, because it's a Nikon. Second, well, because it's a Nikon. :-) For years, Nikon manufactured the Nikonos series of underwater cameras, which I used to dream of owning when I was a diver. They know what they're doing. Plus, the Nikon has 16 MP vs. 12 MP and full HD video. And did I mention it's a Nikon?

The other item on my wishlist this year is a slide scanner. I've been wanting one of these for years, but the Nikon CoolScan series of scanners, which sets the professional standard in scanners, is way out of my price range. The cheapest ones are over $1000 and the expensive ones cost more than I paid for my first car. So Nikon is out, and I don't want some crappy equipment that will disappoint me. I've got thousands of slides from my trips to India, China, Japan, Costa Rica and Guatemala, and I want a scanner that will do them justice. Fortunately, the best 35mm film scanner available today, based on user reviews I've read at Amazon and some photo stores, is under $200 - the Canon CanoScan 9000 ED.

So that's my wishlist, Santa. Are you listening?