Looking for a New Digital Camera

[Paul Douglass]

I'm looking at cameras and boy, it is hard. I want to spend $300 or less (of coarse, I'd prefer less). I have had two cannon powershots and they have been good. The second one was free for signing up for a discover card and it is still what I use. I want digital of coarse, but there is so much info and beings I not an expert it is all pretty confusing to me. I want the camera for general use but I also take a lot of pictures of things I make.

What can anyone recommend?

[dennis kranz]

If the Cannon has been good to you I would stay with it. You should be able to get a very nice one for around $200.00. When you buy go with a name brand. But even with a brand name camera stay away from the cheaper ones. They are cheaper for a reason. Cheaper being under 100.
I bought a Kodak 885 8 meg. They now are a 12 or 14 meg camera. Am very happy with it. Best close up camera I ever saw was a Fuji.
Anyway you don't have to spend a lot of money to get a very good digital camera. It all depends on your picture taking habits.
Dennis

[Karl Card]

are you looking for a point and shoot camera or one with multiple setting such as a DSLR? In todays world 300 dollars will buy alot of camera.

I also have to ask are you planning on buying other lenses for one or just using the stock lense? This makes a huge difference. I bought a minolta 404 when they first came out, paid 500 bucks for it and I could get lesnes but they were not easily found due to the size.

Anymore you can say that canon, minolta, nikon, pentax or any of the others make ALL wonderful cameras. They do not. They each have there own models that really shine above the rest. I personally do not like kodak but one night late I found a 6 megapixel kodak on ebay for 20 bux. Noone bid on it and so i did for my daughter. Well I hate to say it but that camera takes absolutely amazing pictures, has a very hard metal casing to it and is very rugged.

On another note I dont know if I would buy a high dollar used camera for the following reason. A digital camera wears out and slowly it does not focus like when new. Some can be cleaned and unfortunately where I live I cannot find a place to do this. Sometimes it is a deal where it is cheaper to buy a new one than to work on the old one since technology changes so fast.

I realize that last part is not what you ask so I will stop with that part.
If it were me I would check out say 5 models that you are interested in. make a spread sheet and write down info that is important to you and then compare and buy.

[Bryan Morgan]

I'm looking at cameras and boy, it is hard. I want to spend $300 or less (of coarse, I'd prefer less). I have had two cannon powershots and they have been good. The second one was free for signing up for a discover card and it is still what I use. I want digital of coarse, but there is so much info and beings I not an expert it is all pretty confusing to me. I want the camera for general use but I also take a lot of pictures of things I make.

What can anyone recommend?


Curious why you want a new camera if you are happy with the one you have? The point and shoots are ok but even though they advertise umpteen million megapixels they still don't match the quality of SLR cameras even with much less megapixels. The newer digital SLR cameras have all kinds of confusing stuff but most have an auto mode that makes them work just like a point and shoot. They aren't pocketable though and are kind of a pain to lug around and change lenses and stuff, but their image quality is the best.

I have an older Nikon D40 SLR (6 megapixels) for the nice shots and an old Canon ELPH (5 megapixels) to keep in the pocket to take to races or whatever. There really isn't anything the new cameras do that these old ones don't.

[John Keeton]

Paul, I am sure there is a place for high mega pixels, but I don't see the need for me. I have a Fuji el cheapo that I bought for an elk hunt I went on. 6 mega pixel, but it has a long zoom built in. Basically, a point and shoot, but it can be manual as well. My wife has a small Panasonic Lumix that is 12 mega pixel point and shoot. Both take good pics, and I really can't tell the difference.

I think the others are right - features may be better than high resolution. So, you may be able to get an older model camera cheaper that actually has more flexibility.

Joe Aliperti takes beautiful shots of the pens he makes, and recently posted that he uses a 6 - 8 second exposure at f20 on a 100mm/f2.8 macro lens to get the details. That seems much more important than 12 megapixels.

[Dave Gaul]

I have an older Nikon D40 SLR (6 megapixels) for the nice shots and an old Canon ELPH (5 megapixels) to keep in the pocket to take to races or whatever. There really isn't anything the new cameras do that these old ones don't.


Almost the same setup for me (us).. LOML has the D40 SLR, and I have a Canon ELPH (just bought in August), but it is 10mp maybe? The mexapixels don't matter for what I use it for.

If you are looking for a DSLR.. NIKON NIKON NIKON!!!

If you want point & shoot... CANON CANON CANON!!!

[Paul Douglass]

Thanks for the input.

[Charlie McGuire]

This summer I purchased a Panasonic Lumix Zs7. So far, I am very happy with it. I also own 2 older Canon elf cameras which are also good. The Zs7 takes great video with stabilization as well !

[Bryan Morgan]

Paul, I am sure there is a place for high mega pixels, but I don't see the need for me.

My day job is in the graphics industry. If you are printing giant banners then the megapixels make a difference.... sort of.... In reality the bigger stuff is always printed at lower resolutions because it is assumed you are viewing it from farther away, hence the need to have it that big in the first place. A lot of these ridiculous megapixel numbers are really just lower resolution sensors with interpolation in the software. I doubt the software can do a better job than something like professional RIP software. You certainly don't need all those pixels for web images. The important parts are the lenses (glass), the sensor type/quality, and how the light gets to the sensor. Same thing with flatbed scanners. Who cares about the DPI, what is the DMAX?

[Richard Link]

The best place to research cameras, in my opinion, is dpreviews.com. Very experienced reviewer and the reviews are well balanced. I recently purchased a micro 4/3 camera and found the site very helpful.

Richard

[Bill Cunningham]

I've had two Fuji's, an early 3mpix and now have a 10mpix.. For several years before I went digital, I used my 35mm Nikon.. I prefer the Fuji's .. Their not very expensive, works like a SLR (screen in the viewfinder), or you can use the screen on the back.. Great zoom, 2 macro settings, and two timer settings 2sec. and 10 sec. Video with sound, (the newest ones have HD vid. w/sound). And even the HD ones are in the $300 area.. And they actually look like a small 35mm, and not some brightly coloured circus box.