Camera Suggestions? Need help please!

[MansionFan415]

Can someone please suggest a good digital camera/camcorder? I am going to the parks in April for first time in 3 years, whole family trip thing, and I just wanted to have a really good camera along.

Say price range of about $250 or lower? Good quality pics and all. Small.

I know I risk some quality going cheaper, but not looking to spend a fortune and want something good that I can bring along to capture everything.

Thanks in advance!

 

[PhotoDave219]

The canon powershot series is very nice. It can capture MPEG video clips as well as take really nice photos. Its what i use when i'm not lugging around my pro gear.

I'd also HIGHLY recommend reading a basic book on photography, "The National Geographic Field guide for photography" ... runs about $25 and well worth the money.

Others will try and tell you different.... but just learn some simple photo basics and you can get good photos from any camera.

 

[MissM]

Might be a place to start...

PC World Top 10 Point and Shoot Cameras:
http://pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,123719,00.asp

You can also go here and filter the results to match your specifications:
http://pcworld.pricegrabber.com/search_attrib.php/page_id=48

-m

 

[magicalmemories]

We bought a Fuji Finepix S3000 winter 04 for our spring 05 visit (there is now a newer version), but it was great. I have some of the best pictures from our trip. Great clarity, very good zooming with great focus. I think when we bought it we paid about $160. Not small enough for a pocket, but is the way it is configured, it is very comfortable to hold. We are still raving about the quality of pictures.

 

[mrtoad]

I agree with Dave.

The PowerShot series is nice. I have used them for years. The issue you will find though is $250.00 is pretty thin as you will need batteries and charger (not on all PowerShots but in your price range you will) and a decent memory card.

I have the A620 and love it. But you could go a step down from there and still get a nice camera. The A610 which is the step below is virtually the same camera just with a lower MP. It is a 5 MP camera that has a 4X optical zoom and both full auto and manual control.

You can get it for about $225 at BHPhoto.com which is a great company. You will need a charger and batteries. I bought an Energizer rapid charger and batteries which you can get at Best Buy or Amazon, or where ever and then you will need a decent memory card. It takes an SD card, just look around for a good price on one. I use either Sandisk or Lexar. In the end you are looking at somewhere just below $300.00 for all of that. Not too bad. If you don't have a bag, you will again need something but bags for that size camera are pretty cheap, again try Best Buy.

I have tried other brands but Canon really is the way to go. If you want to see some samples of some stuff I have taken, go to my smugmug account to give you an idea. http://mrtoad.smugmug.com/

The stuff from WDW 2006 is taken with the A620.

Good luck.

Mike

Can someone please suggest a good digital camera/camcorder? I am going to the parks in April for first time in 3 years, whole family trip thing, and I just wanted to have a really good camera along.

Say price range of about $250 or lower? Good quality pics and all. Small.

I know I risk some quality going cheaper, but not looking to spend a fortune and want something good that I can bring along to capture everything.

Thanks in advance!

 

[JROK]

Just adding my approval of Canon products and BHPhotoVideo.com ... I just received my third Canon camera (Canon 20D) from B&H ... They upgraded my order to 2 Day Air after they had a one day delay at their warehouse... so I got $30 shipping for $15 ... Great products, great service... Canon is world-wide leader in imaging...

 

[aeillill]

The canon powershot series is very nice. It can capture MPEG video clips as well as take really nice photos. Its what i use when i'm not lugging around my pro gear.

I second that the Canon Powershots are nice, I have the A95 and I can take some pretty darn good pictures IMO - the only downside though is that this particular model weighs the same as a baby elephant. Atleast lugging it around WDW in the heat makes it seem like it is

 

[Tramp]

I've been trying to decide between the a610 and a620. I can get the a610 for only $179 but don't know if I should go with the higher megapixels of the a620. Otherwise, the cameras look identical.

To make matters worse, Canon just brought out their a700 which has 6 megapixels and a 6x optical zoom. It also uses only 2 aa batteries. The LCD is huge on it although it doesn't look like it swivels. It's too new to read any reviews on the camera so I may wait a month or two before jumping into this whole thing.

 

[JROK]

You shouldn't need anything over 4MP if you're just putting them on your computer to email to people... If you're printing out an 8x10 or something you should still be fine, although a 6MP would yield better results... What you should look at is how well the cameras perform in low light and how much noise you get from the pictures... With more MP comes more noise, unless the camera has a really good sensor. www.dpreview.com is a great site to look at...

 

[BryanandPatrizi]

Yeah low light shots are always harder with smaller digicams. Fuji's latest camera's have gotten great reviews for their low light performance, but I'm not sure it is in your price range.

One thing that I wanted to point out that many people don't think about is the video recording. Be careful here as there are some big differences between cameras.

First make sure it records video with sound, some don't (cheaper Casio's)

Second, pay attention to how much video you can record onto a memory card. Most camera's allow less than 20minutes of "highest Quality" recording on a 1GB card! Some (like my casio ex-s500 or the new ex-s600) can record up to 30 minutes on a 1GB card at "highest quality" (Though these models sacrifice some quality for their size, but I have a bigger camera for quality when I want it)

Third, "Highest Quality" varies greatly as well since compression settings vary.

Overall you have to make a decision of if you want a camera or a camcorder more. With a price range of $250 you'll probably want to stick with a nice camera that may have decent video VS. a camcorder with low quality pictures. In the end it is up to you though.

Hope this helps. Oh and I second using www.dpreview.com and others (www.steves-digicams.com, etc.) for reviews before making a final purchase.

Good luck!

 

[mrtoad]

Just to add to that, I personally would not let the video ability be part of the decision on buying a still shot camera. The video you get is not good enough to worry about. They are generally limited in length per video. They are not high resolution. They are not really able to be emailed as they are much bigger (file size wise) than can generally be emailed.

The same would go with getting a video cam and using it to take still shots, the are just not really meant for that.

Yeah low light shots are always harder with smaller digicams. Fuji's latest camera's have gotten great reviews for their low light performance, but I'm not sure it is in your price range.

One thing that I wanted to point out that many people don't think about is the video recording. Be careful here as there are some big differences between cameras.

First make sure it records video with sound, some don't (cheaper Casio's)

Second, pay attention to how much video you can record onto a memory card. Most camera's allow less than 20minutes of "highest Quality" recording on a 1GB card! Some (like my casio ex-s500 or the new ex-s600) can record up to 30 minutes on a 1GB card at "highest quality" (Though these models sacrifice some quality for their size, but I have a bigger camera for quality when I want it)

Third, "Highest Quality" varies greatly as well since compression settings vary.

Overall you have to make a decision of if you want a camera or a camcorder more. With a price range of $250 you'll probably want to stick with a nice camera that may have decent video VS. a camcorder with low quality pictures. In the end it is up to you though.

Hope this helps. Oh and I second using www.dpreview.com and others (www.steves-digicams.com, etc.) for reviews before making a final purchase.

Good luck!

 

[Nemo14]

I have a Nikon Coolpix 5900 which I love. I paid about $300 when I got it last year, but I know the price has come down considerably.