I am trying to get ideas on a new digital camera that my daughter has offered to buy me for a Christmas present. My problem is I know very little about digital cameras as I take all my pictures with a manual Pentax 35 SLR with 28MM, 50MM and 85-400MM lenses. I love the pictures that I get and will only plan on using the digital for establishing an inventory of my lighthouses and for other pictures that I plan on posting on the forums, sending to relatives, etc.

I already have a "starter" 1.3 MP camera but can't get the closeups and clarity I want. I don't want my daughter spending more then $200-$250 for the camera. I want at least a minimum of 3.2 MP with some zoom capabilities but am more interested in getting good closeup detailed shots. I'am also interested in a low light capability as I hate to use artficial flash when shooting indoors. Long battery life is also important. Can you camera buffs list in priority (from #1 thru #5) the cameras that might fit my needs and the approximate price. Remember, the #1 camera does not have to necessarily be the cheapest or most expensive if it fills most, or all, of my needs. Also, if any of you can recommend a camera that may fit all my needs and be a little more expensive then the $250.00, I would be interested.

Please, any help or suggestions would be appreciated as my daughter asked that I giver her some suggestions by the end of July so she can start scanning the sales brochures.

Rich,

Check out DP Review. You will find a wealth of information, and they have a "buying guide" feature where you can select the features and specs that you want/need, and it brings up a chart of cameras that meet your specs.

Good luck.

Hi Rich!

Larry's suggestion was a good one. A couple recommendations I can make to maybe help narrow your search:

1. Stay away from a camera with ONLY digital zoom. Optical/digital zoom combination is fine. Most of the cameras in the price range you are looking in will have something like a 3x optical/2x digital zoom or something similar.

2. A camera that takes compact flash cards is going to be the cheapest to get memory cards for. Cameras that take SD, memory stick, XD, and smart media are going to have higher cost memory cards than compact flash.

3. Long battery life - stay away from the cameras that take AA batteries and look for one that takes a specific lithium battery. The lithiums last a LOT longer than even rechargeable AA batteries and you can get second lithium batteries pretty reasonably. It will also save you money in the long run because digital cameras eat AA batteries like they are candy.

4. I would stick to the better name brand cameras - Canon, Nikon, Olympus, or Kodak. My rule of thumb is, if they make TV's, like Samsung, don't buy their cameras!

5. Closeups - look for a camera with a "macro" function - usually you can get within an inch or two of your object to take a photo.

6. Low light photography - you need a camera with a lens that has at least a 2.8 aperture opening. When you look at the lens of the camera, it will say something like 2.8-4.0 or 3.5-4.5. The fastest lens (for low light photography) you can get in a digital camera is a 2.8.
Let me know if I can be of further help. When you get it narrowed down to a few models, give me a shout.

Rich-

I would suggest my model, the Canon Powershot S1 IS. It is comfortable, has a good wideangle as well as a huge, 58mm (equivalent I think to 380mm on a 35mm camera), zoom for getting photos of far away lights or lenses in lanterns and the Image Stabilisation to make those photos clear, a very variable shutter (from 15-1/1250th of a second), pretty good battery life (it varies, but I think it depends on my batteries), and a pretty good pop up flash (I havn't really used it in low light yet, but when I have, it seems pretty good). I was able to get it for about $400. If you look around online, you can find some pretty good deals. The retail is $499.

So far, it works great. Took it on my sailing trip a couple weeks ago, and got amazing shots of the lights. I'd highly reccomend it.

I would avoid Smart Media Card cameras, Smart Media is being phased out, I don't even know if they still make them, if they do it won't be for long. If your do get a Smart Media camera, stock up on cards now, part of their demise is because they can only go up to 128 mb

To all that took the time to respond to my plea for infomation, this is what my inquiries have come down to. Over the past week I have done a lot of checking out cameras and talking to people and have pretty much made up my mind on the digital camera that fits 90% of my needs. It is ranked fairly high on the "to Buy" lists that I have also checked.

I think I will go with the 3.2 Mega Pixel Cannon PowerShot A75 that has a 3X optical/3.2X Digital Zoom, 2.8-4.8 Aperture, Macro down to 2 inches, 1.8" LCD Monitor and comes with a furnished 32 MB Compact Flash Card. I already have a 64 MB Compact Flash Card in my cheapo 1.3 MP camera so that should keep the price down some. It uses AA bateries so I'll buy a rechargeable battery kit that comes with 4 batteries and then buy an additional 4 batteries. The camera sells for $250.00 through a couple of catalogs and the rechageable batteries/charger will cost about $40.00. I'll also buy a memory card reader for about $20.00 to save on the camera batteries. I figure for about $310.00 I will have what fill my needs.

If anyone can come up with a better idea please let me know, otherwise, I'll let my daughter know which one I prefer.

Rich, go to WalMart for your batteries and charger. Should be $25-30 for a charger and 4 batteries. Be sure to read the details of the charger - the majority seem to be overnight (like 17 hours), but there are many that will recharge in 1-2 hours. I have one by Rayovac that came from WalMart and also has a cord to allow it to be used in the car. It does a one hour or less charge. Also be sure to get NiMH batteries not NiCad. Set of 4 AA NiMH batteries runs about $10.

When you get your camera, turn off the digital zoom if it gives you the option. You don't want to accidentally go into the digital zoom range as you will most likely be disappointed.

If you have Office Max stores in your area, watch the ads. Often you can get a card reader for $10-$20 and get a rebate of most, if not all, of the purchase price.

Good Luck.

Jen,

I’ve just got to ask a question about your above statement. Assuming it also refers to Sony, WHY? I tend to think it might have to do with experience, expertise, knowledge, background and research & development. Am I even close?

Bob

Bob, Sony would be the only exception. The only Sony digicam I would buy would have to have a Carl Zeiss lens in it. I've learned that quality glass is one large element on how good photos come out...

I worked in a photo lab for over a year. My personal experience over the years, along with my photo lab experience, has made me reach the decisions I do. The number of returns we had on Samsung, RCA, and other non-camera manufacturer cameras was incredible. They also don't put very good glass in their lenses. Have you ever taken photos with a cheap point and shoot to get photos that lack sharpness and contrast? Part is due to the camera optics, part is due to the film you use, and part is due to the developing.

Hope this answers your question...?

Many thanks, Jen. In a way my reference to expertise and experience was partially right. But your answer seems to be right on the button. It's nice to know someone as knowledgeable as you are.

Bob

And while we are on the subject of cameras and such, maybe someone can answer this sort of stupid question - what are the differences between the two "zooms" and when do you use each of them? Enquiring minds NEED to know. Thanks!

Eskilady

In my opinion, Optical Zoom is the only zoom that you need to worry about. In very simplistic terms, Digital Zoom can be compared to holding a magnifying glass to a picture in a newspaper. All you tend to see it a bunch of dots.

I always laugh when I see advertisments by manufacturers who multiply the Optical Zoom by the Digital Zoom. Like it's a meaningful figure. I haven't figured out why they do that.

Bob

Essentially, optical zoom is a true zoom. The lens itself magnifies the image before recording it. As Jen noted, the better the quality of "glass" (the lens) is very important to the quality of the picture. Most manufacturers who use quality lens producers will brag on the fact. The name of the lens builder will also generally appear on the front of the lens so you know.

The digital zoom is more like electronic interpolation of the image and often does not produce a very high quality image. It may be very jaggy and not very sharp when you look at it full size on your computer screen. I have the digital zoom capability turned off in my camera so I don't have to worry about accidentally getting into that range. The more inexpensive cameras use only digital zoom, so they are point and shoot fixed-focus cameras for all practical purposes.

Bob, all the manufactures advertise the total zoom so as not to be outdone by the rest of them. More and more are now getting up to 10x optical zoom. Panasonic has three models that go to 12x optical zoom.

The stores in my area still sell the SM-cards. Maybe my brain is playing tricks on me, but I thought they offered a 256mb and a 512mb also.

My Olympus 4.0 megapixel uses the SM-card and I've had good luck with them. My Epson printer, CX-6400, accepts them directly into the machine and does a fine job printing photos.

I personally don't forsee SM-cards disappearing real soon. There are too many cameras and printers out there that use them. They may not be the cutting edge of technology now but they've worked well for me.

Bob

I don't see the demise of the cards themselves on store shelves for a while, but new camera models that use SM I think are dwindling. Manufacturers are going either with CF, which, with a Microdrive, can hold 12GB of photos, or, for the more beginner cameras, SD or another smaller card. The newer cards are faster and smaller. Also, SM could come in sizes up to 512MB, but I think that many SM-using devices only take up to 128.

They were great at the beginning, but I think that technology has moved on. But I'm sure you will be able to buy extra cards for quite a time into the future.

Wow!! So much for so little. The Canon A75 was definitely the right decision for me. It does everything I wanted it to do plus about 100 things I never expected. Got it from Crutchfield for $229.00 in 2 days. I'm still experimenting with it but am 100% satified already.

Smart media is being phased out. Lexar and San Disk have already announced that they will no longer be producing SM by years ends. Lexar doesn't even make anything above 128mb in SM according to their website. But expect to see SD/MMC/xD/MS to be around for a few more years to come as well as CF cards. SD and MMC seem to be popular for PDAs, and I expect to see a lot more cameras especially Olympias who was in part responsible for the development of xD to continue to grow in sales. MS is suppose to get another update from what Sony had recently announced with a new generation of Memory Sticks. I do not believe there are any camera makers out there building digicams on the SM platform..

I prefer CF as it has in theory by SanDisk the largest storage compacity at this time of being able to surport upwards to 256gb, even though Lexar has an 8gb to start shipping next year.