Must-haves include:
- video (can you even get a digital camera these days that doesn't take some sort of video?)
- optical zoom preferably 4-6X, although more is certainly better
- AA batteries (the Canon runs on a proprietary battery, and it's a bitch to be taking pictures and see the "Low Battery Icon" kick on...)
- 7-8 Megapixels
It would be nice to if it took CF cards (since we have a bunch). I'm also assuming that most/all cameras come with standard macro/no flash/redeye/etc. features.
BJs has a wide range of cameras in my price range, from a Sony Cyber-Shot for $119 to an Olympus FE-340 for $189 to a sweet-looking Canon PowerShot for $239.
Anybody have other ideas/preferences/manufacturers or models to avoid or seek?
Thanks in advance.
That is all.
15 comments:
We have an old Canon A75 Powershot that went dead on us after about 18 months & we sat around for a year & contemplated what we'd do, then my wife (on a whim) contacted Canon - reminder: close to three years after we'd purchased it - & told them of the problem and they said "oh, it was a manufacturing defect on that model. You weren't the only ones with that problem. We'll send you a self-addressed stamped box for shipping, we'll fix it and send it back to you as good as new".
That was about a year ago and it's been working better than new ever since, so I'm of the opinion that Canon is a first-rate company that takes care of their customers and with that in mind, I'm sure that if I ever get another camera that I'll go with Canon. Of course, it'll be an updated version. :)
We've bought 2 Minolta digicams over the last 8 years or so. Last one was actually a refurb from Fry's. This one does have a proprietary battery in it, but it hasn't let us down, ever. We added a 1gb SD card and it takes/holds 998 photos at good/fine quality. I think we paid something like $150 for it 2 years ago.
Minolta or Canon, either one, would be my choices.
Regards,
Rabbit.
I really like the Canon Powershot A-Series models. I have two, a really old 2.0MP A60 that I bought in highschool and an old A75.
RW - what was the defect on the A75?
I now have an SD850IS that I love, although I still like the fact that the old A-series cameras take AA batteries.
All of these cameras also have movie capability which is nice.
I've had good luck with Canon and Panasonic point-and-shoots. Panasonic makes really nice superzooms that still fit in a cargo pants pocket.
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfz18/
Whatever you get, the one feature I can't live without any more is some sort of image stabilization. Canon calls it IS. Panasonic calls it OIS. Nikon calls it VR. It makes a big difference in the number of keepers you get.
I bought a Fujifilm S700 right before last Christmas. It's a 7.1 MP camera, uses SD cards, and is a great price. I love it. Great pics.
Circuit City's got 'em cheap. I paid $200 for mine. They've got it down to $170.
tinyurl.com/5p3xbm
tweaker
mike,
The viewscreen went blank and the pictures were all black, as if you'd closed the viewfinder. You could turn the settings wheel (like most dweebs who never owned a 'real' camera, my favorite setting is "auto") until something would appear on the screen, but the picture would either be black or only showing 4 or 5 colors. The camera was basically useless and we thought we'd done something to the camera w/o knowing it (leaving it in the sun or rain or something like that) but it was really just a manufacturing bug. My wife is the one who talked with the CS rep, so all I know is that the thing is working like a dream right now and I really like that camera.
And the qualities of the videos are pretty good, too.
RW,
That's interesting - that's exactly what our Elph is doing now. The display screen goes blank, and all photos taken while the screen is blank are all black.
When did you buy the camera? We got ours in 2003. Maybe it's worth a call to Canon?
(I still want a new camera, mind you, but if I can get this one fixed it's a great back-up or we could give it to the boy...)
I recently got a Kodak EasyShare ZD710 7 megapixel, 10X optical zoom plus digital. Winds up being more zoom than you can use without a tripod. Runs on AA although it doesn't run long on NiMH. It runs quite a long time on lithium batteries, OK on alkalines. Slightly bulky--looks like a half scale caricature of a SLR. 32 meg internal memory, takes SD cards. Macro isn't intuitive, but once I read the manual it works well. Macro is important to me--I fix mechanical wristwatches, and document the disassembly to make assembly go better.
Mine was from woot.com early June and no longer available from them, but at the time someone had them online for around $125. There are a couple other similar cameras in the line with more zoom and higher res. Don't know if it is the best bang for the buck, but I'm happy with mine.
Jay,
Think we got it back in '04. DEFINITELY worth contacting Canon. And, you can tell them that you know of other people who have had the same problem with their Canon cameras if they give you a hard time, but after the treatment they gave us I kinda doubt it; they definitely kept me as a customer.
This is the camera that I was telling you about here & I've already transferred my daughter's homemade videos to my Ipod & watch whenever I need a pick me up. Too precious to me for mere words to describe (it goes without saying that I'm sure everyone else feels the same way about your kids).
PowerShot good; I love my A520 (it has an added bonus - at maximum wide-angle, the optical viewfinder is at 1x magnification, which means you can have both eyes open for a red-dot-like sighting experience).
I suggest not looking for more megapixels as a requirement, unless you only do bright-light/flash work or Really Need images of a very large size for some specific task.
More MP on a given sensor size (and especially in the teeny-tiny sensors on P+S cameras) means more noise in low light at high ISO values.
A 4 MP camera should produce excellent 8x10 prints, and the 6 or so that the consumer-level DSLRs produce is more than adequate for most purposes (and DSLRs have the advantage there because of the larger sensor size).
Shoehorning in 7-10MP on a tiny sensor gets you more noise, and a level of detail you're likely to never see anywhere anyway, since most of us either make prints, or do screen-fit or smaller sizes for display.
I know nothing of the quality of the video output produced by the PowerShots, but I expect it's acceptable.
i know you said your budget, but seriously, save up about $500 and get a nikon D40... i bought one for my wife 2 years ago, it is absolutely the BEST item i have EVER bought...
if youd like sample pics, let me know, ill send you some from sea world last saturday...
Jay, good database of digital cameras here:
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/cameraList.php
I use a Fuji S5000. It's old and OK - I posted some pix from the Sudbury July 4 parade, so you can see the sort of stuff it takes.
a new camera! We'll all be waiting with bated breath for new MArooned photos, I'm sure =)
I had 2 Sonys. both of which went to pieces and stopped working, and that I never really liked all that much.
But by the same token, I've had two Canon's that I have LOVED. The current one is an SD1000 and it does everything I want it to do, and I think it fits within your criteria.
The Canon Powershot S5iS is AWESOME. it's about $300 and worth every penny... Pictures here http://picasaweb.google.com/egnilk66
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