Which Digital Camera?

[BobA]

I have to update my web site and other related pictures. I am tired of using a $25 digital camera that looks like I took the pictures with a webcam.

I am looking at a digital camera with these basic features.

MegaPixels          2.1
Internal Mem      8MB
External Mem      SD
Optical Zoom       3x
Digital Zoom        3x
Battery Type        2 AA NI-MH
Macro                   Yes
Digital Movie         Yes
and Sound
1.5 inch LCD
Under $150 US  $250 Cdn

I know that 3 MegaPixels would be better but trying
to keep the price down.  Does anyone have any other
must have features that I have overlooked or not mentioned? Or any good or bad experiences?

I do not expect to do large prints.  

Thanks
BobA

[SirPoonga]

www.steves-digicams.com   Everything you'd ever want to know about digital cameras and alot of good reviews.

First, screw digital zoom.  You don't need it, don't even look at that feature.  You can do the exact same thing in paint!!!

A 2 megal pixel on photo paper will be slighly grainy (at standard 4x6), but if you don't plan on printing any out at great quality then 2 megapixel is fine.
Internal memory, ha, that's a thing of the past except for the cheap budget cameras.  Today's camera are starting to use xD-Picture memory.  Though smaller, lower end cameras are still coming out in sm and cf.

Digital Movie, this is not a movie camera.  I have that feature on my camera, not even worth it.  320x280 movies with grainy pixels.  This feature is really not a feature.  Plus video takes up alot of memory.  On a 16 meg card you will get about 30 seconds (no sound).  So 30 seconds of the crappiest video you will ever see.

AA batteries are going out too, because smaller cameras AA just doesn't cut it.  My sister just bought a 4 megapixel olympus stylus 400.  Uses a battery pack.  Thats the only thing she doesn't like about it.  But that battery lasts as long as the four 1800 AAs in my Olympus C-3000.

Good brands (in order of quality IMHO): Sony, Olympus, Canon, Nikon, Kodak.  All those brands are great, you pretty much can't go wrong with any of them.  Sony put some awesome quality lenses on theirs, Olympus has great CCDs.

Don't rush into a camera.  There are always sales and bundle packages (case, memory, extras) you can watch for.  The best strategy is to go and try out cameras at the store.  See if the feel right in your hands.  Check out the menu system to see if it is logical for you.  Some places will eve print out pics or have demo pics from the cameras.  Then just wait for a deal.

I had a couple of cameras picked out that I wanted and was just waiting for a deal.  Luckily I was in the market for a printer to.  Epson had a deal around christmas that if you buy a printer and specific models of a camera you get $100 back.  Not bad  Also memory is cheap and getting cheaper.  You can always get more memory.  I have a 128meg card.  At 2048x1536 my card can hold 170 pics (and yes, it has been full).  A 2 megapixel camera is going to be less.  Let's assume desktop size (1280x1024),    My camera tells me it can hold 400 pics.

[TheTick]

Actually 1.3MP is enough if he's just putting it on his website, and not getting photos printed. Even at 1.3MP he's gonna have to select a smaller resolution or resize the pictures before posting them.  You can usually get better quality by taking a higher resolution picture, and than resizing it on you PC (with even semi-decent software). If you don't resize the picture... you will waste bandwidth (yours and the viewers), and you obviously won't be embedding them in your web page.

640x480 cams take lousy pictures. But my Olympus 1.3MP makes pretty good 640x480 pictures.... when I take them at 1024x768 and resize them in an old program called Image Retriever (pretty crappy program, actually... but still better results than my old HP PhotoSmart camera).

Edit----> BTW my Olympus was only $80.

[Tailgunner]

Digital cameras depreciate quite rapidly, so if you're not averse to buying a used one you can find good deals on them on Ebay.

For instance, I have a Kodak DC265 that meets your requirements, save for it's a 1.65 megapixel camera. Four years ago I payed $700 it, today you could bid $50 for one on Ebay and win the auction. The next model in that camera series was the DC290, it's basically a 2.1 megapixel version of the same camera with a few more tweaks. 3 years ago these were $800 cameras, now they go for about $250 on Ebay.

Not really a selling point, but both use Digita OS. There happens to be a port of MAME for Digita that'll let you play Pacman on the camera's LCD.

[Tailgunner]

Example pic taken with my DC265 at best quality. The picture imports at 1536 x 1024, so I resized it 50%. I also used 3% compression on the jpeg to get it under the 250k picture size attachment limit.

[TheTick]

<sigh>

those are nice...

Good quality picture too

[Frostillicus]

I like the little tiny Canon Elph cameras (S230, S400, etc).  

My reasoning is this: You're never going to get as good as 35MM without spending serious money, and even then it's a matter of opinion.  So why not get a camera the size of a chiclet?  (ie why lug around a big digital camera?)

Seriously, my buddy has one (elph), my co-worker just got one, we take them out to the bar and take like 200 good pics on a little 128MB flash card.  The thing slips right in your chest pocket and you don't know it's there.  Amazing.

Actually here's a smaller one - it fits in an Altoids tin apparently:
http://www.ritzcamera.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&productId=13075866

[BobA]

Thanks for the information.   Lots of good points to consider.  The only sure thing is the longer I wait,  the more I get for my money.  That is why I have not bought one before now. (Not a real one)

The small pocket ones are really neat but sill a bit premium priced in Canada.

Battery life seems to be a problem with AA's.  Are the Ni MH rechargables any better?

What benefits do the cradles provide?  The cameras are fully functional with just a USB cable.

BobA

[SirPoonga]

Example pic taken with my DC265 at best quality. The picture imports at 1536 x 1024, so I resized it 50%. I also used 3% compression on the jpeg to get it under the 250k picture size attachment limit.

NICE collection.  I only got is
http://kevin.jonas.com/images/bike2.jpg

[SirPoonga]

Battery life seems to be a problem with AA's.  Are the Ni MH rechargables any better?

I assumed that is what you meant, when I said 1800 AAs that's NiMH.  1800 is how much juice the battery has.

What benefits do the cradles provide?  The cameras are fully functional with just a USB cable.

Like the kodaks.  most are dual purpose.  They charge the battery AND transfer the pics to the pc.  Not worth the extra price in some cases.

[SirPoonga]

My reasoning is this: You're never going to get as good as 35MM without spending serious money, and even then it's a matter of opinion.  quote]
You are right, that is a matter of opinion.  MY C-3000 prints great at 8x10 and can have different add-on lenses, manual focus, manual shutter speed, manual f-stop, etc....
Not quite as good as my 35MM but it's as close as you could get for $400.

Digital SLRs are coming down in price, there is a $1000 Canon now.

[u_rebelscum]

Battery life seems to be a problem with AA's.  Are the Ni MH rechargables any better?

I assumed that is what you meant, when I said 1800 AAs that's NiMH.  1800 is how much juice the battery has.

Personally, I like having AA batteries.  Cheaper, rechargable, they can be used on other stuff, and you can find them anywhere.

My friend has a digital cam that needs special batteries (which are same size and power as AA, BTW); his (non-rechargable) batteries cost half the price of rechargable AAs, so using rechargable AAs three times is cheaper.   And rechargables can be used 25+ (before I lose them ).  I always try to carry and extra set of batteries for my camera, wheather I'm using rechargables or not, or my digital camera or my 35mm.

If you get a small camera, however, using AAs isn't as good, since the special batteries can be smaller and lighter.  Some of the small cameras are the same size as four AAs.


Some battery info off the top of my head:

Look how much mAh the batteries have.  1800 is high-ish end, but the cheap ones can be 1200 mAh or less.  IIRC, I've seen 2100 mAh AA rechargables and 2400 mAh lithium batteries.  The stats below are on average, since a 1800 mAh Ni MH battery will have more power than a 1600 mAh lithium.

Lithium batteries are lighter weight and more powerful than the others.  More expensive than other non-rechargables (and I'm talking non-rechargable lithium), cheaper per battery than rechargables.

Alkaline batteries (non-rechargable) is the normal type.  Last longer than most rechargables but less than lithium; cheapest batteries.

NiCD batteries is the old school rechargable.  Lowest power and time of all battery types.  Can be recharged hundreds and hundreds of times; uses the "standard" recharger.

Alkaline batteries (rechargable) costs more than non-rechargable alkaline, more than NiCD and about same as NiMH.  Lasts longer than NiCD rechargables but less than non-rechargables.  Is known to lose power (slowly) even when not in use (in the months range); ~25-50 recharges; needs an alkaline recharger.

NiMH batteries are rechargable.  Know to have "memory" low power when recharged before the power is used up, nice time the battery acts used up when it reaches the point it was recharged from.  Rechargable hundreds of times (but less than NiCD); needs a NiMH recharger; about same price as alkaline rechargables.

There are "3 way" and "2 way" rechargers that can recharge all three battery types, or NiCD and one other type, respectively.

*shrug*  I have an olympus c-3040, and use rechargables.  I tried the "special" (non-AA) olympus lithium batteries, but IMO they are not worth the price and trouble finding.

Backing others up: digital zoom sucks, optical zoom is what matters.

[Odonadon]

I have to update my web site and other related pictures. I am tired of using a $25 digital camera that looks like I took the pictures with a webcam.

I am looking at a digital camera with these basic features.

MegaPixels          2.1
Internal Mem      8MB
External Mem      SD
Optical Zoom       3x
Digital Zoom        3x
Battery Type        2 AA NI-MH
Macro                   Yes
Digital Movie         Yes
and Sound
1.5 inch LCD
Under $150 US  $250 Cdn

I know that 3 MegaPixels would be better but trying
to keep the price down.  Does anyone have any other
must have features that I have overlooked or not mentioned? Or any good or bad experiences?

I do not expect to do large prints.  

Thanks
BobA

Hey BobA,

I just picked up a Samsung Digimax 201 from Bestbuy on Sunday.  It's awesome.  It's selling for $189 (CDN).  No optical zoom, or sound with movie, though.  Other than that, it matches your profile, and it's a great little camera.

Odonadon

[BobA]

Looking at the Minolta DiMage E223 at Best Buy for $279 Cdn.  Will probably use it to replace my regular camera so needed a few more features.

BobA

[Hoagie_one]

I like the little tiny Canon Elph cameras (S230, S400, etc).  

My reasoning is this: You're never going to get as good as 35MM without spending serious money, and even then it's a matter of opinion.  So why not get a camera the size of a chiclet?  (ie why lug around a big digital camera?)

Seriously, my buddy has one (elph), my co-worker just got one, we take them out to the bar and take like 200 good pics on a little 128MB flash card.  The thing slips right in your chest pocket and you don't know it's there.  Amazing.

Actually here's a smaller one - it fits in an Altoids tin apparently:
http://www.ritzcamera.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&productId=13075866

I have teh Canon S200 Elph.  Love that little guy