Digital Cameras - thoughts?

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Jeni78

Senior Cook
Joined
Mar 31, 2008
Messages
322
Location
Minnesota
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
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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!
 
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 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. :)
 
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.
 
Callisto, I also have a Fuji 5100. I've had it for about four years, and it has survived very well in this humid environment. I love it. I agree with everything GB says except the battery issue. Like Callisto, I support using regular batteries. DH has a Pentax that takes a special battery and we can never find it here...I've had friends come to visit and leave their camera's battery charger at home (duh) and they can't find the one they need here. SO, if you travel, or even if you don't, opt for the convenience of regular AA batteries. Get a cheap battery charger and rechargeable batteries. SO much less hassle. Have fun - you are going to love having a digital camera!
 
I'd say stay with 7 megapix and 5 optical zoom. Rest you already said what you want. So go to store and ask for these options.
 
Callisto, I also have a Fuji 5100. I've had it for about four years, and it has survived very well in this humid environment. I love it. I agree with everything GB says except the battery issue. Like Callisto, I support using regular batteries. DH has a Pentax that takes a special battery and we can never find it here...I've had friends come to visit and leave their camera's battery charger at home (duh) and they can't find the one they need here. SO, if you travel, or even if you don't, opt for the convenience of regular AA batteries. Get a cheap battery charger and rechargeable batteries. SO much less hassle. Have fun - you are going to love having a digital camera!
Karen ~ that's exactly the problem I've seen. You go on a trip, even locally and the one thing you forget is the camera charger, or you have to take so many pictures your battery runs out and you're stranded if you aren't right next to the extra. If your camera uses AA's or AAA's if you forget your charger you aren't stranded or looking for a specialty store you can dash into the closest store a grab enough to get you by.

For years pictures were my passion but I live in a land where there's nothing to take pictures of so my camera expertise has diminished but I do know I would always buy Fuji given the option.
 
I bought mine online from the Sam's Club Auction Site. I was able to bid on it and get it for about 1/2 price. You have to hav a Sam's card to bid though. They have quite a few differnet cameras there. Once you ecide what it is that you want, you may want to check there to see if it's on the auction.
 
I have a Canon Power Shot A470 and I love it. Paid just a little over $100 and it's great. I think they just phased out the A470 but I'm sure the next is just as good. If I don't use the video, the batteries last quite a while. You must however, buy a larger memory stick. Again, videos take up a lot of that storage as well.
 
Andy M. is so right about shopping on line. I bought my Fuji for about half what I might have paid if I hadn't shopped around. I use bizrate.com for shopping and price comparisons. There are lots of other sites as well. Decide what you want, do some consumer comparisons...there are even sites to help you choose a digital camera. Just google it, i.e., "how to choose a digital camera." Good luck!
 
I liked my Kodak, but I really love my Olympus Stylus 780. It is all-weather, has optical zoom, and is easy to use. It is small enough to fit in my pocket, but it has a large enough display to see it easily. It even has a special setting just for food! I have used it for great vacation shots, people, animals, food, and ebay. I got a couple extra rechargable batteries so that I always have a fresh one while one is recharging, and I got a couple memory cards (a must, as the camera will only hold about 9 pictures without it). I got the batteries and memory cards for a good price on ebay.

:)Barbara
 
I have a Canon SD750. It's small, has decent zoom (3x optical), is easy to operate, takes good quality video and snapshots. I'm very happy with it. I especially like the compact size, which makes it very convenient to take with me everywhere. I used to have a larger SLR, but it was a bit of a pain to take with me unless I was on a 'photography mission'.
 
^^^ Exactly. Unless I'm on a photography mission I hate lugging around a large camera like I used to do with multiple lenses.
I'm active outdoors and I love taking pictures so I like to be able to stash my camera in my jersey pocket.
 

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