Opening the floor

[ladynox25]

So....I've decided that I want to get myself a digital camera. Here's the deal: I'm on a limited budget, so I can't just get the top-of-the-line, all-the-bells-and-whistles, very expensive but also very neat model. What I want is good, solid quality, a decent amount of memory, and some zoom capability. I don't want to give up my old dinky point-and-shoot film camera in order to get a dinky point-and-shoot digital. I want something nice, in other words, but not too pricey.

So, all of y'all out there, those who have digital cameras and those who know a heck of a lot more than I do, what should I be looking at? What models are good? What's the price range I should be looking at for what I want?

The floor is yours.

Edit: I don't know if this matters or not, so y'all can tell me, but it needs to be compatable with both Mac and PC, software-wise.

Comments

[desdenova.livejournal.com]

The first thing you need to do is specify a price range more specific than "not too pricey." That means different things to different people.

[texas-tiger.livejournal.com]

True, but the problem is, I don't even know what price ranges are available on digital cameras. Heck, I never even had to buy my film camera; it was a birthday present many, many years ago, now.

Say <$100 and $100-$200 for two possible ranges.

[desdenova.livejournal.com]

I haven't gone low-end camera-shopping for a good long while, but that price range is very much on the basic end of things. If you want a real fancy-pants camera, like one you can switch lenses and so forth, it'll run you on the order of $1000. OTOH, a basic point-and-shoot digital camera is already miles ahead of your basic point-and-shoot film camera, so unless you are looking to do art photography, you will probably do fine with something in the sub-$200 range, especially if you are willing to spend some time doing some image processing to spiff them up.

This is one of those things where the range of available products is so wide, it's hard to make a recommendation unless you have a clear idea what you want. I suggest going to a Best Buy and taking a look at what they have; that'll at least give you a better idea of where you land on the spiffiness-vs-cost curve.

[texas-tiger.livejournal.com]

Don't want to switch lenses. Want something like an autozoom.

And I've been to Best Buy and left very confused about what meant what, hence my post. *grin*

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

If you more than a dinky point and shoot digital, you're going to need to spend more than what you've indicated to Pam above. DSLR bodies are $800+, and good point and shoot non-DSLR cameras range from $300 - $900 depending on what level of optical zoom and how many Mpixels you are looking for (and how fast the sensor is, 6 Mpixel of slow sensor is worthless, but a really fast 4 Mpixel sensor with decent glass can take a damn nice picture). A good 35mm point and shoot non-SLR body was a multiple hundred dollar investment When Film Ruled the World, and SLR bodies were only a little cheaper than roughly equivalent DSLR bodies are now.

Last time I was looking at prices, the equivalent of the camera I paid ~$500 for 1.5 yrs ago was in the low $300s (5 Mpixel), and that was June.

English, please?

[texas-tiger.livejournal.com]

What's a SLR body? What's Mpixels?

And I'm not looking for a camera where you have to switch lenses, if that's what you mean. I mean something with a little autozoom or whatever.

Re: English, please?

[desdenova.livejournal.com]

SLR="single-lens reflex" Fancy-pants camera type used by people who Do Photography, rather than just taking pictures. Finding further details is left as an exercise for the student.

Mpixels="megapixels"=10^6 pixels, i.e. what is the maximum resolution the camera is capable of (more pixels per image=>better resolution). For reference, your typical computer monitor is 1064x768 pixels.

You're clearly just looking for recommendations of cameras to look at (see, this is a problem w/ asking nerdy people for technology advice, they want you to be all specific about what you want, so they can advise you about the most intimite details of the devices), so here:

My camera (Canon power-shot digital elph s110) is several years old now, but is sufficient for my needs. It's served well, is fairly sturdy and small, takes decent photos, but doesn't do much in the way of on-board image processing (which is fine, because I just do all that on my computer). It's more recent incarnation (which is undoubtedly much swizzier) costs in the $200-$300 range.

I have a friend who uses some version of the Nikon Coolpix, and likes it. I'm not sure which model, though, one of the mid-range ones, which is probably beyond your budget, but the low-end models might also be good.

Re: English, please?

[texas-tiger.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Re: English, please?

[annewashere.livejournal.com]

anecdotal:

It's hard to go wrong with that line of little Canons that Jamie recommends up there, plus they take standard memory that you can use in other things. I've heard folks with bad experiences with HPs. You could do worse than just going back into Best Buy and getting the Canon that's in your price range. Simple solution...

Re: English, please?

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

Pam covered the technical stuff, so I'll just give you a quick overview of what robeli carries around.

We've got a Sony CyberShot DSC V1. It's about 30% smaller than your classic 35mm point and shoot, has a 5 mpixel sensor, and integrated Zeiss lens capable of up to 4x Optical zoom (ignore digital zoom when looking at cameras, you will NEVER want to use it, optical zoom is what matters), and can take Sony Memory Sticks up to 1gb. Personally, I'd have rather had a larger body because I find that it's hard to steady the camera and get clear shots when zoomed in all the way, but she wanted something that fit in her purse and was light.

Re: English, please?

[texas-tiger.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[desdenova.livejournal.com]

Also, just about every camera out there works via some sort of removable media (like Flash cards), so the available memory will depend on how big a card you want to buy. Likewise, you should be able to read the image files off the flash card with any card-reader, or off the camera. Both mac OS X and Windows XP have utility programs for this; the worst you'll have to do is download a driver for the camera. (If you are using an antiquated OS, then you might have various problems since older OSes were developed before digital cameras became so popular.)

[texas-tiger.livejournal.com]

What sort of memory is available and how much does it cost?

[corruptedjasper.livejournal.com]

There are about 6 different kinds widely used in cameras, and most cost something around 70-100 for a 1GB card at the moment. You just get the one that fits in the camera you have. Flash prices can only really go down from there, but for a P&S, a 1 gig stick ought to see you through 2 or 3 weeks of vacation most of the time. Think 1-2 megs per photo at maximum quality, so a gig is a *lot* of photos. Get a 256 as absolute minimum, but 512 as reasonable minimum. 1 gig ought to see you through.

In case you care for some inexplicable reason:
Compactflash type I (CF), is basically a PCMCIA card writ small. 4x3 cm and 3 mm thick. Available in up to several-gig formats. Most common camera format, especially in larger and older cameras. Some larger PDAs accept them.

CompactFlash Type II (CF Type II): like CF except 5 mm thick. *Really* large flash cards come in this format as well as all the IBM Microdrives (as seen in an ipod mini and equivalents), which are available in up to 4 or 6 gig for a lot less than equivalent flash mem. But you don't want them cause they slurp battery power like a mofo and they have moving parts so they're more shocksensitive.

Sony Memory Stick: Pretty much limited to Sony cameras and other Sony products. Look like a stick of gum. Several variants: The original MS goes to 128 meg. There's the MS Duo which is a half size variant of same. There's also a 'Twin' which is basically 2 128 meg sticks grafted together, which you select from with an onboard switch. It's a way to sort-of get 256 meg sticks with the 128 meg limit. Then: the MS Pro. comes in at least up to 1 gig sizes, and the Pro Duo, which is same except in half size (don't know currently available max capacity there, but 1 gig is a good bet). You do *not* want a camera that only takes non-Pro sticks (any cam that does take Pro sticks will also take old sticks if you happen to have them).

Smartmedia (SM): less than a mm thin, size of two postage stamps, max of 128 MB per cards. You don't want that. Its successor is xD, which is extremely small, much sturdier, and comes up to at least half a gig now. That's acceptable.

MMC/SD: Multi Media Card is something like 2.5 by 1.5 cm and 1.4 mm thick, comes in up to 256 megs at least, and is used among others by Nokia mobile phones. Secure Digital is 2.1 mm thick, same size, twice as fast as an interface, and has some irrelevant extra features, and comes in at least up to 2 gigs now. Many PDAs have it. MMC-RS (Reduced Size) is half the size, and that's basically it. miniSD same thing for SD. MicroSD is supersmall and not intended to be user changebale, found in newer smartphones.

That's basically it as far as common flash cards go. And don't complain: you asked for it.

[corruptedjasper.livejournal.com]

Uhm. In case you don't want to wade through that: Something that takes CF will probably get you cheapest memory, with SD a close second, and MS Pro somewhere in behind. You probably want to avoid xD, but OTOH if you can find an awesome Olympus camera (they're the main users, I believe), I wouldn't let it keep you from it either.

[texas-tiger.livejournal.com]

Actually, that was fairly comprehensible, once I sat down and parsed it.

And thank you.

[christymarx.livejournal.com]

For that kind of price, I highly recommend the one I have: the FinePix A205.

Nice little camera, nice zoom, takes very nice shots, USB download cable, variety of memory cards available, built-in flash.

Eats through batteries, of course, but they all do.

[texas-tiger.livejournal.com]

Thank you!