New Digital Camera

[Dutch_guy]

I'm thinking of buying a digital camera, a quick google search didn't give me any better idea of what to get, as a matter of fact the amount of choices I seemed to have was stunning and thoroughly confusing...

Anyway, I'll be using it a lot during the vacation, as will my family. So I'd say it should be quite small, or better said not that heavy and easy to carry around. Needless to say I would like to be able to shoot some good quality photo's, and record some good quality videos too, am I correct in assuming most cameras today are able to do both ?

Another thing which is important is that it should be easy to put the photo's and vids. on my computer or even to play the video's on our tv. How, by the way, can I do that ?

Now I haven't picked a particular brand, or anything like that, so I''m open to all suggestions.

Also, I haven't set myself a price limit (simply because I don't know what an appropriate price is..) although keeping in mind I won't be wanting to take super good quality pics. of supermodels any camera that exceeds the 700 euro's is probably too good for me anyway.

Also, if you happen to have a digital camera yourself, which one do you have?

So if anyone could be of help, I'd appreciate it a lot !

[Blodrast]

Now, this IS in the right place, but I dunno how often the photo enthusiasts visit here, so I suggest you send PMs to some of them (you can find them out from the Family photos and albums or whatever thread in the Frontroom). Off the top of my head it would be Soly (duh), Gregoshi, Geoffrey_S, Ser Clegane, and I guess that's a good start.

May I also suggest this web site: http://www.dpreview.com/.
You should be able to get a lot of info about any prospective targets.

My wife used to have a Canon Powershot G2 - that's a pretty old model, so I doubt you'd be interested in something like that - especially since it's been discontinued. So I'm afraid I can't help you more than that.

[Gregoshi]

Hi Dutch_Guy.

Another good review site is http://www.steves-digicams.com/default.htm. The reviews at Steve's and the DP site noted by Blodrast are very detailed. You can just skip all the detail and go right to the conclusions/summary page to get the quick pros and cons of each camera. I know at Steve's site, the conclusion usually mentions the best cameras in the class of the camera being reviewed, so even if you pick a lousy camera, the conclusion should point you to the models you should be looking at. Or you can check out Steve's "The Best" page...http://www.steves-digicams.com/best_cameras.html Start with the entry-level or ultra-compact section and see if any of those meet you needs.

From personal experience, my dad, brother and daughter all have Sony DSC-P series cameras and I am very impressed with the pictures they take. I took a close up of one of my dogs and that picture still impresses me with the sharpness of the picture. Back in June my daughter bought the Sony DSC-P200 (7 megapixel x3 optical zoom) for $200 on sale at Sears. It is a fairly small camera, but is not very thin. It will fit in a shirt pocket but it would be a bit bulky in there. BTW, the camera does shoot video too. I have a "better" camera in the Panasonic DMC-Z20, but I don't think it takes as sharp pictures as the Sony does.

Well, that ought to get you started. Good luck and have fun finding your perfect camera.

[Geezer57]

There are currently four digital cameras in my family: my older Fuji S602 Zoom (http://www.steves-digicams.com/2002_...ji_s602z.html), my wife's ultracompact Canon SD200 (http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/sd200.html), my son's new ultracompact Sony DSC-something (he bought it, not I), and my new Canon S3-1s (http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_reviews/s3is.html). I like my cameras to contain as few proprietary ancillaries as possible, so I look for AA-size batteries, Compact Flash or Secure Disk (SD) memory cards, etc. My Fuji and Canon both use AA's and widely available memory card formats. My wife's untracompact has proprietary lithium-ion batteries, but that's almost a necessity in the very small form factor. I also tend to focus a lot less on megapixels, and much more on lens & sensor quality, while keeping desirable features in mind. It's much smarter to trade off a few megapixels in theoretical resolution for a better lens with a sensor large & fine-grained enough to capture that resolution. I'm extremely happy with the S3-1s, the pictures have turned out excellently, while the zoom and macro modes have just blown me away!

A lot depends on your budget - if you have the money (about $400 U.S.), you'll be hard-pressed to ever need all the features and performance Canon packed into that S3-1s. Their older S2-1s, which is almost as good, is now selling at about $300 U.S. For budget beginners cameras, you can't go wrong looking at either the Canon Powershot A430 (4 MP) or A530 (5 MP) (http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_reviews/a530.html), both available at well under $200 U.S.

[DukeofSerbia]

For me, now is the best Olympus. They still use stupid xD cards which are the most expensive, but they have the best digital cameras. Less than 300 euros Olympus sell mju700. For that money, it's impossible to buy anything close to that model.

Just buy larger xD card (at least 256 mb).

http://www.olympus-nederland.com/con...29_mju_700.htm

And never buy HP's digital cameras!

[Banquo's Ghost]

I have an Olympus mju-mini 4.0 megapixel in white which has served very well for more than a year. They are still available I think.

Very stylish, nice feature set and photos, and works very well with my Mac and iPhoto.

[Geezer57]

They still use stupid xD cards which are the most expensive

And here I thought Sony's proprietary Memory Stick format was the most expensive!

[C-F]

I have tried all kinds of 'picture taking gadgets' , but in the end, my Fuji Z1 goes with me everywhere: light, compact,simple,decent pictures, nice battery live, and most important BIG LCD...
Also uses xD and my Olympus cards are therefore compatible ;)
About $300 see here: http://photography.consumerelectroni...e.jsp?id=38765

[Dutch_guy]

Many thanks to all who helped, some great sites and suggestions were put forward.

Appreciate it a lot, thanks all

[edyzmedieval]

I got my HP Photosmart R927 with 350 euros.

-8.2 megapixels
-3 inch LCD
-Red Eye Removal & other stuff
-complex setup(it has a lot of options to make the best photo )
-Mini SD card(not included in package) + Rechargabeable Battery(included in package)

I must say, for this sleek package, I got a lot of options.
And the size: 65-70% of the size of a CD!!!

Perfect.

[DukeofSerbia]

HP is not good manufacturer. My friend last year buy top model R717 for 270 euros (with VAT) and I am not impressed. Slow processing of pictures, especially in low light (night is terrible), slow charging of flash, colours are not the best, chromatic abernations, etc. Not good at all. But we couldn't find nothing better last summer, unfortunutely.

[doc_bean]

Some random stuff:

-You'll probably always have to make a trade off between a big, heavy camera with great quality and a small one with so-so quality. Don't expect miracles from the small ones, though they're certainly good enough for most people (depending on what you photograph of course)

-Digital zoom is pretty much worthless, it's the same as taking a picture at high resolution and then cutting out a part

-4 megapixels is enough for regular sized pictures, it still looks good when blown up on our big screen (HD) tv

-I prefer looking through the lens instead of looking at an LCD screen to take pictures, so a camera where I can look through the lens is a big plus for me. Also, not all LCD screens are usable in bright light (are any ?)

-CompactFlash cards are sloooooow