Alright, i think it's time i get myself a d. camera. Any suggestion? What are some good reliable choices for a first time digital camera owner? Thanks in advance.

 

Me, I'd find a digital SLR... Canon makes a nice one.. It's pricey tho.

 

You want to take a hard look at the price - but also what it can do.
1) How easy is it to download pic's off it?
2) Does it have to have special software that might get outmoded?
3) How big a picture (and how detailed) can it shoot?
4) How fine is the focus?
5) Is it "Jiggle-proof" (what's the shutter speed)?
6) How many pics can you take at a time?
7) How long do the batteries last?
8) How tuff and expensive would it be to have it repaired?

There are other thoughts I'm sure y'all will add, including "how fast will it be outmoded?", but you can see my drift here...

My own is a SONY that spits everything out on 3.5" discs. It can go 40 pictures on the smallest setting, and I don't have to monkey with special wires and software to save them. Its a few years old now, but the biggest setting is something like 1280 by godzilla! I never use that much, unless I want high detail that can be edited down later to an 800 by 600.

Two problems with the SONY:
1) You have to hold it real steady. (That "Jiggle-Proof" thing I mentioned)
2) It takes a few seconds between shots to save pictures to the disc (PITA, when you want to shoot a fast sequence)

I think it would be a good idea to keep an eye out for Digital Camera BODIES that can accept lenses compatible with standard thirty five millimeter.THAT is the dream camera I have been waiting for

~Wolf

 

Canon already makes one.. It's a rebel 60 and uses all standard cannon SLR lenses... I've been looking at them for reasons I won't speak of here.

 

I bought my wife a olympus d-550 zoom 3.0 megapixel camera 2 yrs ago as a first time digital camera and it been great. Takes great photos over a 1000 shots so far. You can go up to 8x10 in size ,easy to use great shots out of the car window at 70 mph going down Rt 81 into tennessee.Its a good camera for family photos and posting prints on line,get a memory card reader and rechagable batteries,makes life so much easier. I wouldnt get a camera with less then 3.0 megapxels as photo quality will suffer.I also liked the fact that the memory wasnt proprietary like the sony is.

 

I have an hp photosmart 320, had it for a few years now and it has taken a beating, bouncing around in my truck, dropped, ect. It still works great. Takes some great pictures for the common joe, my father in law has even used it when he has forggotn his (he is an artist ) to take pictures for art pieces.. Jusr my $0.02

 

Hi there,i just got a kodak easy share 4.0 megapixle for my birthday last month,i love it! easy camera to use,great picture quality,id look into that one

 

If you're a first timer for digi, better consider what you want it for. Will it be replacing a snazzy 35mm SLR? Or is it going to be your "instamatic"? Or something in between?

You can get excellent pictures and lots of storage in a camera that'll fit so easily in your pocket you might forget it's there, for under $200. Or you can spend over $1000 for a digi SLR which might be old tech in a couple of years.

One of the main differences is zoom capability, or lens interechangebility. You'll want the SLR style (EOS Rebel etc) for that. Otherwise, stay with the small stuff. We love our Canon digitial Elf...it went swimming for 10 minutes...ooops...and after 2 days of drying, still worked albeit a bit slower.

Oh yeah, an important feature is how long it takes to power up after each shot, especially if you're using the LED screen and the flash, and the zoom servo. Most cameras have a featuree that allows you to turn off the LED screen tto make it use less power and function much faster.

Here are some links that might help:

http://www.dpreview.com/ (5 stars! They also have links to price comparisons)

http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com/?sou...+camera+review

We bought ours at http://www.us1camera.com/shop/Product.asp?sku=2050S330 because they had the best price at the time. Don't know about now, check Cnet.com.

WATCH OUT for refurbs, euro models. Many times vendors are also trying to sell you a package that may include stuff you might not want like tripods, carrycases, extra storage chips...all mostly overpriced stuff you can get elsewhere if you need it.

While a camera that connects directly to a pc or printer is nice, you can get USB card readers that'll read most storage chips for about $25 I think. And since you can also use the memory chips and readers to transfer data files, it's a plus for me since I don't have high speed ISP for data transfer.

Hope this helps

Erik

 

covert_one,
Here's another recent thread on this subject that may be of some help. Take note of my Post #6 for some important info.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...igital+cameras

 

if you are going to be going work with the pictures (cropping, sizing etc) get a 5 mpxl it is great and get a larger memory card. You'll enjoy it.

 

I've heard you should look for one with decent optical zoom instead of digital zoom.

 

I have an Olmpus C-2020 Z. Its a really great camera, not a bit of problems with it. you can use about any software to download. Its similiar to the Olympus at work. Here's a little warning, the camera at work had a infared adapter for taking certified pictures of equipment. They only used a media card once, this is why. The pictures aren't totally erased. Even when pictures are "printed" over them. Sometimes the old pictures even wind up between the new pictures. Certain standard software will easily recover the old pictures.

 

H/P photosmart 435 great camara easy to figure out and not expensive.

 

We bought the Kodak CX 7430 4 MP.It takes nice sharp pics.and is fairly easy to use.

 

I've recommended the Canon S1 to a couple of people and they seem happy with them. Nice features without too much price.
Just checked out a couple of sites and you should be able to get one for around $300 by buying on-line.