digital camera advice?

PhantomOG

any digital camera gurus on here? i received a best buy gift certificate for christmas and i've decided to get a digital camera.

i want to spend somewhere around $300-500, hopefully closer to 300. being limited to best buy prices does kind of suck, but i don't want to deal with the hassle of trying to sell/return the gift certificate.

anyways, right now my list includes Canon A80, S50, Sony DSC-P92, Kodak DX4530. I would include the Canon G3 but its not listed on the Best Buy website.

I'm basically torn between the cheaper (with less functionality) 5MP cameras, and the more functional 4MP cameras. I'm definitely a novice when it comes to photography, but I could see myself really getting into it and wanting a better featured camera down the road.

as far as size, the quality and functionality are way more important to me than having a credit card sized camera, but I don't want to be lugging around an SLR size camera. having a built-in lens cap is preferable.

well, i know alot of you have digital cameras based on all the nice system showcase photos i see, so let's hear. Tell this noob what camera to buy!!

polkatese

Phantom,
I have Cannon S50 (5mp). I thought it is the best dig camera for the price today ($399 at BB). It is compact, and superb quality. I add IBM 1GB Microdrive to it, and it has been indispensable. The downside is the battery life relatively short. Other than that, I highly recommend it.

ps: most of my system showcase were NOT taken with it, so they are not a representation of its pq.

PhantomOG

yes, the battery was one of the bad points on my list for the S50. It uses a proprietary battery that isn't the greatest.

the A80 accepts any AA so I can pick up a bunch of long life NiMH batteries. i also like the swivel LCD screen, although, i don't know if that is more gimmicky than useful. but the s50 is 5MP versus the 4MP of the A80. both are 399 right now at BB. these two cameras are probably the top two i'm considering at the moment.

dlew308

The Canon S400 is available for under 400.

Canon S400 4MP Digicam + 256MB CF Card $382 shipped from Dell.

http://slickdeals.net/#p4128

Why pay full price

I had the S230 but I sold it off because it was only 2X, S400 is 4M & 3x. I have a Nikon 3100, uses AA but the battery is horrid even with 2100Nmh batteries. I've added a Fuji S7000 to my family.

pixiedave

megapixiels over bells and whistles. If you do "get into it", you will find that picture quality will be all important over neat features. Of three digital cameras, two still and one DV, I never use the toys, just want a quality image.

Strong Bad

I have the Canon Powershot G2 (updated by the G3). This really is an awesome camera, but you won't get the G3 for the money you're looking to spend. Even if you could find a place selling in the 500 range, you'll have to add at the very least a CF card of 256mb minimum. The thing only comes with a 32mb card which at the highest res, holds maybe 10-15 pics. I have a 340mb microdrive that rules!

Check out this site for reviews. They're pretty good with reviews.

http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/4521-6530_16-1008643-3.html?tag=subnav


John

PhantomOG

actually i would prefer a camera that uses CF because i already own a 256mb card.

the G5 sells for 600 at best buy so i assume that if the did sell the G3, i might be able to get it for ~500. my 300-500 limit is for the camera itself. i realize i will have to spend ~$100 more for memory and possibly batteries regardless of which camera i choose.

jcaut

I've got a G2 also. It's a great camera: I have gotten some excellent shots with it. I agree with John, though: You'd need a MINIMUM of 128MB CF card with it. You might find a G3 for under $400. I notice that B&H has the G5 listed for $520 now. I've thought about selling my G2 to try to upgrade to a DSLR, but that's about the only thing I'd replace it with.

In your price range, Olympus also has some good cameras. For a simple point-and-shoot, I really like the Stylus 400 digital.

Jason

(and I just wanted to edit my post to reflect that I see you've already got the 256 CF card and you need to buy at BB);)

jcaut

dpreview.com

hamzahsh

I'm a salesman in Digital Camera/Camcorders Dept. at Best Buy in Toronto, Canada.

I recommend Canon SD100 3.2 MP. It is the best buy and best value for the money. My customers love this camera and never reported a single problem. Buy 256MB Secure Digital Card with it you're all set.

Personally I'm a freelance photographer and use Film SLR Minolta Maxxum 800si camera. Film has the best quality. I scan my slides with Film Scanner and get 25 megapixel of quality. If I send my film to Kodak or Fuji the professional drum scanner can get me upto 40 Mega Pixel. Yes, film has 40 MP of quality. I make prints at home from my slides and it can blow any Digital Camera picture, anytime. I use Canon S820 photo printer with 6 color ink and it gets me the finest quality photographs.

Visit www.photocritique.net and search for Photographer's first name HAMZAH
to see my pictures.

PolkThug

You don't need 4 or 5 mp if your just gonna make 4x6's. I'd look for a nice 3mp camera.

Regards,
PolkThug

hamzahsh

Originally posted by PolkThug
You don't need 4 or 5 mp if your just gonna make 4x6's. I'd look for a nice 3mp camera.

Regards,
PolkThug

Yup, agree with PolkThug!

I use HP 620 which is 2 MP and I've done fabulous 4X6 prints with it. 3 MP is a better choice overall and even if you do 8X10 they'll look ok but not great. Also remember photo inks are very expensive 8X10's will drink it like a water.

Ofcourse, higher the MP better the quality is but it also depends what are you doing with it.

Canon ELPH SD100 3.2 MP is an amazing little camera. Easy to carry around. It has Canon's exclusive DiGiC processor for correcting images.

Good luck!

PhantomOG

thanks for all the advice everyone (even those whose advice got deleted).

i've decided to spring for the Canon G5. i think i'm going to take up digital photography as a hobby and i want a camera i can grow into and not want to buy a new camera in a year.

now i've just got to find a way to get a good deal on it at bestbuy. too bad i don't know anyone who works there :P

jcaut

I think the G5 is a good choice.

One of its excellent features that you don't get on lesser cameras is the ability to shoot in RAW. Shooting RAW saves the information from the CCD without any in-camera processing,
without compression. Larger than .jpeg but not as huge as a .tiff, RAW files have to be "converted" (to .jpg, .tif, etc..) before you can do much with them, but the advantages are numerous. Since no in-camera processing is applied, you're free to change settings at the time of conversion. For instance, say you shoot an indoor shot under tungsten lighting: The auto white balance nearly always does a good job on my G2, but say you're set on "daylight" which causes your shot to look too yellow. With .jpg files you'd be stuck trying to make color balance adjustments in Photoshop, but with RAW, you just change the white balance during conversion. Same with contrast, saturation, sharpening, etc. You'll learn more about it when you get the camera. I nearly always shoot RAW, unless I KNOW all I'll need is a .jpeg.

Check out Lensmate for a lens adapter tube. You can put a UV filter on the Lensmate tube for lens protection, or use other filters for creative effects. There are also wide-angle and telephoto lenses available to fit it.

Canon's software they include with the camera is not the greatest, unless they've changed it substantially. Check out http://www.breezesys.com for a free downloader program. You can download a tryout version of Breezebrowser, a file viewer and raw-conversion utility that beats the heck out of Canon's Zoombrowser. It's also got a nifty html generator that makes creating thumbnailed CD archives of your pictures a snap.

Good luck!
Jason

PhantomOG

which adapter do you recommend? the 52 or 58? i'm thinking the 52 since i'm just starting

also, do you know where i can get a decent, cheap UV filter to start off with?

edit... didn't see that lensmate sold filters. guess i'll just buy it there.