Digital Cameras - thoughts?

[Jeni78]

Hi all,

I'm going to jump into the 21st century and buy a digital camera! I'm just not sure what to get.

I want to be able to upload pictures to the computer, be able to take decent photographs, zoom, flash, indoor/outdoor, video capabilities would be cool too. Rechargeable battery would be great.

What do you use, what do you recommend? Likes/dislikes about what you own?

Thanks!
Jeni

[Callisto in NC]

I'm only going to offer an opinion on a built in rechargable battery. I would go for "regular" batteries and buy rechargable. The reason is that if you have to rely on the camera to charge itself you could run out while you are out and about. With rechargable batteries like Energizer, you can have back up.

[texasgirl]

I have only had Kodak as my MIL, photographer, has had many brands and likes the Kodak better than many of the more expensive ones.
Many other like the Nikons. It just depends on what you want in the camera, are you taking professional pics, every day pics, landscapes, people....
Just do reviews on different ones, but, you are definitaley fixing to get a lot of ideas and opinions from people here that take LOTS of pics. GB is one that loves the pic taking, lol
NCN is right though, you will want to buy rechargables. Buy 2 or 3 sets and keep them charged.

[Mama]

I have an Olympus Stylus 800 that I have been very happy with.

[GB]

Buy a camera made by a camera company (Nikon, Canon, etc). Stay away from cameras made by companies whose primary business is not cameras (HP for instance). The one exception is Sony. They make a decent digital camera.

Ignore digital zoom. It is useless. Optical zoom is what matters. Digital zoom is a scam.

Make sure the menus are easy to navigate.

I find the cameras that have their own rechargeable batteries do much better with power consumption. You can usually by a backup battery and keep that charged and with you so you can swap out if needed.

More megapixels does not equal a better camera. Cameras these days all have more than enough megapixels. Don't buy your camera based on the amount of megapixels. I would actually rather have a camera with less megapixels these days as you can't tell the difference (for 99% of the people) anyway and with less the upload times are much less. I print out photos on 13x19 paper and my old 3 megapixel shots look as good as my 7 megapixel shots with my newer camera.

[blissful]

GB's post is spot on!
Get some rechargeable batteries and bay to charge them.
3 MP is just as good as a 5 MP, as long as you hold still (or use a tripod.)
Skip the digital zoom, get more optical zoom, adjust your pictures with computer software, this will get you better resolution from the get go.
Learn as much as you can from reading on the internet about how to adjust pictures (crop, resolution etc). Enjoy!

[Vanilla Bean]

I have a Fuji FinePix A820. I bought that in the Fall of 2007, and it's been a great little camera. It takes great pictures, but I need to work on learning how to take outdoor scenes. It's wonderful for close-ups, and it's what I use to take pictures of what we eat.

[Scotch]

Check this site, and especially the forums, for reliable reviews and information on digital cameras: CLICKY

[Callisto in NC]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vanilla Bean I have a Fuji FinePix A820. I bought that in the Fall of 2007, and it's been a great little camera. It takes great pictures, but I need to work on learning how to take outdoor scenes. It's wonderful for close-ups, and it's what I use to take pictures of what we eat.

I flove all 3 of my Fujis. They have been my best friends. I want to replace my 5100 because it's just now acting wonky but it's 4 years old. It does still work great but a button sticks. If that's my only complaint after 4 years, it's really not a true complaint.

[Andy M.]

Good and accurate info from GB. The best deals are online. Go to google and type int he brand and model of camera and google will list all the sites that sell it.