Originally posted by marksniles
This will give me good night time prints. You know like the pics at the bottom of the forums. There are so many nice pics of the castle and spaceship earth at night. When I take them with my camera now I just get a big blur when the film gets developed.
I will give you my .02. I used to work during college at Circuit City in their digital imaging department, and as far as the megapixel, MKT is correct.....you should base the megapixel on the size of picture you want. Also, you have to remember, the larger megapixel you buy, the more memory you need, and the cards can get pricey.
Now, I have been through 4 digital cameras this past year. The first was a 1.3 megapixel I bought for next to nothing where I worked, it was someones return. It was great, but low light pics were not good. I decided to go with the best, and sticked with Sony since I already had many of their memory sticks. I bought the best Sony, the Cybershot F717 with 5 megapixel and 10x optical zoom. I was very diaapointed. The night/low light picutres were not clear. I figure I could have messed around with the manual controls to make it better, but I sold it. ( cameras resell for their original price on Ebay if you keep them in mint shape). So, I went with a 3 megapixel tiny Sony camera the P8, basing my choice on size. This too had poor low light pics, and I was going nuts by now. I said well let me change brands. I did some heavy research and decided on the Kodak DX 6490, which I have now. It is a 500 dollar camera with a dock that charges it as well as transfers the pictures. It is 4 megapixel and has a 10x zoom. I LOVE IT!!!!! Low light pictures are awesome!!! The day and night pictures are so sharp, I cant believe it. The best part is, I took it to a conerts, which was indoors. I sat 8 rows back and took pictures. The camera not only zoomed into the singers face, I could read the lettering on his shirt. I also learned a lesson that may have said me time.
Digital cameras have those nice LCD screens on the back, so I noticed I would hold the camera at arms length taking pcitures. Well, I kept thinking why did regular point in shoot cameras take good night pics, but not the digital cameras. Then it dawned on me, the viewfinder. My new Kodak has an LCD viewfinder, and I realize when you hold the camera againts your face, you are giving it stability, so it moves much less. All pictures are impeccable
So........... what am I getting at....???
Megapixels- like MKT said, dpeneds on pictures sssize you want, but also remember memory space
optical zoom- true zoom like a regular camera, how much the lens actually move
digital zoom- zoom that only zooms into your picture, not a real zoom. You can loose resolution, so get as much optical zoom as possible
batteries- definitely lithium ion
any other questions, don't hesitate to ask. I hope this helps.
A couple months back The Wall Street Journal did a comparison on digital cameras & I learned a lot. I shopped around & ended up with the Kodak EasyShare DX6340. (see my original post). I used to be really into photography & own Cannon, Minolta & Yashica 35 mm cameras. (that I never use anymore) The EasyShare is really nice & takes great pics...yes even the low light ones. Can't wait to get to WDW & try some night shots...the ones I've always wanted to get, but never really got right. 
