Another Camera Question

[Mike Henderson]

For the people who are knowledgeable of Digital Cameras - what are some of the features of the new digital cameras that impress you?

I know about image stabilization and face recognition. Are there any other really "Gee Whiz" features in the new cameras?

Mike

[Pat Germain]

My wife saw a compact digital with a feature really liked. She gets frustrated when taking "portrait" pictures on her camera. When she does this, the camera shrinks the picture significantly in order to fit it into the "landsape" format of the display. Obviously, this is no problem when printing, but it makes it harder to see how well a picture turned out.

My wife's coworker has a new camera with a cool feature. When she takes a portrait shot, she just turns the camera on end. The camera automatically senses this and rotates the picture on the viewer. I think that counts as a "Gee Whiz" feature. I'm pretty sure this was a Canon compact digital camera.

[Lee DeRaud]

My wife's coworker has a new camera with a cool feature. When she takes a portrait shot, she just turns the camera on end. The camera automatically senses this and rotates the picture on the viewer. I think that counts as a "Gee Whiz" feature. I'm pretty sure this was a Canon compact digital camera.Yup, my Canon does that. It also saves the orientation setting in the data block of the JPG file, allowing viewing software to auto-rotate it. (So far, the software supplied with the camera is the only one that uses it, but hopefully Picasa et al will pick up on it eventually.)

[Mitchell Andrus]

I'm on the great camera saffari myself. I've got a Nikon SLR (true reflex - what a blessing) with all the trimmings and 5 lenses for serious work, but it's too cumbersome to throw in your pocket for the 'just in case' stuff.

I'm 99% sold on the Canon 850 IS/870 IS. Basically the same, but the 850 has an optical viewfinder and small screen. The 870, just a larger screen.

I looked for:

In camera battery charging (AA or AAA prefered but not critical)
Removable battery for swapping
Zoom while taking videos (rare in <$290.00 models)
>5 step ISO controls
Shutter and Apperature priorities
>5 choice white balance
Must have Auto white balance.
Turn off the beeps
Fast cold start time
Fast storage/turnaround
Exposure bracketting
3.5 minimum optical zoom
Image stabilization (optical or digital)
Min 2 gig removable memory card

The rest of my list is not available in any pointer style - such as a manual focus ring and hotshoe. Even for a point and shoot shots, I'm gonna miss the shoe - I love my flash units.

Forget the 'gee whiz' stuff. That stuff just fattens the sales pitch - like shooting in sepia tone. Really?

I'm not getting everything on my list in the 850/870, and I won't in a cheap point and shoot, but it'll do and I won't cry if it gets wrecked. I've been flying a bit with my son and hauling the beast around is getting old.

[Mark Singer]

I have a few digitals, the Canon 3s has a great movie function that mkes it a terrific travel camera. Its compact and still has a nice manual mode. Also a super button which you can program, I set it for image size and it allows me to adjust the image as required for detail



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[Anthony Scira]

Canon G9 All the way. I will get one as soon as my Nikon Coolpix dies.

That is one AWESOME camera. You have the full auto modes and also the creative modes. This allows you to adjust shutter speed and apature size to get some GREAT shots.

It also has a hotshoe so you can add on a Speedlite external flash which will make your indoor shots a whole lot better. No more redeye and you can bounce the flash off the ceiling so faces are not washed out.

Its a little pricey but for a point and shoot but its worth it.

[Christopher Stahl]

Mike, I would say your best Gee Whiz feature should be how the camera feels in your hands.

[Mike Henderson]

I appreciate everyone's responses but I want to let you know I'm not in the market for a digital camera right now. I am a gadget freak and am interested in what progress the digital camera people are making, as evidenced by features we never knew we needed until they're offered to us (like image stabilization and face detection). I'm also interested in "nice" features like the one Pat G. pointed out that make the camera nicer and easier to use.

The earlier postings about cameras got me to thinking about what new features are available now.

One "nice" feature I found looking at some cameras today is a "smile detector" that recognizes when the subject is smiling and activates the shutter at that time. I wonder when they'll detect "eyes closed (someone blinking)" and delay the shutter until the eyes are open?

I'm just fascinated by features such as this. What the designers are doing with image processing is just amazing (to me).

Which new digital camera features amaze you?? Or what features have you heard that are coming that amaze you??

Mike

[I do appreciate you mentioning your favorite new digital camera so that I can go read the specs - but I'm not in the market just at the moment.]

[Lee DeRaud]

I have a few digitals, the Canon 3s has a great movie function that mkes it a terrific travel camera. Its compact and still has a nice manual mode. Also a super button which you can program, I set it for image size and it allows me to adjust the image as required for detailThe S5IS is the current version of that model: pretty much same specs except 8MP instead of 6MP.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Not bad. I'm going to have a look at one of those. Not exactly a pocket camera though, we'll see... Thanks.

[Bob Moyer]

Viewfinder (there are times when the sun does not allow you to see the screen)
Ability to take short videos.
Good flash
Manual Adjustments
Removable Battery and the ability to use AA rechargeables

[Greg Muller]

Geez, I just wish I could find a digital camera for under $300 that doesn't take 3 seconds to take the pic after i hit the button... I'm still using my old 50 mm film camera setups and developing my own film for indoor pics...

[Glenn Clabo]

If you're looking for small...~P&S...Canon PowerShot SD900.

[glenn bradley]

Geez, I just wish I could find a digital camera for under $300 that doesn't take 3 seconds to take the pic after i hit the button... I'm still using my old 50 mm film camera setups and developing my own film for indoor pics...

I'm with Greg. 90% of the reason I stink at taking pictures is that the camera can't catch the picture I want to take. Unless someone can tell me about a cheaper option I think the Rebel XTi is going to be the answer. Too bad because all I do is take snapshots and shop shots. Seems a waste of a lot of features.

[Pat Germain]

How about the camera shaving 20 or more pounds off the subjects. You know, there just might be a market for that one.

[Eric Larsen]

I put myself through school selling cameras.

That was back in the film days. Digital was in it's infancy, and we all thought it would never take the place of Tri-X Pan.

Shows what camera salespeople knew....

Anyway... A camera is just a box. A black box with a lens and a means of capturing the image. The lens and the image capture are the two main things. Everything else is a bell or a whistle.

Start by picking a box that feels good in your hands. Your camera is useless if it isn't in your hands. Next go with the lens. Pick a lens that lends itself to what you want to do. You can always change lenses, but some systems are more geared for telephoto sports and others for color saturation and still others for portraits. And then you have the Leica and Zeiss nuts who don't mind spending the same for a lens as they would for a car.

These days, the exposure system makes a huge difference. I personally would never buy a camera that didn't have spot metering, but that's just me. Others get along fine without it. Play with the camera in the store, and outside (any decent salesman will accompany you outside the mall and let you shoot some daytime shots in the parking lot).

Finally, ask yourself what's the absolute maximum you'll ever want to enlarge one of your shots -- then double it (for cropping purposes). That's how many megapixels (or what film format) you'll need.

That should narrow it down to five or six cameras.

Best advice I can give is to stay away from "Popular Photography," "Shutterbug" and all the rest of the magazines. They strip all the art out of the equation and leave you with lens-flare charts and color saturation tables that nobody should care about.

Ansel Adams took most of his best pictures with a Cooke Triple Convertible lens on a wood and leather camera. I have a Cooke 3x. It's crap. But in an 8x10 camera, with a true artist behind the shutter, you get art worthy of the Louvre.