Buying digital cameras in the US

[Mr Mx]

I`m coming on holiday to the US soon and want to take advantage of your low prices and good exchange rate and buy a digital camera.
I need to know how much they are out there and what shops to look in. Or any recommendations for different models.
Cheers guys

[SE-Man]

Got to RadioShack, and look for FUJIFILM, the A310 is 3MP and runs like $200. Fuji is the best, they have really good lenses. Another place to look if your gonna be in the north west is Kit's Camras.

[2RotorsNaDream]

Don't get a 3MP, they suck. Go to Circuit City, or Target, Best Buy...places like that. Look for something with around 5MP, they'll go for roughly $400 or so.

[johnnyb]

it would also be a good idea to look around where you are to see what chargers are easily availiable if you go that route. dont forget we run 110/120 volt and you run 220/240.

[SE-Man]

Most will work on AA batteries, what would you need 5MP for?! Thats a little over kill, unless your profesionally making billboards. BTW a 5MP that runs $400 is cheap, and likly in quality too. I had a 4.1mp musteck and that thing was always having to get sent off to get fixed. I've got a 2.5MP Fuji and the quality is ten times better.

[Amma351]

I just bought a Digital camera yesterday from future shop, it is a Sony 3.2MP. The hting is it doesnt have optical zoom but I am veryyy satisfied with the quality.
It costed around 275.

[monty73741]

make sure u get optical zoom as not digital zoom

might have to sacrifice mega pixals to get the zoom but its well worth it...
also get one with batteries b/c they are easy to switch & one last thing make sure it will work on your pc & media expansion will work in the UK

[Mr Mx]

Cheers for the tips and advice guys.

[johnnyb]

i have a sony it has 2x optical and 5 digital but the thing with sony its smart zoom so no matter how much i zoom the integrity of the picture never changes

[Talon_66]

I have a Kodak 2.0MP with 2x Optical and 3x Digital. Its great. I think the quality is just fine. Check my cardomain link to see the pics I took with it

[killerpickle]

if your taking pics to send over the net or look at on your computer, 1.3 -2.1 is all you will ever need. I agree, get the optical zoom with a low mp - only thing I regret not getting...

[Nd4SpdSe]

I'm not into digital cameras, but my boss and co-worker are, im gonan throw in my $.02

You get what you pay for, and lenses make a huge differences, but lenses arent advertised, so you need to do your research. A 3mp camera with a good lenses can look better than a 4mp with a cheep lense, but you need to do your research. They use MP in marketing like they use GHz, its not THE number for best performance, its only a single piece of the entire pie. don't get fooled by it.


ANd never look at digital zoom specs, only optical. Digital zoom is where the camera blow up the images and does a mathimatical calculation to make it look good instead of pixelated, but adobe photoshop or any good imaging software will do a better job at that than any cameras digital zoom

<small>[ March 14, 2004, 01:54 PM: Message edited by: Nd4SpdSe ]</small>

[Gro Harlem]

Stay away from sony's at all cost. Very repair-prone and overpriced. They also ONLY use sony media & battery packs so you have to spend even more money on overpriced battery packs and memory sticks (some of the newer sony cameras use AA's, but have an optional rechargable pack that you have to BUY, and of course, those packs are like $60 when they should be way less).

I've owned a kodak, 2 sony's, fuji and Nikon and currently own a Canon. The canon is my favorite thus far. Great features, high quality, easy to use menu's and uses compact flash II cards which are very inexpensive. Nikon's are great too as are Fuji's. Kodaks use crappier qulaity plastics, but take excellent photos.


Depending on what features you want, choosing a camera is tricky. Here is some advice I'd like to give from my experiences:

1: DO NOT BUY a camera that uses only AA or AAA batteries. Get one that has its own special rechargable linthium or NiMH battery pack. It'll save you a lot of money b/c digicams eat batteries like mofos

2: DO NOT think that a camera that has 4x digital zoom is just as good as one with 4x optical zoom. On every camera i've used, using digital zoom significantly ruins the quality of the image. If you want zoom, make sure you are getting the right amount of OPTICAL zoom. Digital zoom shouldn't even be used for taking pictures (it is a techonlogy designed for video cameras, not digicams).

3: Megapixels don't really matter as much as people lead you to believe. If you are never going to use anything but 640x480 (typical internet size) why get a 5MP camera? Mine is a 3MP and can take photo-quality 8x10's which is fine with me!! I don't see the need for wasting my $$$ on a million megapixel cameras when 2 or 3 suffices.

4: Do you want video taking abilities? Make sure it can take sound with it. Lots of cameras have video capabilities but don't take sound. Pretty big waste of a feature if you ask me.

5: How big is the camera? Trust me when I say this...you want a small pocket-sized camera, unless you are a hardcore photographer (in which case, a huge camera is almost necessary for decent pictures). I find myself carrying around my Canon S200 everywhere. It is about the size of a cellphone. I absolutely hated my sony Mavica and Kodak DC280 b/c of their size. Would barely fit in my pocket, and when they did, they'd bulge out uncomfortably. Most digicams these days are small enough, but don't overlook the size if you want to be able to carry it around everywehre you go.

<small>[ March 14, 2004, 02:24 PM: Message edited by: Gro Harlem ]</small>

[2RotorsNaDream]

I have a 3.2MP Casio Exilim with 3x optical zoom and I do like it, but sometimes I make very very big pictures and thats why I'm saying get a 5MP or so. They got one over here, a 5MP Fuji camera for like $350 at CompUSA. They got some good deals.

[UoMDeacon]

Good response Gro, you basically covered everything I was about to chime in on.

As for Sony's sucking because of their battery packs and their memory media, it all depends. I own a VAIO laptop, so the memory sticks and everything work out great for me. As for battery packs, Lithium Ions are always preferred over alkaline AAs, you get better performance, and it's cheaper in the long run. The lenses on Sonys are generally very good (Karl Zeiss).

Currently I own a Canon Digital ELPH, which is pretty nice. In terms of megapixels, you need to consider what you are going to do with the pictures. A 2MP camera is capable of printing very nice 4x6" pictures, scale up the megapixels as you scan up the size of the pictures you will be printing.

Also, what exactly are you planning on using the camera for? Just to carry around to parties and stuff, or to take some serious pictures? If you just want to have one in your pocket all the time, then the Exilim series are great for that. Most of them can record movies, and it is impossible to emphasize how small they are. My friend just bought one, and when we opened up the box, we both said out-loud, "Where the hell is the camera?" It's that small

The Canon S400 is a great camera at this point, it uses CompactFlash. I think there's a new version of the S400 out that uses secure digital, which is even smaller. It's a 4MP camera with nice video abilities as well.

<small>[ March 15, 2004, 06:40 PM: Message edited by: UoMDeacon ]</small>