Looking to Purchase

[JikoMaurice]

My fiance and I are looking to purchase a new digital camera to take with us to WDW on our Disneymoon. I have done some research on my own, but am still a little beside myself with all the choices (Cannon, Sony, Kodak, Fuji, etc). I'm not real picky on brand (had a Cannon and loved it), but I am picky on specs.

Our camera must have:

• at least 5.0 MP
• an optical zoom of at least 7x
• a fairly long battery life
• the ability to take decent quality videos
• a user friendly interface
• cost < $500 CDN (excluding tax)

I know, pick, picky me, but it's our money and I don't want to waste it on a piece of trash, especially since we will also be using it to take wedding photos. I am completely open to all suggestions. Please help .

 

[PhotoDave219]

Stick with your guts on Canon. The PMA is right around the corner and new models are comming out, therefore prices on the older ones are dropping. For the point and shoot cameras, they rock. They take good video too. (And their new 1 D Mark III camera is completely insane)

If you check DPreview.com you can compare specs, etc. I would just stick with canon and find the one with the specs you want.

 

[maelstrom]

Canon is great and if you can find a Canon in your price range that you like, go for it.

I recently purchased the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7 (it's an "older" model so you have to get it online somewhere like beachcamera.com). It is 6 megapixels and has 12x optical zoom. It can hold up to a 2gb memory card, which I purchased from Amazon for $30. I love this camera. It has manual, automatic, shutter priority, and aperture priority modes. The total cost was a little over $300 for everything.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Forgot about those, a friend has one... good camera. Good Image Stabilization.

 

[Master Yoda]

Canon is great and if you can find a Canon in your price range that you like, go for it.

I recently purchased the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7 (it's an "older" model so you have to get it online somewhere like beachcamera.com). It is 6 megapixels and has 12x optical zoom. It can hold up to a 2gb memory card, which I purchased from Amazon for $30. I love this camera. It has manual, automatic, shutter priority, and aperture priority modes. The total cost was a little over $300 for everything.

The FZ-7 is a great camera. A real bargain for the current prices. I picked up a FZ30 nearly a year ago and overall I have been very pleased. It has very good image stabilization and up to 15.3X optical zoom at 5 MP and 12X at 8 MP. It will shoot just shy of 3 frames per second in continuous mode which is quite handy and the controls on this camera are incredible. The only drawback I have found is it's performance indoors without the flash but it is not an SLR so I really can not expect it to perform miracles under those conditions.

 

[Robfasto]

The Canon Powershot S3 is a great camera... I have the Powershot S1 and it does very good video and one of the best features are that they use AA Batteries. My brother has the S3 and loves it.

Another perk with the S2 or S3 is that you can snap pictures WHILE videoing. And the only limit to the size of the video is the size of the memory card.

You can view some of the video here Disney Pix Video. Check out the May & July 2005 sections... All of it taken with a Canon Powershot S1.

 

[JikoMaurice]

Just letting you all know that the DFi and I just purchased the Canon S3 IS....sweet camera. I would highly reccomend it to anyone.

 

[Master Yoda]

The S3 is a great camera. I nearly got that one myself.