Hey Terry, trying to get me in trouble here? The moment I utter Nikon, someone that loves Canon will disagree!
That kidding aside, it largely doesn't matter which of the major camera brands you go with... in alphabetical order - Canon, Minolta, Nikon, and Pentax - are all very good these days and in many respects it may be a matter of personal preference or familiarity that becomes a deciding factor in one's choice. Canon and Nikon are the choice of the pros these days, and the argument rages back and forth as to which is better in any given year. If you're seriouisly into photography (or think you might get to that level of insanity at some point), Canon and Nikon also offer the greatest range of exotic lenses and other goodies and gadgets.
Film vs. Digital?
Continuing this thread, I guess the first fundamental question one needs to ask and decide how to answer is that of film vs. digital. In part, that depends on what you want to do with your results but that is becoming less and less of an issue as the number of megapixels that the new digital cameras offer (for a price) continues to climb. Personally, I shoot film almost exclusively because there are some things photographic that digitals don't do, like allowing you to play with reciprocity failure. That said, this isn't an indictment of digital cameras, and certainly not the digital "darkroom," that's just my own predilection. Ultimately, the slides I shoot get fed into my Nikon Coolscan 4000ED slide scanner and end up as digital files - sometimes very large files approaching 130 Mbytes each in size! If you want to share photos in digital form with family and friends, post them to the HL forum, or whatever, if you're shooting with a digital camera they're already in digital format and about all you need to do is some resizing and you're ready to send them off into the ether. On the other hand, if you're shooting film, you're going to need to scan them into digital form before your foray into the electronic world. Prints can be scanned on flatbed scanners which are now relatively inexpensive. Slides generally require a more specialized slide scanner that can run from a few hundred dollars into the thousands.
To Point & Shoot?
Beyond the film/digital debate, the next thing that someone interested in a starter camera has to consider is their inclination toward photography in general. Many people start with a point and shoot. There's nothing wrong with that decision. There are a bunch of 'em around my house and I occasionally carry one, a waterproof Canon Sureshot A1, for when I know I'm going to get wet, particularly if it involves salt water. They're also light and compact and very easy to travel with! Quite a lot of people are happy with that level of photographic capability. Others will get more seriously involved in photography and will graduate from a point and shoot to an adjustable camera that gives them still more capability and creative freedom. But, before leaving the subject of point and shoot cameras, the issue of zoom lenses on them warrants mention. If you're going to go out and shoot lighthouses, in particular, you can't always get close enough to them and consequently, the "reach" of a zoom lens on your point and shoot can come in handy. Conversely, in some locations you can't get far enough back from the lighthouse without falling off a cliff, particularly the tall towers, to get all of the tower in the viewfinder with a normal lens, which by definition for 35 mm format is 50 mm. So, some wide angle capability also comes in pretty handy. A quick scan of the B&H Photo Video ad in the latest issue of Popular Photography suggests that the most common zoom range for lenses on point and shoot cameras runs from about 35-38 mm on the wide angle end to about 120-150 mm on the telephoto side. For the uninitiated, the shorter the focal length the wider the field of view. Conversely, the longer focal length the more magnification you'll get if you can't get very close. (There are some photos illustrating the impact of telephoto focal length posted on the thread "Opportunities in Ohio.") In general, the wider the range the more the point and shoot in question will cost. I noticed in the comment posted earlier today by Bob M over on the Velvia or Velveeta thread that he's shooting with an Olympus point and shoot that zooms out to 200 mm; Pentax makes a point and shoot that will also go out to 200 mm.
Some of the major photo mags do an annual smorgasboard of the hundreds of available point and shoot cameras with comments and comparisons as well as prices. I'll try and dig up the most recent issue of Pop Photog or Photographic that carried one of these cmoparsions and will come back and add a URL to it if one is available.
Gary
