Any free advice on digital cameras? What features would I seek to put pix on the forum? What price range? T I A :seeya

 

I love my Nikon Coolpics 995! It is very easy to use and takes great pics, around $500. Do a search in offtopic / archive with camera in the subj and you will find a wealth of info.

 

I'm in love with my Sony S-85. Here is a good forum for Digital camera's. It's not as nice as this place and It can get pretty nasty sometimes :eek: but you can get any info you need.
http://www.dpreview.com/ Good luck and don't pull your hair out. I nearly went crazy before I made up my mind. It really all depends on how much your willing spend.

 

FUJIFILM
Fuji invented the Digicam.
Go for the FinePix 2600 or the new 2650 with the new XD Picture Card. Tons of features for $249.

Just my .02 (but i know what I am talking about...hint, hint)

Stew

 

Do the search thing as suggested above. Lots of good info. Thats what helped me decide on a Canon G2. 4.0 megapixels. Purchased fromhttp://www.buydig.com/cgi-local/shop/web_store.cgi With upgrades and freight around $750.00

here is a link to some pics I took right after I bought it. (not dialup friendly)
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=352668


[Modified by DaBo, 1:03 AM 8/14/2002]

 

There are so many choices, it is hard to pick. :crazy:

Mine is a Canon Powershot A40. It is mid-pack in terms of price (~$475 CDN). What sold me on this one is that it was the only camera in this price range that had manual override.

See pics in my sig for examples.

 

I've got an Olympus and like it a lot. Check out my sig pic to see how it works.

 

i have a sony mavica fd-92 and love it 16x zoom will take short mpeg videos uses memory stick or floppy disc.

 

Pat's right. The only thing I don't like about my Olympus is that it only has a 3X zoom. That's pretty common in a lot of digital cameras. If you can get one with a stronger zoom I would recommend it.

 

I have the coolpix 880 and love it. It is very user friendly.

 

get the biggest optical and smallest digital zoom for your money. Unless your going to be printing poster size pictures 2.1 -2.2 meg pixals is all you need and you still have to reduce the size to fit the picture on 8.5X11 poto quality paper.

Also look for how many batteries it holds. You need four. My Sony sucked and I got rid of it. The pics were great, but it would suck the two batteries dry and you were constantly changing them. I also like like smart card type cameras. I now have an Olympus 510. When prices come down I will be getting mini opi disk.

 

Have the Canon A40 (2megapix) and love it! Got a deal from BestBuy....free card reader, add-on 128Mb card & no interest - $299US

Recommendations:

1) Get a large storage card (128Mb) so you never have to worry about space while shooting pics.
2) Get rechargeable batteries (NiMh).
3) Get a USB card reader (less than $20) to transfer files to your computer. Using camera to xfer pics eats batteries quick!

Use price comparison sites like:
http://www.pricescan.com/ http://www.nextag.com/

to get the best deal.

Mark

 

I just bought my 2nd digital camera and it helped because I had lived with one for awhwile and knew what *I* wanted. It helps to know what you want. At this stage I wanted a camera that I could take with me to take decent pictures equivalent to a cheaper 35 mm camera. Not take up too much space. Ultimate megapixel was not my concern.

I, too, went wit hthe powershot A40. I like its CompactFlash cards. My old camera had Smartmedia and they were so flimsy that I actually messed up a couple of them. CompactFlash are much more sturdy. I went to Frys and picked up a 256 MEg card for $80. This allows me to hold 850 images in the medium resolution (1024x768). Thats a buttload of pictures.

My last camera had AA's. I didn't want a camera that used proprietary batteries, in case I got in a pinch. The A40 solved my problem here too by also using AAs. I picked upa couple sets of rechargable NiMHs that I swap out. I can probably take 400-500 pictures on one set of these. :cool:

I wanted rudimentary video support. The A40 will do about 15 seconds of 320x480x10 frames per second video WITH SOUND. I find myself using this A LOT. Very fun feature. At a recent wedding I brought the camera to, I took 350 pictures and another 75 megs of video and still had room on the card for another couple hundred pics.

Stitching support. A40 had stitching support so if I wanted to take a panorama picture, the camera will help you line up the multiple pictures for later stitching (stitching software comes with the camera).

Zoom. Digital zoom sucks. I wanted a camera that had "analog" :) zoom. The A40 has 3x zoom. (even more if you use digital, but I have that turned off).

Built-in lens cap. I had a separate lens cap on my old camera. It was lost within a month. So my next camera had to have a built-in lens cover that opened/closed when yo uturned on the camera. The A40 has this.

TV-out. my last camera didn't have this and I think its very important. We were away from home for the wedding and hte place we were at didn't have a hot computer setup for me to download pics, but they had a TV. So I plugged the camera in, set it to slide-show mode and everyone gathered around the TV to see the hundreds of pics and the videos (with SOUND) on the tV. Needless to say, it was a BIG hit.

Fast. My last camera would take quite a few infuriating seconds between shots. Now (in medium resolution) I can snap shots nearly as fast as I can press the button. Probably all cameras are a lot faster now.

Manual override. I'll probably never use it but its nice to know I can set F-stops, ASA, etc.

Price. My limit was around $300. At ritzcamera.com I got this camera (no shipping or tax) for $299. Was pleased with service.

The only downside to this camera that I can think of is that its 2 megapixel. A lot of higher end ones are 4+. But for me this is not even an issue because I didn't buy it to take professioanl quality photos. It will take pics that print out at near-photo quality so I am not concerned.

So thats my review. I couldn't be happier. But you need to ask yourself what YOU want to do with a camera. Here's a great review site: http://www.steves-digicams.com/hardware_reviews.html

-terry

 

I have a $150 VIVITAR 3500 and it makes awsome pics..... The resolution is 1360 x 1024 which is more than enough... I can e-mailed you some uncompressed pics (much better quality and size than the compressed ones that I post on the internet)

:cheers:

Olivier

 

The Nikon is the Cadillac of the fleet of digital cameras. But for user friendly features and great resolution,it is still hard to beat the "no baloney" Sony Mavica series cameras. Even the low end Sony is a real go getter and the price is very good. Shop around and you will find good deals. I bought my last one on the internet and got it for around $300 which is over a $100 dollars cheaper than anywhere in town.

:cheers:

 

Terry,

I have been shopping for quite a while and was zeroing in on the Sony DSC P71 camera . . . But after reading your post today, I looked into the Cannon A40 and your right, looks like a great camera for the price and it has gotten great reviews. I just ordered it online with the 32MB stick, case and lens cleaner kit for $308. That looked like an awesome price as I compared.

Thanks so much for the write-up!!! :yesnod: :yesnod: You saved me some money today and I'll have a camera with a couple of features the Sony lacked.

 

:cheers:
:cool:
Glad to have helped. I'm sure you'll love it as much as I do!
-terry

 

I have a Nikon 995 that works great. I 995 has a lot of manual controls we don't use, the 885 may be more bang for your buck if you only want the automatic controls. Here is a great website for comparison:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare.asp

Features that I notice/use the most:

- Need 3 Megapixels or more.
- As much Optical zoom as possible
- Anti-Glare LED preview screen.
- Long battery life.

Here is a sample of a picture from the 995:



One complaint about the 995, the low light photos aren't that great. Does better in full sun.

:cool:

 

Well, here is my take, from a serious hobiest.

I would DEFINATLY suggest going to a good camera store in your area, and try out a bunch of cameras. DON'T go to somewhere like best buy, or compusa.. the guys there know computers (er.. sort of), but arent by any means experts on cameras. First and foremost you are buying an optical device.. the electronics are secondary. This is why I usualy recommend going with camera companies such as Canon or Olympus, rather then electronics companies such as HP or Sony. The HP and Sony cameras are good, but more money goes into stuff such as "night vision" rather then a robust, optically sound camera. I would much rather have quality optics, and a body that will take some bumping around, then the aiblity to burn CDs, or light up buttons.

When you go to look at these camera's, talk to the salespeople, and let them know what you want to do. The high-mid range cameras ($600-$1200), which would be your best bet, in terms of affordability/quality of pictures, are great cameras, but cant do it all. Each of the big three (Nikon 995, Canon G2, and Olympus 4040) have their strengths and weaknesses. All three will take GREAT everyday type pictures, but each has a little niche:

The Olympus C-4040Z is a great camera in terms of optics (has a super bright F1.8 lens, great for depth of field, and low light pictures). It also has the quickest auto focus of the bunch, and the best macro abilities of the bunch. Its big weakness is chromatic abrasions (a purple haze) in situations where there is very high contrast (the sun behind a tree). I picked the 4040Z myself, because I love Macro photography, and just fell in love with the F1.8 lens... The CA problem can be dealt with, 95% of the time, by picking a better angle to take the picture from..

The Canon G2, is another camera I absolutely love. This camera has almost NO CA.. The optics are good, and you get a nice F2.6 lens with it. The G2 has a very good, and easy to use menu system, and gives you the most flexibility in terms of manual control of all 3 cameras. If I didnt love Macro photography so much, this is the camera I would have chosen. The drawbacks of the G2 are it has the worst macro abilities of the 3, it has a slow autofocus, and its white balance seems to be a little off.. Flesh tones didnt seem to come out right when I was testing this camera, but that is something that can be changed when post processing.

The Nikon 995 is also a great camera. I love the swivel body, and big LCD. It also sports an F2.6 lens, and has a GREAT menu system. Its auto focus is almost as quick as the C4040, enough to make it negligible when determing what camera you want. It gives the same manual controls of the 4040. The 995 does have some CA, but less then the C4040. Where the 995 really shines is its ability to use many add on lenses (teleconverters, wide angle, macro, etc) with very little vignetting. I do a lot of astrophography, and was considdering the 995, becaues of the ease in which I could attach it to my scope. They have come way down in price lately, and I am considdering a refurbished model (Can be found for around $400). As far as the drawbacks go- compared to the other 2 cameras, there is very little drawback with this.. It doesnt really have the perks that the other two have, but it also doesnt have glaring problems like the other two.

All in all, I have had extensive experience with all three cameras. I went with the Olympus because I found that the 1.8 lens was just too good.. .. But it definatly wasnt an easy decision.

Like I said- go to a reputable camera store.. have an idea of the types of pictures you want to take, and how much you want to spend (dont forget- you will also want to buy more rechargable batteries, and media to store your pictures on). Talk to the sales people there, and try out cameras, to find your best match.

If you want to see some real life pictures taken with the 4040, you can check out some of the stuff I have done (mostly macro, and every day type shots):

My Gallery: http://www.pbase.com/mdobossy

Some shots:
People shot taken in BAD light: http://www.princeton.edu/~mdobossy/leighsm.jpg
Full resolution of a macro of some coins: http://www.princeton.edu/~mdobossy/coin-large.jpeg
A good "droplet" shot: http://www.princeton.edu/~mdobossy/drip3.jpg
Outside droplet: http://www.princeton.edu/~mdobossy/droplet1.jpg

Those will give you a good idea of the capabilities of the camera.

-Mark

-Mark

 

I bought the Fuji 2600 FinePix, about a month ago, after researching the whole lot extensively. Not only does it take terrific pictures, it's easy to use and the price was right. I got it from buy.com, right after the manufacturer announced a price reduction and a further $15off and free shipping. Wound up paying about $220. It comes with more standard memory than the others and simply takes great pictures! I think you'll find that most of the online recommendations play up to the great value. It's true in my opinion.