?Best Digital Camera to Buy?? Help!!

Okay so heres the deal,

I am going to be getting married before the end of this year and am wondering what the best digital camera is to get for my wife to be? I want to spend around $300 or less as we have talked about the amount we are going to spend. I want to make sure I get the right one that will last a long time for us. If anyone has any thoughts, please let me know.

Thanks!

 

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Here is a nice choice The Logitech ClickSmart 510. On sale on their site for $150

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm?p...ID=4&CONTENTID=5033&countryid=19&languageid=1

I have their 3000 Pro webcam, and an optical mouse from them - I have been very satisfied with these. I have also seen some of their fancy keyboards, they look nice, and I have heard good things about their speakers

 

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I DISAGREE!!!!! I can't say I've personally used this one. But if you read the site, it only gets at MOST 1 megapixel resolution. That's very low. In my experience, there is no good webcam/digitalcam. They just arent made right. If you want a webcam, get a cheap 50 or 60 dollar webcam. If you want a digital camera, for 300 dollars you can get 2-3 megapixel very easily.

-AntonK

 

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What I want is something that will be able to take indoor and outdoor pictures very well. I also want something that can zoom in and take good clear shots. I don't know if this is possible with a $300 budget. Would 2 or 3 megapixels be enough?

 

2-3 Megapixels ain't bad. But if you shop around you can probably get 4 with a zoom option for about 300-350. I'd check out the big chains first for any good deals. Best Buy, Circuit City, Fry's, etc.

-AntonK

 

Pardon me then, if you want purely a digital camera that only takes pictures, the Logitech camera is not the choice for you.

See the thing is, there are so many different terms for different items nowdays. 5 years ago we only had cell phones, now we have PDA's, cell phones you can play games on, text messaging things that look like beepers, etc...

So when you say digital camera, if you mean just like a traditional analog camera, except instead of using film, it uses 1's and 0's, that settles any confustion about what exact product you are looking for.

If you want a camera that only takes still pictures, I have little experience with those, so I can't really help you there, sorry.

That logitech camera is very versatile, however it may not have the highest quality in each area if offers.

 

Quigly

I look for three things in a digital camera.
1. Does it have easy compatability with my PC and good software that comes with it.

2. Does it have regular batteries like AA or AAA that I can purchase easily when they go bad, and they do go bad after a short time using the flash.

3. 3 or more megapixels wit at least a doubling zoom or tripling zoom. The viewfinder should be located in the center of the camera so as to know what you see is what you get.

Most of these requirements do come on cameras under 300.00 today.

 

yes, make sure the camera uses aa or aaa batteries because you can buy these aa or aaa rechargeable at 1800mah that can be recharged a 1,000 times on ebay for about one dollar per battery. figure it out, one aa/aaa regular battery costs about 50 cents each on sale times 1,000 comes to about $500 for regular batteries compared with $1 for a 1800mah rechargeable battery.

also, stay away from kodak. these use their own batteries which will cost a ton more.

i just purchased a 2 meg digital camera from a local chain (aldi's) for $69 and officemax/depot had one for $79.

if you want to print out your digital pictures onto a printer with photo quality paper then a 3 or more likely 4 megapixel camera would be your best bet.

one last point is to stay from any camera that uses smart media cards as this format is only limited to 128mb, the others can go up to gigabytes.

andy

 

question 1. what are you going to be using it for?

question 2. how much control over settings do you want? point and shoot, or fully manual SLR-type?

question 3. what do you want in the terms of size?

question 4. are you going to be printing photos? or just using them on the web? what kind of printer will you be using?


check out www.Dealcam.com they have alot of cameras listed, and their best found price for the item.

I have a Fuji Film 602z, because it has most of the features of a $1000 SLR-like digicam, but for $450. plus it works as a USB webcam. however, it is large, and not "slip into your pocket digicam" sized.

Canons have good glass, as do sony's, Olympus and nikons. I have found that fuji is pretty good, too. When dealing with megapixel, you are dealing with how large of a photo you are taking. The lens quality will determine the quality of the shot that is taken, whatever it's size.


I agree with the above poster, with a few additions. stay away from smart media, and unless you really like Sony, stay away from their products, as they use the Sony memory stick, which is very expensive per MB, like the smart media. XD cards are the new thing, but they are still very expensive. Compact Flash is the cheapest, but also the slowest, memory currently available. however, you can get a 2 gigbyte compact flash card for the same price as two 256meg card of another type, and "slowest" really only effects things when you are trying to take VGA video with your digital camera - it doesn't effect stills or USB camera operation. also avoid Secure Digital memory types.

see www.dpreview.com for reviews on most of the available name brand digital cameras out there.

 

"question 1. what are you going to be using it for?

question 2. how much control over settings do you want? point and shoot, or fully manual SLR-type?

question 3. what do you want in the terms of size?

question 4. are you going to be printing photos? or just using them on the web? what kind of printer will you be using?"

1. Still shot pictures. Vacations, honeymoon, birthday parties, that sort of thing. I want to have the ability to take a picture of something far away and have a clear picture.

2. I like the point and shoot idea, but I would like to be able to have some manual perks also.

3. Picture size? Well the whole idea we have is to store the pictures on CD-R's and then if we want to go back and look at our 2003 honeymoon, we can pull it up on the disk and print out the pictures. we do not need huge pictures, but we may want some larger ones to frame in the house of our honeymoon.

4. Yes, print and on the web. Printer.... None right now. We are going to try and purchase a new computer right after our honeymoon. Haven't thought about it yet.

I appreciate everyones advice. I really didn't think of the battery thing. That will help alot. Alot of good information, Thanks.

Does anyone know anything about Tiger Direct's items? (www.tigerdirect.com) Is this a good site for items? My father buys stuff for his business there and gets good deals, but I wasn't sure if the quality was all there. How about ebay?

 

Ebay is a general site that sells all kinds of items. They are an open market so to speak, and you can often get a good deal there. However, you are usually buying from consumers (other people sitting in their house selling something out of their home, sort of like an online garage sale all over the nation). You have to rely on the dependability of such people. On rare occasions, people do get cheated out of their money and scammed. Also, you could be shipped a defective product. However these worries should not be too great, and you can find good prices on Ebay.

Tigerdirect is a brand name like company, similar to Dell or Gateway for example. However they sell various items and offer special deals and packages. I personally would advise staying away from them.

 

yeah, do stay away from tigerdirect. if you go epinions.com they give customers reviews of merchants and you find out what you're dealing with before you purchase anything.

when i need something, digital cameras, memory, batteries, etc i go to ebay first and check out what the prices are and what's out there and if i find an item that i like i go to google and type in the model number of the item i'm looking for and you'll find the specs on that product. it's a good idea to do this before purchasing anything. the only drawback to all of this is that there's always and i mean always something new coming out and when you purchase something you're always telling yourself ' i wish i waited just a little longer before purchasing'.

andy

 

don't buy anything from Canon. I have Powershot G2 (4M pixels). It has great resolution and lots of stupid useless features but it's damn imposible to take an in-focus close up shot.

I think I've seen a much less expensive sony which takes better close-ups

 

I think digital cameras are the biggest waste of money for personal use. Unless you need to import pictures quickly into documents or e-mail, the digital camera becomes much more of an inconvenience. First of all, I don't care what anyone says, you can not beat the quality of an analog photograph. Printing technology (for home use) isn't even close to matching photographs developed from film. Secondly, developing film is really not expensive. About$6.00 for roll of 24. And 1 hr wait.
Third, Who cares if you miss or "waste" a shot with film cameras. Digital takes the fun and excitment out of looking at a set of prints for the first time. Also, the best pictures are suprise shots.
If you really want to digitize your pictures, buy a good scanner (they're cheap these days).
I still believe in actual photo albums. I rather carry around an album then a laptop (if I had a laptop.. which most people don't). Best way to show pictures of your vacation to grandma's to your guests in your living room is by prints in an album.

I will never by a digital camera for personal use. Like I mentioned there are many benefits for business use.

 

In my opinion, one hour film development is too expensive. 24 hour development is ok, but then, an inconveinence (in my opinion). Not only do you have to wait, but you have to drive out to your local Walmart and drop off the film, then come back and pick it up, instead of being able to do something else with your time.

I really don't know about the image quality in itself, but some color laser printers today, and other professional machines (not anything a home user would have) used for printing labels on products are of the highest quality, but then, out of most people's budgets.

However I do like your "traditional" ideas about analog camera.

I've never owned a digital camera myself, and I don't know if I'll ever buy one. I don't often take pictures actually, or have them taken of myself. If I do take pictures, I can usually do it at my computer.

 

let's get something straight first of all:

1. film is better no doubt. 5.0 megapixel digital cameras are very very close to film.

2. software for digital cameras is capable of doing many things such as redeye reduction, focusing, color balance, etc etc etc.

3. digital cameras main point is price. cost of one picture or 1,000 or a million pictures is the same - cost of the media card you're using.

4. here i am at work now, can't carry a photo album with me, but i do have my usb card reader on my computer and can view digital pictures at anytime of my vacation/kids/animals/whatever and email them to anyone of my family at an instant (no scanning). it sure reinforces memories especially when you're stuck at work.

convenience and accessability is the key to digital.

andy

 

ps: i have thousands of film pictures at home that haven't been looked at in many years, turning yellow and fading into memory. can't say that for my digital pictures - it's ''living album''.

andy

 

At work I have a coolpix 990. It kicks ASS! I'm not sure if you kind find one that cheap or not (it's an older model now, so you might be able to), but what a great camera.

 

quigley, if you're stuck at work having your digipix is a great past time.

your coolpix990 is a very sweet camera according to the reviews i've read at:

http://www.binbooks.com/books/photo/i/l/571A6AFEFC

but, i need something that's small and handing and takes good pix (purchased a 2.0 megapixel last week for $69 and took a picture of the tv and it came out great, have other digicams that are your really basic 0.3 megapixel and can't take pictures of the tv because their lenses are way too slow).

found out from the above test of taking pix of the tv how good a camera is.

andy

 

I have a book shelf where I keep all my (thousands) analog photographs. The most valuable pictures, for me are "yellow" and "fading in memory" pictures. The 70 year old picture of my great granparents is priceless.

1. For most people, if they have a great digital shot, one of the first things they will do is print it out. Although 5mpix cameras come close to analog, today's home color printers don't come close to an print from film.

2. I really wonder how many people photoshop the thousands of digital pictures they take. It's more likely, they retouch a couple, find out they actually made the picture worse, then get tired or bored of figuring out the software.

3. How often does someone look at thousands of pictures. It's more likely we put 5 or 10 precious few on our screen savers or on frames on our desks.

4. someone wth a digital camera is likely to shoot HUNDREDS of pictures during an event. How many godamn pictures of aunt Martha having had one-too-many at the christmas party do we really need (or want)?!!

5. With hundreds of pictures stored in your camera, you're going to have to download them, sort them, detete the ones you don't want, probably re-name them, print the really good ones, etc.. Definetly takes more time then placing your analog prints in an actual album.

6. Again, I'll say again that for business, especially for engineers, digital cameras are a great convenience. For personal use, it's just a gadget or a toy and a waste of time.