Digital camera!!!

[Novdid]

I'm currently on a serious shopping spree, so I said hey why not get me a digital camera!!!

I don't know squat about cameras so I thought you would help me out here. My needs is that I just want to take pictures.

All I want is a good camera with a decent price. That's it.

What should I look for???

Thanks!

[The PIT]

Doesn't matter what Camera you buy you always will want a better one. Avoid this one Kodak DX3215. Below is the reasons why.

1) Flash cannot been turned off. If the Camera decides it's still too gloomy it will turn it back on. Pretty daft if you're outside and the subject is too far away for the flash to have any effect.

2) If the Batteries aren't 100% you can't use the LCD display to setup your shot or check your battery level however

3) Battery level is totally unreadable anyway.

4) Tends to get the exposure wrong.

5) Contrast tends to get messed up as well probably due to above.

6) Eats batteries so you need rechargeables.


7) Suppled software doesn't reconise camera under XP. Xp's inbuilt software works however. Patched update didn't fix this either.

For.

1) It's cheap and pictures can be corrected in Software like paintshop pro.

[Jammrock]

Canon makes great digital cameras. Look into ones that allow you to use IBM MicroDrives. For $220 you can add 1 GB of storage to your camera and never have to worry about running out of space.

My Dad has an older Canon ProShot G1, and it's very nice. I hear the new G3 is incredible. They are expensive though. Canon does make lower res camera's that are very nice and affordable.

Jammrock

[chaoliang]

I have the same idea since quite a few months and did some reading and searching.

You have to decide how many pixels do you want: 2MP or 3MP. More than that is less meaningful and much more expensive. For normal use I think 2MP is really good enough. The only real drawback of this class is that their lens are rather weak (worse than f3.5 or so). But they are cheaper and the image quality is not less good.
Then you have to decide if you want zoom or not, because that decision will lead you to different producers. Since you won't use it for serious work I guess, then with zoom is not bad. Just a toy.
I leave out the questions about weigth, storage medium and batteries, because I find that one hasn't much choice on their combinations.

Olympus C200 gets many good critics. It costs about 280€ and should have one of the best cost and gain ratings. Maybe I'll buy one. It has weak Marco though (20cm).

BTW, Canon has the best high-end digital cameras at the level of 4MP. G2 is a legend (price: 800€) But their lower-end cameras are less good and over-priced.

Greetings,
Chaoliang

[Gurm]

Olympus gets my vote. I base this not on ease of use or durability, but simply on a quick test:

"look, I put it in idiot mode point-and-shoot, took a picture, and printed it"

On THAT test, Olympus was head-and-shoulders above the competition. Same printer, same photo from the same angle, same lighting on all the cameras.

- Gurm

[Indiana]

I vote for Olympus as well. I have the C4040 Zoom and this is one nice camera - just a little bit expensive, though.

[Gurm]

I've got the C3040 - still pricey. The reason the x0x0 series (not the 4000 or 3000 but the 3020 or 3040 or 5050) are so pricey is that they have a much nicer lens... not that the average photographer would notice.

So a C3000 is a LOT cheaper than my C3040 was.

- Gurm

[drslump]

My vote goes for the Fuji Finepix 2600 zoom.

I bought it for my ex-girlfriend and it really rocks! (she rocks too ) Specially if you want to shot portraits or at short-mid distance. It's got a 6x optical zoom that works like a charm to make photos of hardware components
Its software is average but you look like an advanced user so I don't think you'll have any problem with it.

The only bad thing is the LCD screen which is very dark under low light conditions. But I've seen this problem in every mid-range digital camera I've tried.

Its price is very low for a camera of that quality, the only problem will be to find it. When I bought it 6 months ago they had problems manufacturing it.

edit: url typo

[Tempest]

I've got an Olympus C-3020... It's nice, except for the occasional purple fringing in high-contrast situations. If you just "want to take pictures" then in addition to the cheaper Olympus ones the Canon A40 might be a good choice. It has pretty good overall image quality and a 3x optical zoom.

Remember: If you want zoom, then it is _optical_ zoom you're looking for. Some cameras are advertised as "zoom" cameras, yet they only use "digital zoom" - which is exactly the same thing that you get if you enlarge any bitmap image in image processing software. "Digital zoom" only interpolates the pixels into a larger size -> quality sucks.

BTW, if you're a zoom addict (or just a plain pervert ) then Olympus' C-720 (C-730?) Ultra Zooms might also be worth looking at. They sport cool 8x-10x optical zooms at quite a low price, so if you want a really versatile camera which can also be used to photograph far-away things like wildlife, you might consider those also.

They lack an image stabilizer though, so you'll need a tripod to get stable shots at higher zoom levels. And the viewfinder is electronic only, which some might consider a bit disappointing.

[Kurt]

Go Olympus! They have excellent quality/ease of use/battery life.

Canons make nice pocket models, but pretty expensive.

Kodak has better and worse models, always long battery life.

Fuji: stay _away_ from the low end (really crappy).

HP: just stay away (big numbers, low quality)
Sony: stay away from most (see HP)
Nikon: excellent if you can afford them and if you're up to reading the manual.

The rest: well...if yo stick to these few brands you won't miss the rest...

[Gurm]

Yeah, if you want compact, the new Canon Elph (higher end, 2.x megapixel with 3x zoom) is VERY nice and VERY tiny.

But it is still only 2.x megapixels.

- Gurm

[Marshmallowman]

How big do you want to blow the pictures.

1.3 are good for casual stuff, but to keep them looking ok you can't enlarge them much

2.1 Mega pixel is a good baseline, with 128 meg memory card you would get a 100 or so in full quality, these can be enlarged quite well(also gives you a chance to crop off some of the crufty bits)

4 megapixels is getting up to good photo quality, you can really enlarge and zoom in on stuff with something like this, pro or a discerning photo buff gear.

But each level you can almost double the price

Ignore digital zoom, only optical zoom matters. Zoom is cool as it allows you to frame shots better...depends what you want the camera for

For me a kodak dx3600, did the job 2.1 mp 2x optical zoom, and it takes small movies, or use it as a web cam.
100 photo's on 128 mb flash card, or 10 minutes of video and sound @ 320x240. I also got the lense kit, which included macro, telephoto and wide angle.

Just after I bought that camera cannon released one that did all the things I wanted for a bit more. I would have steered toward that, but I cannot complain about the dx3600, it has done everything I wanted and I am still happy with it.

[K6-III]

My dad has the Canon G2. Very good and priced very well now that the G3 is out.

You may want to look at both.

Otherwise the S30/S40 from Canon are both quite excellent.

Then from Nikon, look at the 995/4500 if you like the swiveling body concept. Then there is the 5 megapixel 5000 and the 5700 which is basically a 5000 with improved autofocus and a 7x lens.

If you can find a Casio 3500, 2900, or 4000 go for them. VERY EASY to get great pictures out of and dirt cheap. The 3500 and 4000 also use the exact same lens found in the Canon G2 and CCD's from Sony. Also nice that they use Compactflash.

[Gurm]

My rule of thumb is that 2 megapixels prints nice at 5x7.

3 megapixels prints tolerably well at 8x10.

4 megapixels is good if you wanna zoom, crop, etc.

- Gurm

[Wombat]

I just saw something about rebates for the G2.

I have the Elph S300. They replaced it with a cheaper ($400) model with slightly different controls, but not much else is different. It's a good camera.