Digital Camera Recommendations

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AngelofHarlem01

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I'm going to be doing some traveling this spring and was hoping you all could offer some camera recommendations...

I'd like it to be lightweight so I can pop it in my carry on or purse easily.

Durable

Good Quality

It doesn't have to have zoom.

And preferably under $200 dollars but I might go up to $250 if it's really amazing.

Any suggestions? :)
 
:hmm: I don't have a specific recommendation, but I do know that there's no reason for you to purchase any camera that has more than 5 megapixels because it's completely useless unless you're going to blow up the pictures to gigantic sizes (like poster size). And, if you're just doing normal sizes, you'll actually lose resolution with anything bigger than 5 megapixels. If you don't go bigger than 5 megapixels, you should be well within your price range. :)
 
Look at either Canon or Nikon, they make really good cameras. Sony is good also.
 
So far I really like the:

Casio - EX-Z60

Samsung Digimax A503

FinePix 520

and the Polaroid i639M

I also like a couple from Olympus but they seem to get pricey fast!

One of the things I don't know anything about are memory cards. I want to be able to take a lot of photos but I won't be near a computer for awhile to get the pics off the camera so I'm not sure what you do... Is there a way to store them on the cam so you still have room for new pics or just buy a couple extra memory cards for when it gets full?:scratch:
 
I've only ever had Canons, but after using my mom's very cheap, simple Nikon, I'm switching brands. The color quality and clarity is AMAZING. I'd have to tinker around with manual settings or retouch the images on the computer to get the same results with my Canon that I get just using the Auto setting on my mom's cheap Nikon. I'd avoid Kodak or Sony. The picture quality isn't as good, the parts used aren't as good, and pretty much everyone I know who's had a Sony had major problems with it (usually the lens getting jammed all the time).

Like onebloodonelife said, don't spend extra $$$ on megapixels. Not only is it useless unless you want to print huge materials, it takes up way more space, meaning you have to spend more on memory cards, and also makes file transfer slower.

Also, don't pay any attention to "digital zoom" and don't EVER use it All this means is that the original image is enlarged and cropped. My boss has been a photographer for almost 30 years, and he showed me that taking a "normal" photo, enlarging it on a computer, and then cropping ended up with a better quality than using a digital zoom to take the photo. I hope that makes sense. If not let me know and I'll explain it better.

The Nikon Coolpix L3 has 5 megapixels and a 3x optical zoom. It's only $150. You could use the extra $50 of your budget for a 1GB memory card.
 
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AngelofHarlem01 said:


One of the things I don't know anything about are memory cards. I want to be able to take a lot of photos but I won't be near a computer for awhile to get the pics off the camera so I'm not sure what you do... Is there a way to store them on the cam so you still have room for new pics or just buy a couple extra memory cards for when it gets full?:scratch:

If you get a 1GB memory card, you can fit a LOT of photos. When I went to Africa for a month, I took about 1.75 GB worth of memory cards, took hundreds of photos (3.2 megapixels), and several videos of dances and song performances. I did not run out of memory.

If you're going to be travelling, I'd get 2-3 512MB cards. That way, not all your memory is on a single card, but you still have plenty. If one gets lost, ruined, or stolen, you're not completely SOL.
 
AngelofHarlem01 said:
WOW, thanks for all the great info Lies! That sounds like the best choice so far! Really good price too! Definitely going to look into that one.

Is it pretty small sizewise?

Yep. It's smaller since it's just a 3x optical zoom. My mom's is actually a Nikon Coolpix E4600, but they're all pretty much the same size. And by "just" I mean more normal than mine, which is 10x, but I haven't used zoom like that since I was on an African safari almost 2 years ago.

I have a super-awesome Canon PowerShot S1 (originally $400), but I've abandoned it for my mom's little Nikon. Here's a few examples pics I've taken with the Nikon. I'm just an amateur, and I simply use the Auto setting.

http://www.dutchbingo.net/personal/animals/Posh/slides/DSCN1686.JPG
http://www.dutchbingo.net/personal/animals/Posh/slides/DSCN1695.JPG
http://www.dutchbingo.net/personal/alexiswedding/slides/DSCN1332.jpg
http://www.dutchbingo.net/personal/alexiswedding/slides/DSCN1326.jpg
http://www.dutchbingo.net/personal/bigstar06/slides/DSCN1402.JPG
http://www.dutchbingo.net/personal/laina/slides/Copy of Laina 010-1.jpg
 
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Liesje said:

Like onebloodonelife said, don't spend extra $$$ on megapixels. Not only is it useless unless you want to print huge materials, it takes up way more space, meaning you have to spend more on memory cards, and also makes file transfer slower.

Also, don't pay any attention to "digital zoom" and don't EVER use it All this means is that the original image is enlarged and cropped.


Absolutely, great advise.

Any Coolpix will do.
 
Canon or Nikon are good choices as mentioned before (e.g. powershot and coolpix). The powershot A540 is nice. The color saturation, sharpness, etc. can be set on some models. If not, Photoshop is good for making adjustments.

Some features to look for, if you need them, are video as well as manual modes. I use manual modes for concert shooting - e.g. shutter priority. ISO adjustments are also nice to have.

See reviews/sample photos at pcmag.com, Steve's Digicams, and www.dpreview.com.

If possible, go to Best Buy with a memory card and take sample shots using the display models and compare them at home.

onebloodonelife said:
:hmm: I don't have a specific recommendation, but I do know that there's no reason for you to purchase any camera that has more than 5 megapixels because it's completely useless unless you're going to blow up the pictures to gigantic sizes (like poster size). And, if you're just doing normal sizes, you'll actually lose resolution with anything bigger than 5 megapixels. If you don't go bigger than 5 megapixels, you should be well within your price range. :)

It depends. I always shoot at 8MP - e.g. at concerts, and then crop or reduce the image size. 8MP allows me to have more of a fudge factor - I can zoom in and get a larger image if needed, escpecially if I am somewhat far from the stage.
 
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Can I recommend Picasa for any tweaking or retouching? I've used Photoshop and FireWorks for years, and currently they're not even installed on my computer because Picasa does everything I need and it's far simpler. Oh, and free!
 
Liesje said:


Yep. It's smaller since it's just a 3x optical zoom. My mom's is actually a Nikon Coolpix E4600, but they're all pretty much the same size. And by "just" I mean more normal than mine, which is 10x, but I haven't used zoom like that since I was on an African safari almost 2 years ago.

I have a super-awesome Canon PowerShot S1 (originally $400), but I've abandoned it for my mom's little Nikon. Here's a few examples pics I've taken with the Nikon. I'm just an amateur, and I simply use the Auto setting.

http://www.dutchbingo.net/personal/animals/Posh/slides/DSCN1686.JPG
http://www.dutchbingo.net/personal/animals/Posh/slides/DSCN1695.JPG
http://www.dutchbingo.net/personal/alexiswedding/slides/DSCN1332.jpg
http://www.dutchbingo.net/personal/alexiswedding/slides/DSCN1326.jpg
http://www.dutchbingo.net/personal/bigstar06/slides/DSCN1402.JPG
http://www.dutchbingo.net/personal/laina/slides/Copy of Laina 010-1.jpg

Those are gorgeous! I could never get that type of quality with the cam I have now. Amazing for an Auto Setting too! I think the Coolpix is the way I'm going to go for sure. Thanks again all the advice and pics. It looks incredible!
 
As for storage, I travel a lot and I love taking a ridiculous amount of pictures (especially in some lighting, you nevver can tell what's gonna come out so I take it 2-3 times sometimes much to the amusement of friends). I have a Sony (their new ones are decent but I'll probably switch brands when I get a new camera this spring) and large Sony memory cards are expensive. (that's something you'll want to investigate - what kind of card does the camera use, and how expesnive are large ones?) I highly highly highly recommend the iPod camera connecter, especially for long-term travels. Obviously you have to make sure you don't use your iPod, but my 60gig provides plenty of room for unlimited pictures.

Another thing - in most cities, even in Africa, you should be able to find a camera store or computer/internet cafe that will let you upload your pictures and burn them to disc. Thatway you can unload your card but not have all of them in the same place, just bring along a few CDs. I've met people travelling for as long as a year or more who think this is the best method.
 
AngelofHarlem01 said:


Those are gorgeous! I could never get that type of quality with the cam I have now. Amazing for an Auto Setting too! I think the Coolpix is the way I'm going to go for sure. Thanks again all the advice and pics. It looks incredible!

No prob. You can PM or e-mail me if you have any other questions or need advice and I can ask my boss. He's used Nikons for years and he's an amazing photographer. Here's some of his pics he's taken with a cheaper model Nikon digital, if you're interested:

http://www.calvin.edu/~bvriesem/
 
I just picked up a Canon SD800. Kick-ass camera. Dell.com had it for about $75 off retail. A good bit of manual settings, which makes it good for exploring and tweaking. The white balance is fantastic, too.

For memory cards, get them from buy.com. They usually have awesome rebates on memory cards. For the new camera, I got a 2GB Kingston SD card for a mere $26.
 
Liesje said:


No prob. You can PM or e-mail me if you have any other questions or need advice and I can ask my boss. He's used Nikons for years and he's an amazing photographer. Here's some of his pics he's taken with a cheaper model Nikon digital, if you're interested:

http://www.calvin.edu/~bvriesem/

Thanks Lies! His pics are beautiful too, so much clarity in them. Really impressive what that cam can do, can't wait to go check em out!
 
Nikon models in your price range:

L4, L3, L2, L1

The L4 -> L2 all have a 2" LCD screen, a 3x optical zoom lens, and increase in megapixel count as such:

L4: 4 (video only)
L3: 5 (audio and video)
L2: 6 (audio and video)

The Nikon L1 Camera has a 2.5" screen and a 5x Zoom lens in addition to 6.2 Megapixels, and also shoots audio and video. However, I do not believe that the L1 is still in production.

All the Nikon cameras come with rechargeable NiMH batteries and a two year warranty.
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Olympus FE 200

A new model for this year. It ships with a slow drain lithium block battery and has a 2.5" screen, and 6 megapixels. In addition, Olympus XD M cards save about double the number of pictures on the same size card as a camera of the same pixel count that uses Secure Digital. The only real let down with this camera is that it only shoots video when switched to the movie mode.
____________________

Canon A540

6 mega pixels, 2.5" screen, audio video, upgradeable lens, and manual settings.

The A540 has more features than I can really explain in one reply. The only drawback is that the A540 does not come with rechargeable batteries.

The A540 model shoots great images for such a tiny sensor, and has lots of features through which to learn the finer points of photography (before you move to a digital SLR).

happy shopping, btw ;)
P.S.
All the chargers that come with cameras are multi-voltage models. All you need to do is purchase a plug adapter for the country to which you are traveling.
 
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I picked up the CoolPix L3 today as an Xmas gift for myself and I love it! It's a lot smaller than I thought it would be too. Still haven't figured out all the settings but it's absolutely great so far! Thank you again for reccomending it!
 
If you check the menu, there is a setting for continuous shooting. What the camera does when the camera is set this way is write multiple files to the buffer and then to the card.

The biggest lag you'll probably find with the camera comes from use of the flash.
 
Chile said:
If you check the menu, there is a setting for continuous shooting. What the camera does when the camera is set this way is write multiple files to the buffer and then to the card.

The biggest lag you'll probably find with the camera comes from use of the flash.

That setting is for burst mode (continuous shots), when you want to hold the shutter release down and take multiple shots of the same subject.

AngelofHarlem01 is referring to a slow shutter lag, which is related to the camera evaluating lighting and focus of a scene for a single shot. That cannot be sped up in Auto mode. That's another reason why I use manual modes frequently - because the shutter lag is almost 0.
 
AngelofHarlem01 said:
Oh yeah one thing I was going to ask is if there was a way to speed up the shutter any? just noticed it takes a little bit of time for it to actually snap the picture.

Probably not - from Steve's Digicam site:

"The L3's shooting performance was a bit sluggish for a camera in this class. Power up to first image captured measured 3.2 seconds, much of which is consumed by extending the lens. While the shutter lag averaged just /10 of a second when pre-focused, it slowed to a leisurely 1.3 seconds including autofocus time. When shooting in single exposure mode, the shot to shot delay measured approx. 2.1 seconds between frames without use of the flash and between 6 and 8 seconds with the flash, depending on subject distance and battery life."
 
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