Digital Camera Recommendations

[Matt Meiser]

My 3rd grade daughter has taken an interest in photography. She has a very inexpensive digital camera a couple of her uncles bought her probably 3 or 4 years ago. She's done a reasonably good job of taking care of it but its starting to give her some problems, plus it is slooooooowwwwww. We are talking about getting her a new one for Christmas. I'd like to keep it in the low $100 range. I've been watching ads and looking up reviews but every one I've looked up has at least a few great reviews and at least a few horrible reviews. One will say the picture quality is great and the next that its horrible. One says well made and another got 5 DOAs. It seems about impossible to judge. And with models constantly changing its difficult to look at past recommendations.

Another option I've considered is getting us a new camera and giving her our Canon which has been a great camera, but practically an antique at 2 years old But of course that involves spending even more money. And I have no idea what I'd get us.

[Chuck Wintle]

My 3rd grade daughter has taken an interest in photography. She has a very inexpensive digital camera a couple of her uncles bought her probably 3 or 4 years ago. She's done a reasonably good job of taking care of it but its starting to give her some problems, plus it is slooooooowwwwww. We are talking about getting her a new one for Christmas. I'd like to keep it in the low $100 range. I've been watching ads and looking up reviews but every one I've looked up has at least a few great reviews and at least a few horrible reviews. One will say the picture quality is great and the next that its horrible. One says well made and another got 5 DOAs. It seems about impossible to judge. And with models constantly changing its difficult to look at past recommendations.

Another option I've considered is getting us a new camera and giving her our Canon which has been a great camera, but practically an antique at 2 years old But of course that involves spending even more money. And I have no idea what I'd get us.

I like canon cameras and these are usually well reviewed on most websites. i bought a 10megapixel last year but want to buy a better one that has a good lens on it. This is where the extra cost comes in.

[Jeff Monson]

Another option I've considered is getting us a new camera and giving her our Canon which has been a great camera, but practically an antique at 2 years old But of course that involves spending even more money. And I have no idea what I'd get us.

We went down that road recently, I read review after review...cameras have to be one of the most reviewed items out there. Nice thing the information is out there...just what to believe. We went with a Lumix DMC-ZR3K, it got great reviews and we have had great luck with it.
It fits my wifes style the best, easy to use, GREAT battery life and the photo quality is nice also. The Lumix is made by panasonic and has a Leica lens, we paid 259.00 for it.

[Brian Kent]

Here is my favorite camera website:

http://www.imaging-resource.com/

On the left-hand side the is a link called "Find the Best Camera for You". This is an excellent tool for getting the features you want and weighing priorities.

Then when you find their recommendations you can check out image quality under "Compare Image Samples", find your top 2 or 3 and start shopping (on other websites) for the best deal.

Brian

[Matt Meiser]

LOML is open to the 2nd option. She asked if that meant "bigger" which I said maybe and she was still open to it so I guess I need to research both.

[Dave Gaul]

Matt, another good place for info is www.kenrockwell.com

LOML loves her Nikon D40 for the serious stuff, and I have a Canon Elph for the simpler pics, like for shop & project pics!! The kids get to use the Canon...

IMHO, if you go DSLR, get Nikon, if you want PAS, go Canon...

[Matt Meiser]

I'm liking the Canon SX30 IS which has a HUGE zoom range. Kind of sits between a DSLR and a PAS. Looks like it makes a pretty decent video camera too. I like the flip out screen for that purpose.

The Canon we have is an SX110 IS which is now replaced by the SX130 IS which also seems to be a good deal if we want to go cheaper/more compact.

[Dave Gaul]

That looks like one heck of a camera!!

My only thing is at that price, you can get a DSLR and a kit lense and get started in the DSLR world, in the end it will cost you more by adding lenses that you'll want, but versatility is endless... just depends on what you are after...

The Canon SX30 IS seems like a great choice if you don't want to get into changing and buying lenses...

[Steve Peterson]

The prices have come down so much that there are many 12-14M pixel point-and-shoot cameras in the $150-200 range. I would give my daughter the old one and get a new one for myself.

Steve

[Sean Troy]

Don't be fooled or mislead by the megapixil verbage. You are not going to notice any difference over 8 mp on a point and shoot. Unless your using a DSLR with good lens, don't worry about the MP.

[Matt Meiser]

Well, I really like that SX30--except that it takes a proprietary battery. Anyone have one of the Canon's that take the NB-7L battery? Is it anything to worry about? Obviously we'd need a spare but any other concerns--like that it runs down before you can get the spare recharged? We've got the 15 minute rechargeable lithium AA's right now that that works great. When we got our current camera I chose it over Panasonic we were also looking at for exactly this reason.

Dave, I've looked a little at DSLRs but it seems like by the time we buy an additional lens to get similar functionality we spend quite a bit more. I know that the optics are probably better too, but from the reviews it sounds like they are pretty good on the Canon.

[Myk Rian]

My Niece, who is a professional photog claims that anything over 5megpixel, in a small camera does nothing for quality, no matter what lens the manufacturer sticks in it.

What we did was buy a Canon Vixia HG20 HiDef video cam with built in 60g hard drive.
It takes excellent videos, as well as pictures. It is our main camera now.
Although pricey at $600 it was worth it to us.
We bought it at B&H photo. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/ as it is not available in stores.

Before that we had a 3mp Kodak, that also took video. Kodak set the standards for digital formats, and that camera served us very well.

For a budding photog, look at the DSLR cameras as mentioned above, for yourself, and allow her to use it at times.

[Steve Griffin]

Brian,

I want to personally thank you for that website link. The "find the camera for you" is fantastic. I just used it to hone in on some choices for a camera for my folks.

-Steve

[Matt Meiser]

I went ahead and ordered the SX30 IS from Amazon last night. Should actually be here today according to the email I got. I bought an extra genuine Canon battery, but might also give a knockoff a try. At some point I need to shell out the big bucks for a 16GB fast SD card for video camera usage once I figure out just how fast we need. I'm guessing the $30 ones aren't fast enough, but am hoping I don't need the $85 one!

[Dave Gaul]

Dave, I've looked a little at DSLRs but it seems like by the time we buy an additional lens to get similar functionality we spend quite a bit more. I know that the optics are probably better too, but from the reviews it sounds like they are pretty good on the Canon.

Yes, the optics would be better, and more versatile with DSLR, but as you and I already stated, the expense is much higher.

I see you ordered the Canon, I don't think you'll be unhappy at all! I love my Canon Elph, very simple for my needs. Anytime I have the Nikon D40 in my hands, I constantly play with settings more than taking pics (LOML has that all figured out though!)!