buying a digital camera soon

[Sephroth57]

im looking into buying a digital camera with all my christmas money so i can stop stealing my sisters. Im lookin in the 200-250$ range and i dont think i want to order online im going to go to best buy so i can actually see the cameras out of the boxes and stuff. but from my online browsing i found this which looks pretty good: BestBuy.Com Link

4.0 MP is one of my minimum requirements which this meets, and it looks like its pretty quality, anyone know anything about these? any reccomendations?

[SirPeale]

That camera looks okay, but may I recommend the Fuji S3100? I've got a lesser model, the S3800 (lesser because it's much older and only 3.0 megapixels)

For the price, you can't beat it.

But not from BestBuy - they sux0r.

[Sephroth57]

thats slightly out of my range, really i could buy it if i wanted to but i wanted to get some other stuff too. plus im gonna want a bigger memory card for it. Also i like the video feature on the kodak it has audio and the fuji doesnt. but it looks nice

[SirPeale]

There are much better deals than that.  It's on sale for $269 @ BB, but it can be found for cheaper elsewhere.

[GGKoul]

Look for one on ebay.  You can get an older higher end model for the price your looking to spend.

[Tailgunner]

Best place to start is http://www.dpreview.com/.

I'm on my 4th digital camera. My first two were Kodak, my last two have been Canon.

I'd personally hold out for either a Canon Powershot or a Nikon Coolpix.

[JoyMonkey]

Are there any new digital cameras that take CompactFlash cards? I wouldn't mind getting a second camera but I don't want to have to buy different memory for it. I've got a Minolta Dimage 414, which takes amazing photos but compared to newer cameras it's huge and batteries don't last as long as I'd like.

[Sephroth57]

i checked out those cannon powershots and i really like them, i think ive settled on this model

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=30014&item=3861976717&rd=1

it comes out to 250$ shipped brand new, with a mini tripod and a carrying case. not a bad deal. think ill order that tonight

[GGKoul]

i checked out those cannon powershots and i really like them, i think ive settled on this model

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=30014&item=3861976717&rd=1

it comes out to 250$ shipped brand new, with a mini tripod and a carrying case. not a bad deal. think ill order that tonight

Yep, you'll be happy with a Canon Powershot.  I have a G2 and I love it.

[JoyMonkey]

Looks great (uses CF too). But if you're after a smaller camera the PowerShot S410 is the same camera in a teenier package ($280 shipped with no extras).

[SirPoonga]

Another good play is www.steves-digicams.com

I prefer Olympus, Canon, and Sony for their quality and picture.

BTW, just want to make sure that you don't pay any attention to digital zoom.  If oyu want zoom go for optical zoom.   All digital zoom does is stretch a picture, like you would in Paint or Photoshop.

[pointdablame]

I was going to pop in here and recommend a Canon A series but you did that yourself

I've owned/recommended/used an A70/75/90 and they are great all around cameras for people who just want to take pictures.  They're relatively small and compact, have decent zoom, and are very simple to use.  They are also in a very good price range.  The powershots are also very nice, as well as most Nikon cams.

You'll be very happy with the A80... it's a very nice camera.

I'm no expert, but I have used quite a few cams, and have owned 6 as of now, and I constantly recommend Canon point and shoots.

[Sephroth57]

great, looks like i found a quality camera. thanks for the recommendations guys

[Lindner24]

I would check www.bhphoto.com if you're goin' for that model.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=347621&is=REG
$240.00 + $50.00 VISA Rebate from Canon.
Some New York based camera sellers are shady, especially when you get into higher end stuff.
You may end up with a grey market unit with no box, instructions, warranty, refurbed, etc.

[Sephroth57]

well USUALLY on ebay when it says brand new in box, its brand new and sealed. ive personally never had a problem but that seller has good feedback it looks like a solid deal to me

[Lindner24]

Check some of the feedback, It seems that they sometimes call
you up before shipping your item. Then they may try to sell you on a more expensive model, or overpriced accessories.  This is exactly what a lot of these shady places do. Then if you refuse all of that stuff, they might say it's BackOrdered now or some other deal.
I would stay away from that one.

[Sephroth57]

well i usually dont like rebates, but its 240 to begin with plus shipping, so it will probably be like 255ish and then after 50$ rebate 210? not bad really. i think i will order from that site thanks for the link

[Lindner24]

I think you did good.
BH will have a better return/exchange policy too.
That eBay link had a 3 day exchange policy (not good)

With that rebate you can buy some of your own accessories.
(I don't like rebates either)

EDIT: I didn't look at that rebate close enough. I think you need to buy a printer also, to get the rebate. I apologize...

I still would not do that eBay deal though.
Maybe just buy it locally and have a solid return/exchange policy.

[Bones]

I had a bad experience with a digital camera. I brought one that was not a cheapie and it did perform exceptionally, but I couldn't keep batteries in it for long enough to be of any use. I brought it and took it on holidays, perhaps took 50 photos and a minute of video and went through three sets of batteries!

I took it back and the salesman thinking it was faulty and he said this was normal. I ended up getting my money back. I do want to get another but for now it's back to the EOS50....

[Tailgunner]

Newer digitals aren't nearly as power hungry as they used to be. My Kodaks would eat a set of batteries in short order, where my Canons will run out of storage space before you need to worry about the battery.

You'll be quite happy with that Powershot. I've a Powershot A85 I take everywhere, to the point that my Digital Rebel is getting jealous.

[gprime]

You'll be quite happy with that Powershot. I've a Powershot A85 I take everywhere, to the point that my Digital Rebel is getting jealous.

!!

Isn't the rebel a $1000 camera? And you choose the other over that!?

Are you just afraid of damaging it, or does the Powershot outperform it?

[Bones]

Newer digitals aren't nearly as power hungry as they used to be. My Kodaks would eat a set of batteries in short order, where my Canons will run out of storage space before you need to worry about the battery.

You'll be quite happy with that Powershot. I've a Powershot A85 I take everywhere, to the point that my Digital Rebel is getting jealous.

I don't remember the exact model I had the bad experience with although it was a Cannon and had 10 X optical zoom and an image stabilizer. I was one of the newer models I believe. At first I thought I had a dud couple of batteries but when three different brands all yielded the same results, I gave up. Real shame as I couldn

[wboy]

I own the Canon PowerShot A75 and am very impressed with the quality, battery life and flash brightness on the camera.

It really does produce beautiful shots.  On one set of 2300mAHrechargbles, I can get over 300+ shots..... !!!  WOW!

I actually went the A75 over the A85 as a lot of the early reviews showed the A85 and A95 produced purple fringing around objects in photos more than the A75.

And as a 3.2mp can be blown up to A4 no problem, it was more than enough for my needs.

[clanggedin]

I picked up the Kodak DX7630. It was the same price as the Sony DSC-W1. It is more user friendly than the W1 for novice photographers like my wife and has low noise in the images it takes. Another plus was that it uses SD cards. They are really cheap and I can stick them in my Pocket PC to view the images. I can't do that with my Sony DSC-F717.

The Canon A500 takes slightly better shots colorwise than the DX7630, but I couldn't find a place locally that had one in stock. I figured I usually run all my images through Photoshop, that colors don't really matter anyway.

I like Sony cams too, but I am trying to stray away from any more proprietary memory formats and just stick with SD and CF.

[Tailgunner]

!!

Isn't the rebel a $1000 camera? And you choose the other over that!?

Are you just afraid of damaging it, or does the Powershot outperform it?

More afraid of it being stolen, the Rebel and it's bag of stuff is worth too much to haul around casually. I picked up the Powershot as a point and shoot camera I could keep handy. Comparing them isn't fair, the Rebel has a 2.3 megapixel advantage, uses 35mm film camera lenses and flash units, and has a level of control you won't find in a point in shoot camera.

[Sephroth57]

i found the canon powershot for 199 from a non ebay site

http://www.fotoconnection.com/viewitem.php?IndexID=8736&RefTag=froogle

looks good to me! I think i will order tomorrow, need to deposit money

[lokki]

Hi,
I own a kodak DC2000 (2mp) older model. Not recommending it since there are newer better things out there now. But I wanted to point out that we bought rechargable batteries (around $19.00 4 batteries + charger, and around $12 for 4 batteries). And use them on the digital camera. They work great (last 60-100 photos) and we usually keep a couople of charged sets with the camera.

Also I disabled the preview mode on the display (view the images on the display before taking the pictures) since this really eats up batteries. Nice feature but it really kills the batteries.
My camera will show the picture you just took for a couple of seconds so you can tell if you want it or not.

[DrewKaree]

FWIW, someone else brought up rechargeables, and mentioned the "strength" of them.

If you purchase rechargeable batteries, look at the mAh of them.  General purpose batteries are in the 1600-1800 range, which will be useless a lot quicker than something in the 2000-2400 range.  The higher the range, the better it is for things like a camera, which used the greater capacity to fire off your flash without draining your batteries as fast.

Using them for other things that don't seem to require as much juice instantly seems to last about the same time. 

Examples - Walkman or Portable CD player, batteries seem to last about the same amount of time fully charged.

Cameras or Remote Controlled cars - higher numbers seem to equal longer usage.

Oh, and make sure you can pick up a camera bag that will hold that camera and the charger/spare set of batteries.  Much to my wife's chagrin, she forgot to charge the batteries on our trip, and was VERY pissed when we had to pick up a few disposable cameras to take pictures instead of our handy dandy little digital camera!

[Sephroth57]

couldnt you have just picked up some duracells instead? =p


yeah so im definately buying that camera for 220$ shipped from that site, im sure i can find compact flash cards cheaper somewhere else though. i want minimum 256MB but if i can find it cheap enough i want a 512MB

[Apollo]

I have a Sony W1 and it is awesome, great effects, 5.1MP, 3 X optical zoom. I highly recommend it. Don't know how much it is in the states though.

[DrewKaree]

couldnt you have just picked up some duracells instead? =p

For whatever reason, my camera eats alkalines at an ALARMING rate. 

I have no idea why it is, and when I asked a relative who works in a high end camera shop, he could only tell me "some cameras are like that". 

If I get some of those cheaper alkalines, I can snap ~5-10 pics before it goes to half used, and ~15-20 before I have to change them.  Duracells or Energizers are about the same to a touch more.  Most I've ever gotten from an alkaline was ~35, IIRC.  They were some wierd energizer, those all-silver colored ones.

The camera came supplied with rechargeables (it's a Sony) and I have no idea if they can "tune" the camera's power requirements to deal better with 'em, but it just IS that way.  I can snap off at least 45-50 pics before I notice the need to replace the batteries.

[scooter]

I would highly recommend Thomas Distributing for all of your rechargable-battery needs.

Thomas Distributing

[mcdo15]

I AM looking at the Nikon 5400 coolpix
it 500 before 200 rebate so 300 bucks for an awssome 5 mp camera

[JoyMonkey]

yeah so im definately buying that camera for 220$ shipped from that site, im sure i can find compact flash cards cheaper somewhere else though. i want minimum 256MB but if i can find it cheap enough i want a 512MB

These Sandisk Ultra II cards are awesome. I have a 256mb one and it writes way faster than any other CF card I've used. Pretty cheap too.

[Sephroth57]

hey i ordered the canon A85, didnt get it yet. But they had to call me to confirm my shipping address, and when i was talkin to the guy he was trying to sell me ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, i kept sayin no no, but he asked me if i got a card and i said i ordered one already from somewhere else ( i got the sandisk ultra you linked me to), and he was spewing some crap about how they suck and will have a 7 second lag time cause 1. its not a "high speed" card, and 2. a 512MB is too big for a point and click camera.  how the hell can something be too big? unless these flash cards work nothing like normal harddrives or memory that i learned about in computer class i dont see how size will affect speed at all. is this guy just trying to sell me crap i dont need or what?

[pointdablame]

hey i ordered the canon A85, didnt get it yet. But they had to call me to confirm my shipping address, and when i was talkin to the guy he was trying to sell me <auto-censored>, i kept sayin no no, but he asked me if i got a card and i said i ordered one already from somewhere else ( i got the sandisk ultra you linked me to), and he was spewing some crap about how they suck and will have a 7 second lag time cause 1. its not a "high speed" card, and 2. a 512MB is too big for a point and click camera.  how the hell can something be too big? unless these flash cards work nothing like normal harddrives or memory that i learned about in computer class i dont see how size will affect speed at all. is this guy just trying to sell me crap i dont need or what?

He's just trying to sell you crap... and he's not doing a very good job either.

[Sephroth57]

yeah thats what i figured, and i just checked the sandisk card i bought , it lists "High Speed Transfer" as one of its features... so yeah. what a dumbass

[JoyMonkey]

I'd hate to start another thread on "what digital camera should I buy" (I think there's been about 5 in the last few months), so i'm going to hijack this one.

It's time for me to upgrade my camera. Digital cameras seem to change so often, it's difficult to know which to buy when. I'm upgrading from a Minolta Dimage S414, so I'd like the new one to also use Compact Flash cards, be much smaller and have good battery life (using AAs if possible)
.
I'm thinking the Canon PowerShot S500 is what I should buy, the A95 would be perfect if it wasn't so big.

What do you reckon?

JoyMonkeys camera comparison sheet:
http://www.joymonkey.com/cameras.pdf

[DrewKaree]

Olympus C-8080

[JoyMonkey]

The C-8080 is too big, too expensive and doesn't take my media (I want a CF camera). I should have said that I'm staying around the $300 mark. That PDF I made shows the cameras I'm thinking about and compares sizes and features.

Has anyone got a Canon S500 that they'd recommend? I found it for $270 new shipped here. The only thing I'm not sure about is its battery life.

[DrewKaree]

My bad....for some reason, that PDF took almost five minutes to load!!

I took the "so I'd like the new one to also use Compact Flash cards" to mean if you found one you really liked, that wouldn't be the killer of the deal.

Are you using rechargeable AA's as well, and that's why you'd like to keep using an AA powered camera?

[JoyMonkey]

Are you using rechargeable AA's as well, and that's why you'd like to keep using an AA powered camera?

Yes, I've got a lot of hi capacity NiMH AA's. So a AA camera would be nice, but not essential. I really don't want to have to buy all new memory cards though.

[xar256]

For those of you with the Canon cameras...How are they for low light shots?  I've been looking at the Kodak CX7530 because it seems to do real nice under low light...But seeing as some people here are moving away from the Kodaks in favor of the Canons...I thought I'd ask

Xar256

[GGKoul]

I have a Canon G2 and it takes ok night shots..

[DrewKaree]

Dunno if you made your choice yet, but I went with my brother-in-law to check out a few, since he was looking to buy.  We have a relative who works in one of those "we cater to the photog nuts here" places - buy your fixer/filters/paper/whatever-you-can-imagine stuff, and we got to see some demonstration pictures of the cameras they sold.  They didn't deal in Canon's, but they had Olympus', Nikons, Fuji's, for digital...a couple of other brands, but those were their major offerings.  (Saw me a SWEET Leica, but that's a different story!)

The really nice high-end Nikons produced pictures that were a little better than the camera he ended up buying - Fuji E-550.  The differences of holding the same picture made by three different cameras REALLY demonstrates how nice this camera is.

After he bought it, I'm impressed enough that I may just sell my Sony and pick one of these up.  I dunno about price point you can find it for, but here's some stats I can remember.

$320
6 Mp
AA Batteries (two included as well as a charger)
USB Cable
Super CCD
(this sounds like your deal breaker) XD flash cards (although a 256 was only $50)

Just flat out beautiful pictures in many different settings.  His cousin was the one taking the pictures, and he gave us all kinds of info on what he used to get the images like that (and the settings, as equal as possible)

[DrewKaree]

Wal-Mart online (of all places) is selling it for $307, so I'm betting you can get this for under $300 somewhere.

[JoyMonkey]

Steve's Digicams gave it a very good review and it's only $276 shipped from Butterfly Photo, but it's as big as what we've got right now, heavy on batteries and uses XD media as you said.

To a lot of people this is trivial stuff, but I guess I'm being picky.

[SNAAKE]

I can recomend Sony Cybershot(the real slim one).Takes GREAT pics upto 5mp.CHeck my thread I just look some pics

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,33360.0.html

[JoyMonkey]

After trying out a friends Sony DSC-W1, reading a shite load of reviews, going to a store and having a look at a bunch of different models, remembering that I do have two 512mb MMC cards that work in 90% of SD cameras and talking with the wife, I've decided to go with the Casio EX-Z55. Yaaaayyyy!

Now that that's decided, anyone want to buy a used Minolta Dimage s414? It takes fantastic photos but it's not what you'd call pocket-sized. I'll throw in a 512mb Sandisk CF card and a nice Targus camera case for $160 shipped.

[nipsmg]

From Experience, let me recommend the Canon Powershot Elph S410.

Small form factor, great automatic and manual controls, GREAT images, low price, durable.

Let me also recommend that you DON'T EVER buy a Kodak.  You may find a few people who had good experiences, but I've had 3 cameras, and they were all terrible.  My sister also bought one, and a friend bought 2, and EVERYONE either returned them or threw them out.  In general the Kodaks I've come in contact with have been garbage. 

[Witchboard]

Steve's Digicams gave it a very good review and it's only $276 shipped from Butterfly Photo, but it's as big as what we've got right now, heavy on batteries and uses XD media as you said.

To a lot of people this is trivial stuff, but I guess I'm being picky.

I have an E-550 and LOVE it.  I bought mine from Butterfly Photo.  They are really good with customer service.  I got a call after the day I ordered and I expected it to be the typical, "I'm sorry, this is out of stock." call, but he was actually calling just to make sure there wasn't anything else I needed.  I'm very pleased with them.

As for the batteries, I'm not sure how long other camera's last, but playing with mine for the first week and the batteries lasted several days of me fiddling.  Maybe I'm just not hard core enough.  I bought a 4 pack of batteries at Wal-Mart for less than $10 and use the charger that came with the camera.  I just swap them out when need be.

I agree the included xD card is kinda funny.  16MB which is good for 1 RAW photo (the main reason why I bought this camera).  I bought a 512MB xD for less than $60 at NewEgg.  It allows me to take over 300 images at 6MP or over 30 RAW images.  Plus, I can record almost 10 minutes of video with sound on it.

I'm looking at getting the telephoto and wideangle lenses for it as well.

[Bones]

Just brought a Cannon IXUS500 today.

So far crappy results but I really dunno how to use it yet. Been doing SLR photography as a hobby for years but this is very different....