I am looking to buy a digital camera. My brother bought a Canon A70 a few years ago(3 mp). They have been very happy with it. The new model that replaces it is a A75 and there is an A85(4 mp). The A85 is at the high range of what I want to spend. Does anyone have any recommendations about these or others in the same price range?

 

It depends on what kind of photos you typically take. 95% of my photos are outdoors.

I am very happy with my Olympus C-750. 4MP, 10x Optical Zoom. Advanced exposure controls. But, its low light focus ability is bad, so it's not a good camera for taking lots of indoor shots. It sounds like the C-750 might be a little over your price range.

If you like to take outdoor shots, check out the other Olympus C-7xx cameras. C-740 or C-730 are probably closer to what you are looking for. Very similar to the C-750, but 3MP instead of 4.

 

I have the canon A95, its a 5 mp compared to the A85's 4, I think thats the only major difference that I know of... mine was a gift so I not exactly sure what they paid. Basically, from what I've been told is that you can't go wrong with a Canon, no complaints here. Check the stores first, then go online to Ebay aand compare prices, theresa big difference. On Ebay you can get the camera plus battery charger, real good batteries, mini tripod, case and bigger memory card and reader for the same as the store prices for just the camera. Its definiatly better to get a bigger memeory card cause the 30 Mb one that came with the camera can only hold like 20 pics at best, the bundle mine came with had a 256mb card plus a memory card reader so you don't have to have the camery on (draining the batt.) while transfering pics. The A95 also came with some pretty cool software which lets you 'stitch' photos together to make panoramic pictures or just use it for anything, like scanning map sections and putting it alltogether. Thats basically all i know

 

Check out this URL below. I found it real helpful when my 3 year old Sony digital started messing up at Christmas time. After researching the web, I
bought the Nikon D70 DSLR, which takes incredible pictures!!!


http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/2dig.htm

 

Oh yeah, I should have mentioned some sites I found useful when trying to decide which camera to buy. Lots of good reviews at each of these.

http://www.steves-digicams.com/
http://www.dpreview.com/
http://www.dcviews.com

 

Here ....Let me help

If you don't know which camera to get after reading these,then they don't make it

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...d.php?t=313408

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...d.php?t=257269

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...d.php?t=247507

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...d.php?t=245756

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...d.php?t=238366

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...d.php?t=228622

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...d.php?t=204180

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...d.php?t=177619

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...d.php?t=145485

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/505-digital-camera-selection.html

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/687-digital-camera.html

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...ead.php?t=3098

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...ead.php?t=3372

 

We got a Canon A70 a few years ago, and put a huge memory card in it. We take pictures all month, then burn 'em on a disc. It's easy to use for a non-puter old fart like me, and my teenage son has been able to explore photography for nothing! My next one will be an SLR digital. I'm waiting for the prices to bottom out, and my bank account to get healthy! FWIW, we almost never make prints, cuz everyone we know has e-mail, so we just send pics to family and friends.

 

My g/f bought a Canon A75 a few months back and it takes great pictures. You won't see much if any difference between 3.2 and 4 megapixels. I reccomend the A75.

 

I bought my wife a 'point and shoot' digital camera (3.0 mega pixel) two years ago (Olympus D550 Zoom) and she LOVES it. (It eats batteries like crazy, though.) That is the only thing that I've heard bad about the Olympus.

I've since bought my daughters each an Olympus (mdl ?? 3.0 mega pix) and just bought for myself a Casio Exilim 4.0 mega-pixel. This little camera is fantastic!!
The only thing is the size. (That's why I bought it. T I N Y.)
With my ham hands, I MUST put the strap on my wrist.
Battery life is incredible. Photos. . . just as incredible.

Just my 2¢.

 

I had a Canon A60 that worked well until it was stolen. I liked the macro function for closeup shots. I just replaced it with an A75 which works well. Even a 2Mp camera is good enuf for saving pics to disk for email, viewing on a computer, or ebay etc.

If you want a high end professional camera with results near film then go with higher Mp. A professional I worked with the other day has a very good digital and they will not compare to film for some things. There are film speed, sensitivity etc tradeoffs. I have a 35MM with macro, zoom lenses etc I use for high detail and slow processing.

 

Hi Eric,

Thanks for your comments!! Just wondering what tradeoffs you have in mind with the digitals? My D70 has the equivalent ISO settings of a film camera from 200 to 1600......

 

Go for the Canon A95, on sale now at stores for $325-$350. Costco online has it with extra batts and a charger, as well as a case, $350. Target, $350. Walmart online $326.

 

I didn't understand all the professional photographer was talking about. Something about the digital being slow to recover and not good for high speed action etc. I was happy with the 2Mp A60 and the 3Mp A75. I don't use the film camera anymore but my wife does.

 

I bought a Konica/Minolta Dimage A2 all in one camera. It has 8M and auto focus etc BUT manual zoom(which I prefer). I put a 256M memory in it.

It costs about $800 list but I got mine for about $600 from Express Camera. With extra batt, filter, LCD shield, memory, I think I paid a bit over $1,000. Shipping and handling was an incredible $100+(give me a break). I think I might have got taken on battery and memory costs and definitely shipping.

Things I like about it is that it does 90+% of what I used to use my old Minolta SRT101 (SLR) for, and for most things I don't miss not having interchangeable lenses. I have used the SRT for over 30 years and have several lenses, but now it doesn't get used much since the A2 does almost all the same stuff and is easy to haul.

The manual zoom is much better than the "I can't make up my mind, or you really don't want to focus on that do you?" automatic zooms. It takes EXCELLENT picutres with incredible detail. I can see the individual parts(the fine lines which look like pencil lines) of the feathers on a Pelican I shot at maybe 20 feet.

With 256M of memory I can get about 32 pics in extra fine resolution JPEG mode(3264x2448 pixels mode) There is a RAW and TIFF that is even higher res. Fine mode gives me over 60 pics and is excellent even on 8x10 blowups.

This camera weighs under a pound and fits in lcargo pants pockets. Way easier to carry than my maybe 10+ pounds of SRT101 plus lenses.

You have the choice of eye piece or LCD viewfinder with automatic or manual switching between the two.

Things I don't like are Too many buttons and features. Ya need to have an incredible memory or be a rocket scientist to do more than normal stuff. The buttons also are in places that make it too easy to push them when you don't want to, thus putting the camera into some mode you didn't expect. Battery life is maybe 1-2 hours if you forget to turn it off while walking about.

The lens is only F 2.8, so often you will have less light/slower speeds than you expect.

It has antishake which has a little piece that wiggles the CCD to compensate for my palsey(kidding), but so far I don't know if it really does anything. I guess if you can't tell, then it must work since otherwise I would notice crummy pictures from shaking. So far I have had only one bad pic and that was due to extreme zoom, tiny target and 8x10 enlargement.

It tends to make pictures too light, but that is easilly corrected on the PC. The photo edit software is a bit clunky and I have yet to figure out a simple way of printing just one pic at a time. If you have a "set" of pics, it will print all of them when you hit print. A real waste of paper and ink. I need to figure this out, assuming there is a way to print just one.

This camera is good for a person who is experienced with an SLR with an assortment of lenses, but who wants a camera that doesn't require a Sherpa to haul around for you. I would not recommend it for someone who wants a simple Point and Shoot. It is too complicated for that mentality and too easy to get into unknown states.

I would buy it again, but if I found a camera that let me do similar close up and zoom, with equal pic quality but simpler controls or "protected" controls and longer battery life, I might switch.

Just my opinion,

James Henderson