Digital cameras

[StarvingForHDTV]

Do any of you have a digital camera that you would recommend?  What do you like about yours versus other cameras available on the market?

Thanks in advance.

[Greg Oman]

Well, I've got an older model, a Canon G2, which is a 4mp model.  I chose it based on the reviews of the time, it had reasonable color accuracy, but was pricey-- I think I paid about $800, had it for 3 years now I think.

Hopefully someone will chime in for you with something more recent, but I think that cameras from Canon, Nikon, and Olympus probably will be my top choices when looking again.  I'd love to get a smaller, shirt pocket sized camera like the digital Elph or something.

They've really made some good progress in the interfaces to go from camera to printer-- Kodak has their system, Canon has one, Sony, etc., so you may want to consider that too.

Lots to choose from, anywhere from $99 to $1599.  Almost as bad as shopping for a new computer.  Or HDTV. Or.....

Good luck!

Greg O.

[PatM]

I have a Sony, my sons have Canon.
Both have excellent picture quality.
I also have a pentax, which is compact, but the pictures are not as sharp as with others

[Paul S.]

For Christmas we bought ourselves the new Canon A85 4 megapixel. It's more than what we'll ever need and less than $300.

[StarvingForHDTV]

I'm kind of thinking shirt/pants pocket sized would be nice to have.  That way it would come out with me all of the time.  I have never had a camera that I have been willing to carry around constantly.  Picture quality is important, but from what I understand the little ones struggle in that department.  There are just too many to choose from.

I'm looking at maybe:

Canon SD300
Canon S500
Casio EX-Z55
Konica/Minolta G600
Panasonic DMC-FX7
Pentax S5i

Anyone have experience with any of those?  

Thanks for your help.

[WaukeshaBADGER]

If your looking for a well priced, smaller camera that offers stunning detail, a 4x Wide Angle zoom lens, start up and transfer times of less than one second, with a 6 MegaPixel file, you may want to look at the Fuji FinePix E550. It retails for around $399 but some stores have a $50 rebate and extra memory.

Fuji has been known for years to have some of the best color saturation with their film and their digital cameras have received several top ratings in photo mags and pubs such as Consumer Reports. I have an E550 and it is a great camera with features you will use as a beginner, but also has shutter and aperature priority if you prefer, plus a full manual mode. It has 4 scene position modes so you can set up based on the lighting and action sequence.

That's my two cents. Check it out, I think you'd be pleasantly surprised. Not to mention Walgreens, Woodman's and WalMart have the Fuji Aladdin kiosk for easy transfer for wallets, 4x6 and 8x10's prints, onto Fuji paper from a Fuji processor!!

ON, WISCONSIN!!

[mhz40]

Guys.... I have an older cheap ($400) Olympus 3.1 mega-pixel and I have printed many 8x11's that look absolutely stunning.  A 16 mega-pixel won't look good using compressing it with jpeg.  Use tiff... memory is cheap.  Forget about low-light stuff with mine though... shots around the campfire are useless.

I agree, that E550 looks sweet... and what a price, a quick google shows it under $250 in many places.

[Bebop]

Got a Canon A95 (5 mega pixels)for $285 from Dell and a 1GB flashcard for $40 (holds about 400 full resolution pics).

Once you tried digital photography, you'll never go back to film.

If you needed a photo printer, Epson, Canon and HP are offering $50 rebate. With the HP rebate, you don't have to buy both at the same time just within a specified period.

And one more thing, if you don't have rechargeable batteries. Now it's time to get them. The camera eats them up fast. Go with the new 15 minutes rechargeable.

Needed more recommendations? Try this:http://www.dcviews.com/

[PatM]

The Dpreview site gives detailed reviews of many different digital camera's.

You can find it HERE

[StarvingForHDTV]

Thanks everyone for the help.  I will look at your suggestions.

[Matt Heebner]

Another good review site is Steve's Digicams . He has a god awful lot of in depth camera and printer reviews. Quite informative.

I myself have been completely happy with my older Canon A300 3.2 MP. It takes excellent pictures, and utilizes some proprietary technology that really helps the picture turn out better. The only thing I would say is important is getting a camera with a optical zoom. Digital zooms totally are useless. I have mine turned off in the menu.

Another thing I have been pretty excited about is my new Canon Photo Printer CP-220. It is a small 4x6 sub-dye photo printer. It produces prints that look as though they were processed. The paper and ink (actually dye) cartridges are reasonable....print price is around $.40. If I want an 8x10, I will take it to Walgreens. Canon also uses a weather-proof non-fading coating on all the paper. Water, fingerprints, etc is not supposed to affect the actual paper print. I have printed out numerous pictures already. I love it.

A brother in law just got the new Sony ultra-slim DSC-T1 5.0 MP with the 2 1/2" LCD. Looks pretty cool, but I still think Canon takes the best looking picture. But of course I am biased.

Good Luck

Matt

[oz]

I recommend any of the major brands, but go SMALL!  You are much more likely to carry around a small pocket camera than anything you have to hang around your neck. Trust me, I use my Sony DSC-T1 ten times as often as my friends use their big cameras. For most people, 3.0 megapixals is enough, unless you plan on getting a lot of poster-size prints made from your pictures. Also, I would look for a camera that uses SD memory. It's the smallest and cheapest, and can be used in a lot of other devices like PDA's and MP3 players.

[StarvingForHDTV]

Thanks to all of you for your help.  I decided to go with a Canon A95.  I couldn't find any tiny cameras that had acceptable picture quality for me.  I think the Canon has a bit too saturated colors, but I can live with that.  Most of the review sites seem to like it:

http://www.dcviews.com/_canon/a95.htm

I will be ordering it soon, and will also be buying 1GB of memory and some rechargable batteries plus a charger.

Thanks again for the help.