Recommendations for Digital Camera

lovesdisney44 · Post by **lovesdisney44** » Apr Mon 25, 2005 6:24 pm

We're heading to WDW for 2 weeks in July and I was hoping I could get some recommendations for a good digital camera. I want something with atleast a 3X optical zoom lense, and one that can take videos too. And when the pictures are printed, that they are good quality. Thanks for all your input!

cruiseguy7011 · Post by **cruiseguy7011** » Apr Mon 25, 2005 7:27 pm

lovesdisney44 wrote:We're heading to WDW for 2 weeks in July and I was hoping I could get some recommendations for a good digital camera. I want something with atleast a 3X optical zoom lense, and one that can take videos too. And when the pictures are printed, that they are good quality. Thanks for all your input!

Do you have any other requirements or do you want a plain point and shoot with not thrills? Initially I always reccomend canon but it depends on the specs.
-Cruiseguy

Post by **js3901** » Apr Mon 25, 2005 8:04 pm

what price range are you looking for? I can recommend a couple of half-way decent cameras for the $150 - $200 range. Or, if need be, we could go higher. I'd suggest going into your local Best Buy or Circuit City to test a few out and see what cam works best for you.

As far as what to look for, the higher Megapixel resolution cams are going to cost, while lower MP res will look grainy. I'd suggest nothing under 4.0 MP.

lovesdisney44 · Post by **lovesdisney44** » Apr Mon 25, 2005 8:22 pm

cruiseguy7011 - What kind of thrills were you thinking of? I wanted the camera to take good pics and videos. I wanted the photos to print out looking like I took it with a 35MM camera, and I also plan to download the video. (burn to CD maybe?) I was thinking of a zoom lense for distances (example - the animals on Kilimanjaro Safari). Does that help?

Tnx a bunch!

lovesdisney44 · Post by **lovesdisney44** » Apr Mon 25, 2005 8:25 pm

js3901 - I was really hoping to get a good camera for under $400.00. And tnx so much for the Megapixel info - I was looking at 5.0 and higher. I plan on stoping @ Best Buy and Circuit City to take a peek at the cameras, but wanted to go in with some suggestions.

Post by **js3901** » Apr Mon 25, 2005 8:44 pm

lovesdisney44 wrote:js3901 - I was really hoping to get a good camera for under $400.00. And tnx so much for the Megapixel info - I was looking at 5.0 and higher. I plan on stoping @ Best Buy and Circuit City to take a peek at the cameras, but wanted to go in with some suggestions.

Then, I would go for a Kodak or Olympus camera for that price range. Preferably the Kodak... Great quality (at least in my experiences), and most (if not all) will take some video clips.

Myself, I bought a cheap 3.1 MP cam from Targeta while ago. It take half-way decent pics (a bit on the grainy side) as well as video clips and even sound recordings. It uses Compact Flash (CF) cards which can be picked up just about anywhere for fairly cheap. more cards you have, more recording time/pictures you can take/use. hell, you can even hook the cam up to your comp and use it as a webcam if you wanted. I only paid about $100 on it, and I think by now the price has even gone down a bit.

Definately go into the local electronics store and see what the store reps recommend for you.

Gizmata · Post by **Gizmata** » Apr Mon 25, 2005 9:07 pm

Personally I got this one.
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon ... 85-review/

That website has a wonderful review process in my opinion. Every camera goes through the same set of pictures and full resolution samples are available.

Personally one of my top requirements was the ability to use AA batteries. Having to use proprietary ones means you can get stuck with a worthless piece of plastic if the battery is dead. With power packs that can be exchanged with AA's, or ones that just use AA's you can recover about anywhere when the batteries die.

The A85 is plenty good, it does have some issues trying to focus really close up, but how often do you need to do that.

The other reason I liked this one is the manual controls for exposure time and settings. You can get nice night shots this way (tripod/rock) just use the 10 sec delay and up to 10sec (i think) exposure time.

Just do some research at that website.. learn about fringing and the different abilities. Then take a pick and know that in 2-3 years the quality may be 10x better and you will probably replace it anyways

cruiseguy7011 · Post by **cruiseguy7011** » Apr Mon 25, 2005 9:35 pm

lovesdisney44 wrote:cruiseguy7011 - What kind of thrills were you thinking of? I wanted the camera to take good pics and videos. I wanted the photos to print out looking like I took it with a 35MM camera, and I also plan to download the video. (burn to CD maybe?) I was thinking of a zoom lense for distances (example - the animals on Kilimanjaro Safari). Does that help?

Tnx a bunch!

Well when I ment no thrills, I meant just a simple p/s cam with no highly avanced settings. I personally have http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canong6/ but it is a more advanced cam. Before I had that I used a canon A300 (which I used and got great pics out of) and my first cam was a Kodak Dc3200. I would advise the canon S, A, or SD, series. Gizmata's recomendation of the A85 was good but it is being replaced by the A510 or A520 don't know which one. I would shop around and test what feels right. But from my expierence the people at the stores aren't very much of a help. I would go to review sites like: http://www.dcresource.com
http://steves-digicams.com/
or http://www.dpreview.com
From my limited viewing of what is on the market now I would reccomend the A510, or the more powerful S70 (both canon)
Hope this helps
-Cruiseguy

lovesdisney44 · Post by **lovesdisney44** » Apr Mon 25, 2005 9:37 pm

"Gizmata" - OMG - I just spent 15 minutes reading over the specs of the camera you got. Thanks for all the information and website.

I like the idea of the AA batteries also. But I was looking for something that had a longer video record time. All you guyz (we say guys in the Chicago area) are such a help! TNX!

lovesdisney44 · Post by **lovesdisney44** » Apr Mon 25, 2005 9:53 pm

Cruiseguy - tnx for all your help. I have to stop reading now . . . it's 10:00 at night and my eyes are starting to cross.

cruiseguy7011 · Post by **cruiseguy7011** » Apr Mon 25, 2005 11:04 pm

lovesdisney44 wrote:Cruiseguy - tnx for all your help. I have to stop reading now . . . it's 10:00 at night and my eyes are starting to cross.

Your very welcome. It can become a tiring process to shop for one, but in the long run it's worth it. Hope you are able to find what you are looking for.
-Cruiseguy
(looks like you are 2 posts away from the big e)

Gizmata · Post by **Gizmata** » Apr Mon 25, 2005 11:45 pm

Good luck finding one that suits your needs, I spent a few weeks trying to find a balance of the options I wanted, and even then I couldn't get everything I wanted.

I worry though about your desire for quality stills and movies. I think most of the cameras are mpg format 320x240 resolution, decent for certain things, but not for making home movies with. You are best off doing both I think, the quality will be much better, but at the cost of carrying more.

Everything is a tradeoff, though. Most likely if you do your research you won't be disappointed.

cruiseguy7011 · Post by **cruiseguy7011** » Apr Tue 26, 2005 12:17 am

Gizmata wrote:Good luck finding one that suits your needs, I spent a few weeks trying to find a balance of the options I wanted, and even then I couldn't get everything I wanted.

I worry though about your desire for quality stills and movies. I think most of the cameras are mpg format 320x240 resolution, decent for certain things, but not for making home movies with. You are best off doing both I think, the quality will be much better, but at the cost of carrying more.

Everything is a tradeoff, though. Most likely if you do your research you won't be disappointed.

I agree on the fact that the video mode on these cams is nothing to brag about. The only time I use them is when I can't get to my camcorder, or it is just one of those spare of the moment things where I have my cam already out. My cam as well as many other cams (canon's atleast) have 640c480 res but mostly it is limited to 30sec. Word of advise. If you buy from Best Buy I would reccomend the extended warranty. That is because for a short time I had a S50 and it broke. They gave me a credit for the purchase amount and I ended up with my G6. When I was in WDW i carried a small backpack with my camcorder (another canon by the way) in it and it worked out nicely. But all of the pics and movies take up ALOT of space especially when you get upwards of 5mp. The 5mp S50 I had can reach up to 2mb per pic and my 7mp G6 uses around 4mb per pic in normal jpg formats. It is best to have aroud 10Gb of hd space in your comp especially when dealing with high quality pics
-Cruiseguy

lovesdisney44 · Post by **lovesdisney44** » Apr Tue 26, 2005 7:27 am

GIZMATA and CRUISEGUY7011 -

Thanks for all your advise. It seems that everyone really prefers a Canon Digital Camera. My girlfriend has a Powershot SD300 and loves it! 8)

Gizmata · Post by **Gizmata** » Apr Tue 26, 2005 2:26 pm

Cannon seemed to have the best optics, and thats a huge part of what your camera is.

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/camer ... hp?cam=619

That was my first choice, but was no longer available in the normal market, and used the propietary battery I wanted to avoid. The reason it was high on my list included full controls, and the ability to save the pictures in a raw format. Raw takes up a ton of space, but getting special pictures of the empty lagoon and such where later you may really want to zoom in with no jpg compression it would have been great.

Also I would suggest when you purchase it, take it out and take a bunch of pictures with it (see the dcresource website) of things like a window screen. See if its fuzzy anywhere, see if there are any issues with the lens or the ccd. Every camera will be a little different. Best to find out any issues when you can still return it.

Back in the day my dad decided to by a telephoto lens for his camera. He had chosen the model of the lens and went to a store with a test backdrop in hand. He then chose 3 identical lenses and ran a few rolls of film through his camera taking identical pictures (tripod set, just switch lens) and then compared them to find the best. The result is a lens that you will be proud of for years to come. Unfortunately you cant blame the lens if your photographic skills are lacking

Again it all comes down to what you want out of it.

Subsonic Radio

Recommendations for Digital Camera

Recommendations for Digital Camera

Re: Recommendations for Digital Camera

Re: Recommendations for Digital Camera

Re: Recommendations for Digital Camera