Digital cameras

[KingKole02]

Well since,
Beacon refrians on Casio then I may not want to go with this camera.

When I said small yet expandable, maybe I should have just said small. I like things small so as I can carry them in my pocket. I usually have two pockets, the ones in the front of pants. I want a good zoom distance and pixels, the ability to possible change the sharpness and stuff of the pic. I really don't want to fool around with attachments. Thats more of what I should have said.

However I picked the Olympus as one of my choice because of the weatherproof technology. Often times I get caught in the rain with either my 35mm camera or my phone.

All the Minoltas I looked at were too big. I will probably look into Canon and Sony more.

Thanks for everyones help thus far.

[KingKole02]

Now Im thinking about the
Canon PowerShot SD110 / Digital IXUS IIs Digital Camera
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/sd110.html

Considering I have its twin in the non Digital Cameras (Canon Elph LT 260), I was thinking about it. http://www.sureshotelph.com/elph/lt260/index.html

It has features which I think would be nice for me and looks fairly easy to use. Small, and has a optional waterproof case. Sounds pretty good to me.

[bigdogdad]

Hey KingKole

As I mention earlier, there are tons of high quality cameras available and it is indeed a tough decision to make. Here's is a link for you http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....oryId=cat04002

Go to Bestbuy and check it out. You might be surprised at just how small it is. Pick it up, put it in your hands, play with it. Keep an eye out for the location of your fingers. Sometimes cameras are so small your hands end up covering everything. Take your time, you don't need it today and it seems as if you want to buy something good. You don't want to regret your buy today tomorrow. In this price range you really aren't going to find much price differences but if you do decide to go with this camera, Amazon.com price was $279.00 The beauty about this is free shipping and no tax. You might same 10 bucks but hey. Now get sick at work and go to Bestbuy and play.[?]

[Beacon]

Bigdog: I wasn't putting down Minolta as a whole. Their film cams are some of the best, it's their digitals that I'm leery of. I had a DiMage 7i and had nothing but problems with it. Knobs snapped off, the lens was almost falling off and this is after only 8-9 months of moderate use. I started researching the model in earnest and found a large number of folks that had the same problems with that and other models. The craftsmanship didn't seem to transfer over from the film versions. :/ What really ticked me off was that you can only have service performed at their repair facility in NJ. Local shops that are authorized service locations for their film cams aren't allowed to service their digitals. So it would cost me about $50 shipping PLUS the $200-250 repair fee if I wanted to try and save it from the trash bin. Mind you the camera had cost me $800 to begin with. After hearing from folks that had bit the bullet and sent theirs in for service only to have the same parts fail after a few months (Scotch Tape as structural support anyone!) I pretty much abandoned the idea of trying to keep it alive and just trashed it. Best of luck with the A1 though mate! I've also been looking for a good pic printer. 99% of the shots I take either end up solely on the net or end up being sent out to professional printers for promotional stuff. It'd be nice to be able to run a couple off so I can put 'em in a frame. I'm jealous of your digital frame! Those things look outstanding, my have to sneak one past the wife for the new house.

King: hehe I'm by no means the authority when it comes to these things, rather I'm just in the position to hear alot of both the good and bad about some brands/models. I've never owned one of the Casio's but those that have bring up concerns about it's sturdiness.

Aye, you had us scratching our collective heads trying to think of digitals for $400 that will take add-ons hehe. You can get a killer ultra-compact P&S for $400. Canon makes some great ones along with Sony and Pentax. I've read good reviews on Pentax but have zero personal experience with them. I recently used one of the little Sony 3MP ones and it suprised me with the quality of the images, some were better than the shots from my recently deceased 5MP Minolta. I'd have to say though if size is your determining factor almost any of the PowerShot models will edge out the Sony's. I wouldn't be too concerned about the waterproof stuff. If you're looking for one that'll fit in your pocket any of them will be fine in there as long as you aren't submerging them.

[crazyjoe]

You want to know the most important thing to think about when buying something like this?

WHERE TO BUY IT.

If you buy rom BestBuy, and try it out, there's a 10% restock fee. Circuit city, however, gives you 2 weeks to try it out with no restock fee. Verify this with whoever you buy it from (that's why I don't recommend buying online nuless you KNOW what you want).

I did this when I bought my sony Cyber-Shot DSC-P51. It's a 2.0 Megapixel camera. I bought it just before a trip to NYC, took pics there, had them developed at Wal-Mart, and was pleased with the results. Now I have a photo quality printer (beware of what you buy, though...some photo quality printers use so much ink it's cheaper to have them printed at Wal-Mart).

For a beginner, I would recommend the Sony DSC-P52 or the Canon A70. Both are good cameras, and inportantly, BOTH USE BATTERIES YOU CAN FIND. They both use AA batteries (the sony actually comes with rechargeable AAs and a recharger) so if they run out during the middle of a day on a trip, you can pick up new ones for 5 bucks, instead of having to spend 60+ bucks to have a "spare" one with you at all times in case it dies.

Camera in the rain = no problem
Camera in a tsunami = don't do that
camera on a boat (just cruising) = fine
camera on a speedboat on rough seas = don't do that

a 3.0 MP camera will give you very nice 8 x 10s. Consider this when thinking abotu getting a 4.0 or 5.0MP camera....each picture I take on high quality with my 2.0MP camera is about 1.5 - 2MB in size. Sure you might buy a big memory card to store them on, but think about the hard drive on your computer when you unload them, unless you like burning a lot of CDs and catalogging them, you can quickly add up several gigabytes worth of pictures when taking pictures of higher quality. So be careful! Most cameras have lower resolution settings so you don't have to take at the max all the time, but check them out..a camera which only has superhigh quality and then 640 x 480 isn't going to give you a lot of choices for taking pics.

[bigdogdad]

Beacon, never thought that. Everyone has opinons and that is usually because they have been there. Just like mods, some have had bad experiences while others have had good.

Just to drive KingKole alittle bit more crazier

Taken with Fuji 2800Z.
http://img22.photobucket.com/albums/...dad/sunset.jpg
http://img22.photobucket.com/albums/...d/new_coat.jpg
http://img22.photobucket.com/albums/...dad/Anchor.jpg
http://img22.photobucket.com/albums/...ogdad/room.jpg


I tried to give a few different light situations to show that even a 2 meg digital camera can give excellent results. I would say try to get the largest amount of megs you can afford, just like when shopping for a computer. You just can't wait for the next biggest and newest thing to happen. They are happening right after you buy.
I agree with crazyjoe, unless you are very sure of what you want, don't buy it on the internet. The cameras KingKole mention, all would fill his bill. Of course you got the battery thing which is important to a degree. With what ever you have, you always learn how to deal with it. And once again KingKole, have fun shopping. This will be your first but not your last digital.
Sorry about the scare folks

[stirfry]

That's good advice King. Look at the money you can save. Buy a house like that instead

[Beacon]

Nice shots BigDog.

You're right about the batteries. That second one for my cam was $50. Along those same lines something I forgot to mention was the media. The little Sony's are great but most of them use Sony's proprietary memory media (read as "expensive" ). Which was why I passed on the F717 and waited for the F828 which can use MemoryStick, CompactFlash & MicroDrives. The Canon's typically use either SD/XD, or CompactFlash which are easier to find in a pinch and much much cheaper.

[Gary04GT]

quote:Originally posted by bigdogdad
...even a 2 meg digital camera can give excellent results...

GREAT PICS, bigdogdad. 2 meg cameras can do the job--at least for all Internet use.

[bigdogdad]

Well KingKole, what do you think? Did you take yesterday off to get a digital camera? We want to help you spend your money Let us know what you end up with. You're going to be using it a lot. [?]