Best Digital Camera

[hrcollectibles]

I hope this is the correct forum. I have been inspired by the potd thread.. Any reccomndations onn a decent digital camera where I can take shots at night like of fireworks and such.. gf and I will be going to the Worl din early december. It will be our first vacation together with here daughters And i want to capture special moments.

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

What's your budget ?

 

[hrcollectibles]

hopefully under 300

 

[Philo]

Tricky one... Your descision has to be based on your budget and physical size and what you want it to do. Do you want a point-and-click or something where you can change the settings. Do you want a good movie mode?

I have a wonderful fuji s5000. I can't say a bad word about it other than it is large (although it is an SLR so what do you expect...) and the LCD screen is kind of small. It takes wonderful pictures even though it is about 4 years old now (although I won't consider replacing it for some time). The lense (which provides a 10x optical zoom) is just brilliant.

Before our visit to WDW we deicded that my GF needed a new camera and we got a olympus mini mju complete with a underwater case - great for those water rides, sea word etc). It's good but not brilliant in low light levels and the colours aren't always 100%. My camera (although several years older) gets a much better picture in all cases. It is however very small which makes it great for days in the park. It can just slip in your pocket where as mine needs to be carried.

My dad has a fuji (also around 3-4 years old) which is much smaller than mine and still gets fantastic pictures. The movies it takes are great and its ready to take pictures in seconds.

So...all in all I would recommend a fuji (almost any model as I havn't seen a bad one yet!) as a good mid-priced camera. Watch out for the XD card format though - there are a few versions out there and they do not always work in every camera.

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

No experience of ANY of these cameras - but they're recommended by "Digital Camera Buyer" which is a top rated UK Digital Camera magazine.

Samsung Digimax i6 £169
Kodak Easyshare z710 £199
Fujifilm Finepix F30 £219
Sony Cyber-shot H2 £299
Nikon D50 £349

Check out Digital Photography Review.com

 

[goofy0101]

For the past few years I've had a couple of different models of Canon digital Elphs. I'm not a camera freak by any means but do enjoy taking pictures and I can tell you I've been very pleased with this line of cameras. It does most of the work and makes me look like a great photographer and I've got some great shots from WDW to prove it.

I recently bought the Canon SD900 10 mp and am very happy with it. I got it through Amazon for around $340. You could probably find a similar model with fewer mp's for under $300.

You asked specifically about fireworks shots - my current camera has settings for just that sort of thing but I've not been able to try it out on that yet.

 

[Master Yoda]

If you can extend your budget a little or you already have memory cards, batteries etc the Cannon S3 is a great choice. Many manual controls as well as auto modes, anti shake for blur free pictures, fair to good continuous shooting speeds and a 12x zoom. The camera itself is right at $300 but you will need to also get a SD memory card and some rechargeable AA batteries.

 

[duck_daddy]

Can't make me trade my Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H2 for anything(well maybe a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H5). Anyway check the H2 out here: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonyh2/ And some pics I took with it when we were down in April here: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=148567&page=81 It being a couple of years old you may be able to find one on ebay, amazon, etc. relatively cheap!

 

[duck_daddy]

I'll try and get some of my firework pics up later! It was my first time shooting fireworks, and the camera just made it so easy!

 

[raven]

Your best bet is to wait until the day after Thanksgiving and wait 8 hours in line at Best Buy like I did last year....no joke! $300 isn't going to go far any other day but I was able to get a very nice $550 digital camera for only $150 on that day. While I was at it I bought a $600 digital video camera for only $175! :sohappy:

 

[Tigerdaly]

Panasonic Lumix DMC TZ3.
Great optical zoom X10
Great digital zoom X60
Smallest camera on market with 10x optical zoom
Great night time snapping modes
Fits in you pocket.

 

[Mr Starky]

I hope this is the correct forum. I have been inspired by the potd thread.. Any reccomndations onn a decent digital camera where I can take shots at night like of fireworks and such.. gf and I will be going to the Worl din early december. It will be our first vacation together with here daughters And i want to capture special moments.

Just a couple of things here. First, my personal preference is Compact flash as a memory source. If you have a portable media reader for your PC you can even use it to store data in a jam. Second, I purchased, on Ebay, a larger memory card for our camera. Now our camera is 4.1 megapixels at max. In TIFF format I can get about 40 pictures on the card and it is only 512 megabytes. So I recommend at least this size but larger if it is within your budget. 1 gigabyte would probably do you fine. Third, Try to get as high a megapixel rating as possible as this will offer you the best picture quality. Fourth, my, again, personal preference is that the power source is AA batteries. I went out and purchased Duracell 2650 MaH rechargables. THERE GREAT. I can fill up my memory card completely and still the power meter reads full, regardless of what format I take the pictures in. At night I simply plug them into a recharger and the next morning they are ready. Our camera will only take 1 minute of video at a time. This varies from camera to camera. If you can I would try to get a camera where the time allotment for video is whatever you want it to be. Fifth, You might want to think about what your going to do about emptying your memory card. Now there are areas in the parks that they will burn your pictures onto a cd. This is great if you can afford it. It can become quite costly though. So if you have a Laptop computer bring it so that you can empty your memory card onto your hardrive. Or you might want to purchase multiple memory cards. Finally, Do the best you can to get a camera that is as small and lightweight as possible. TRUST ME IT'S WORTH IT! You would be surprised how heavy it can become. Whatever way you go. Enjoy Walts World. It is, without out a doubt the best vacation spot in America. (In my opinion).

 

[KeithVH]

There's been some good general advice, especially the post about the non-camera specific stuff like storage, cards and batteries. You have to figure out what is important to you. Size? Image quality? Features? Price? Build quality? Truly can't have it all. And it's not really a money thing, no one has yet made the perfect point and shoot.

OK. Now I don't want to get into a religious discussion about cameras but some things to stay away from. Proprietary memory cards (meaning nix to Sony), noisy imaging chips (generally many of the Panasonics), and proprietary Li-Ion batteries (everyone, especially as you get to the ultra-compacts). SD (Secure digital) is a great standard. And anything with AA's are great too (but a little bulkier) since you can get spares anywhere - though rechargeables are nice. And cameras using AA's generally have better flash recycle times. But they're a little bulkier and heavier.

At your price point though, pretty much anything you pick will be roughly equivalent to everything else. Just not that much differentiation at the low end. That's still in the price range of a throw-away commodity from the manufacturers viewpoint. A major failure of the screen, lens or chip and you'll find it's cheaper to buy a new cam rather than pay for a repair in most cases.

You should use the buying guide at DPReview http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare.asp. For ~$300, two of the top choices would probably be a Canon SD800IS or A640. The 800 has image stabilization and a nice 28mm wide angle end. The 640 is pretty much the champ for image quality under $300 (although the Fuji F30 does better in low light).

The difference is the sensor size (see http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/key=sensor sizes). Most cams under this price will have a 1/2.5" chip. And most will all be made by the same manufacturer so it's camera features to concentrate on if you go that route. The A640 though, has a 1/1.8 chip. Math-wise, that's about a 54% larger imaging surface. Size matters here. But the 640 doesn't have IS. Although at 10MP, and very decent high ISO performance, low light pictures for a 4x6 or 5x7 will be fine.

For megazooms and simple short movies, I would also recommend the Canon S3. Has IS and, on sale, can be had for slightly under $300. The S5 is coming out in July (not worth the upgrade) so prices should be falling a little soon to clear stock.

Good luck choosing! You'll need it:lol: . Some of my 'net buddies spend more time trying to figure out which under-$500 camera to buy than they do when deciding on a new car.:ROFLOL: Seriously.

 

[Philo]

Panasonic Lumix DMC TZ3.
Great optical zoom X10
Great digital zoom X60
Smallest camera on market with 10x optical zoom
Great night time snapping modes
Fits in you pocket.

Could be wrong but I think this one has a very high quality lense... might be worth checking out.

My main advice is to not get fooled by large megapixel specifications. Sure, a 12megapixel camera is going to get some high-detailed pictures but it is much, much more important to get a camera which can handle the pictures properly and produce a high-quality. I've seen many 6megapixel cameras produce an alright image in the right light with the right subject at the right distance but I've seen 3megapixel cameras produce a much, much better picture in difficult conditions. If your only going to print out pictures as a normal 6x4 then you won't need such a high rating anyway.

For memory cards I would always say XD or SD. SD are now so cheap that you can buy several gigs for next to nothing. I recently bought 2 x 2gb, 2x1gb (mini) and 1*1gb (micro) for about £45 in total. If I were using them in my camera then I would have room for around 3,500 photos.

 

[Craig & Lisa]

I work in retail and sell digital cameras, most camera's are decent, but the one I like recomend and use is anything that says Kodak. Their title is easyshare, and I always say, idiot proof. Because you have to be a complete idiot to NOT be able to take a picture with one. I had a canon once, the son has it now and out of the box it took me 20 minutes to get it to taks a picture. Had to set the the shutter speed and then the flash, thiiipppttt!!! Kodaks, take it out of the box put in the batteries, the memory card turn it on and take a picture. They have special settings for night and to extend the shutter speed, so they cover everything. No, I don't have Kodak stock! :lol:
I just like the things. However, the one's that use compactflash can get pricey. In the long run the best advice I can give would be go with the one that you can afford and work easily.

 

[hrcollectibles]

Thanx for everyones input I hope to get more

 

[sprocketfish]

You should use the buying guide at DPReview http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare.asp. For ~$300, two of the top choices would probably be a Canon SD800IS or A640. The 800 has image stabilization and a nice 28mm wide angle end. The 640 is pretty much the champ for image quality under $300 (although the Fuji F30 does better in low light).

Good luck choosing! You'll need it:lol: . Some of my 'net buddies spend more time trying to figure out which under-$500 camera to buy than they do when deciding on a new car.:ROFLOL: Seriously.

I have the Canon SD800IS... it is a really nice little camera for a reasonable price; the image stabilization and ridiculous ISO flexibility are great... here is one of the many pics I took of the fireworks with this camera...

 

[Deadmanwalking]

A few things to consider if your goal is fireworks. First pixels aren't everything. Since you will be shooting in very low light conditions mega-pixels on a point and shoot in your budget is probably a bad thing. When pixels get cramed closer and closer on the small chips inside point and shoots the noise in the picture tends to go up. The pixel question is more a matter of how large of a picture do you intend to have made from the pictures your take. If your just shooting fo 4x6 or 5x7 pictures you can actually do quite well with a 3 meg pixel camera if your looking at shooting 8x10 and you need at least 4 meg-pixels, the larger the size of picture you want as an end result the more pixels you'll need. So don't get sucked in by a salesman pushing pixels. Remember they aren't the most important thing, too many can be bad, and you only need enough for the picture size you want to print.

If you are shooting for fireworks you don't need a mega zoom. Every bell or whistle you add to your camera will cost a little more. Ask yourself why you need or want a 10x zoom.

You want to make sure the camera your looking at getting has a manual mode and the longer the exposures you can take the more flexible it will be.

As far as memory accept that SD cards are becoming the norm. Compact flash are slowly vanishing except in some high end digital SLRs. Also Sony and Fuji use their own proprietary memory so if you get one of theirs you can expect to pay a premium for the memory.

look at the batteries. Some camera will require a special rechargable battery, the upside is they last longer than aa batteries the down side is the cameras only come with one and when it goes dead (right before the perfect shot) your SOL until you go and recharge it. With AA batteries you can buy rechargables and spares and even in a pinch just buy AA batteries.

If your really into getting some pictures of fireworks you might also consider using 35mm. With the boom in digital you can pick up used high end 35mm slrs for a song, mate it with a nice lens and you can take far superior picture to any $300 digital camera out there. The only downside is you don't get instant gratification or feedback and would need to get at least one role developed after your first night at fireworks to see which pictures worked and which did not.

Make sure above all else that you get a tripod.


If your set on getting a digital camera I suggest that after you narrow your choices down to a 4 or 5 you visit www.dpreview.com and www.imaging-resource.com to look at their reviews of whatever cameras you are considering. Then when you are down to 2 or 3 cameras download some of the samples from www.imaging-resource.com and have them printed where ever your planning on having your own picture printed (I recommend this site because the person running it try to take pictures of the same person or subject with each camera so you can better compare between them). You can't always tell how a camera is going to be looking at a computer screen but when you get samples from all the cameras you want printed at the same lab you'll quickly see that some are more pleasing than others.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Just a side note here.... Doing fireworks with a dSLR is a complete pain varing luminicitys of Disney fireworks.... which in english means some fireworks are brighter than others. Youre constantly changing the exposure.

 

[Deadmanwalking]

Just a side note here.... Doing fireworks with a dSLR is a complete pain varing luminicitys of Disney fireworks.... which in english means some fireworks are brighter than others. Youre constantly changing the exposure.

I've taken pictures of fireworks with a point and shoot and dSLR at disney and I would have to disagree. Once you have either camera set in manual and the settings adjusted for the fireworks I never spend time worrying about the luminosity. While I got decent picture from both cameras, I would recommend a dSLR hands down over the point and shoot simply because you can shoot raw and then adjust 1 to 1.5 stops for a better exposure when you download. The only downside I see with the dSLRs is the price of fast wide lenses given the 1.5x multiplier of the cameras. Fortunately I had good lenses from my film days as the lenses they box up with the cameras are pretty slow.