DIGITAL CAMERAS

mymx.3 · Post by **mymx.3** » November 18th, 2005, 9:28 am

Ok ... I want to buy a digital within the next couple of days ..........

There are so many kinds out there ... Canon, Olympus, Sony, Pentax ...
Also 4 pixels, 5 up to 8..

Any suggestions out there?

Thanks

DEB

Selecta · Post by **Selecta** » November 18th, 2005, 10:23 am

Personally I am a Nikon guy...they have stunning pic quality. A good starting point for a everyday pic taker I would say is 5 mega pixels.

One of the most important things you want to check is if the lens on the camera is glass and not plastic. Also what the processor speed is like...you don't want to be waiting long periods between pictures.

Battery options..some cameras will allow you to use battery packs as well as individual batteries.

And then of course size and portability are key as well.

Hope this helps...if anything drop me a PM and I will try and give you more info.

2fazed · Post by **2fazed** » November 18th, 2005, 10:49 am

What are you going to be using it for? Family, friends photos, or specifically on the net? There are alot of cheap digicams on the market. I've seen a 5mp digicam for $99 at Fry's. I would start with atleast 3mp on up.

bushidosword · Post by **bushidosword** » November 18th, 2005, 11:42 am

CANON CANON CANON

I swear to these cameras

Check out reviews online!

bushidosword · Post by **bushidosword** » November 18th, 2005, 1:48 pm

Deb,

I sell this stuff for a living and the camera i use is a Canon Powershot Digital Elph SD300.

You can buy this at The Source By Circut City.

It sells for 399.99 and is worth every damn cent!!

http://www.thesourcecc.com/estore/Searc ... &pagenum=0

Store Address Phone Qty Available

271 PRINCESS STREET
271 PRINCESS STREET
KINGSTON ON K7L1B4
(613) 546-3492 Sold Out

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CATARAQUI TOWN CTR
945 GARDINERS RD
UNIT #L-044
KINGSTON ON K7M7H4
(613) 389-8201 2

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

KINGSTON CENTRE
97 BATH ROAD
UNIT # E2
KINGSTON ON K7L1H2
(613) 542-6678 Sold Out

cat ctr 2 in stock

Neil · Post by **Neil** » November 18th, 2005, 3:19 pm

Like mentioned above, what do you want to use the camera for? I myself am a Minolta guy. Although now ive started using a Canon 350D Rebel XT.

The Minolta Z series of digitals are great cameras for the price, i was more impressed with the Minolta Z1 when it came out at the time than any of the Canons in the same price range.

If you really want to look around this is a great camera review site.
http://www.dpreview.com/
Do some reading on this site and i'm sure you'll find a camera you will be interested in.

Meep · Post by **Meep** » November 18th, 2005, 10:26 pm

As most everyone else pretty much said... The camera you buy really depends on what you're using it for. I could talk to you for hours about digital cameras (I work in a photo lab and camera specialty store), but without knowing what you're using it for or what you want it to do, I couldn't even begin to tell you what would probably be the best one for you.

Basically, if you're looking for a point and shoot camera (no extra lenses/flashes), there a few perks pertaining to certain brands.

Nikon: They have usually 15+ automatic scene modes, very user friendly. Most options are on the dial or available at the press of a button. Lenses are of higher quality. They have 24/7 tech support with a high customer satisfaction rate.

Canon: Typically have more durable shells. Not as user friendly. Most require some menu play to pick settings. Lenses aren't the best but its not the worst. Some of their models (ie. Powershot A620) have flip LCD screens.

Minolta: They have a few higher zoom cameras but they also are bigger (such as the Z series) in size. The Z series specifically has automatic and manual modes (though not as extensive as an SLR camera).

Sony: A majority of their cameras use Carl Zeiss lenses (the same type used on the Hubble Telescope) giving it probably one of the best types of lenses. It isn't very user friendly forcing you to do a lot of menu play to set up the various modes. In addition, Sony forces you to buy the Memory Stick produced primarily by them.

Fujifilm: They have some higher zoom cameras similar to the Minolta Z series but also have some smaller, less weighty cameras. Typically, they're very user friendly with very little menu use. Many options are listed within the dial (unless you're using their higher zoom models). They use XD cards, primarily used by Olympus and Fuji only.

Kodak: They have a lot of easy cameras to use. Depending on the model your looking at, they may have a lot of options or none at all. They typically have a lag between pictures on some of their models I've played with but that really depends on how you set up the camera.

Well, that's just a basic run through of some more popular brands. Another thing to familiarize yourself with is the megapixels and zoom.

Megapixels effect not only quality but also resolution. The higher the megapixel, the bigger you can print the image. For instance, a 3mp will print up to an 8x10 without losing much quality. However, a 5mp will print up to about a 16x20 without losing quality. So, if you know you're only printing standard 4x6 photos, the 5mp would be overkill. A 3mp will be able to do the same job.

Digital cameras have 2 types of zoom: Optical and digital. Optical zoom is the type you want to buy for. Optical zoom is the type of zoom used when adjusting your lense. This type doesn't effect the quality of the picture and is the best to have. Digital zoom is secondary to optical. After the lense adjusts, some cameras will switch to digital zoom. Digital zoom is controlled by the computer chip in the camera. It takes the image your Optical zoom catches and enlarges it. Its the same premise as if you took a picture on your desktop and zoomed in on it. The image becomes pixellated and distorted. So avoid digital zoom. You can adjust that a lot more (down to the very pixel in some cases) on your computer.

There's a lot more I could tell you but this should give you a basic jist. Hope it helps!

Meep · Post by **Meep** » November 18th, 2005, 10:35 pm

bushidosword wrote:I sell this stuff for a living and the camera i use is a Canon Powershot Digital Elph SD300.

You can buy this at The Source By Circut City.

It sells for 399.99 and is worth every damn cent!!

http://www.thesourcecc.com/estore/Searc ... &pagenum=0

Is that USD? If so, that camera is 100$ more than the next model up (5mp with 3x optical Canon Powershot SD400 = $299.00) at my store. Geez!

cdngrl420 · Post by **cdngrl420** » November 19th, 2005, 4:10 am

deb look at http://www.futureshop.ca find a camera you like and ill get u a great deal on it, pm me if you want and we can work something out.

Grants · Post by **Grants** » November 19th, 2005, 4:24 am

No matter what - stick with the brands. I bought a second camera from ebay and thought the specs looked ok. Its crap and hard to use as well... No wonder it was cheap.

bushidosword · Post by **bushidosword** » November 19th, 2005, 9:55 am

$399 CND, not USD. Who wrote that Canon lenses are not the best?

Shame Shame. LOL

If you see something you like at The Source By Circut City, lemme know cause I can help you out with that too. (maybe save u 20%)

All the pics I took at the Bellville meet were on that camera and I just left it in automatic mode for the whole time! Its small, 4 mp (which by the way is nowhere near the most important feature in a digicam) and has a precision cut glass canon lense. Then there is the image processor... this is something you cant see and plays a HUGE role in the turnout of your pictures! Canon uses DIGIC II which has the least amount of noise in dark pictures ive seen in a digital camera.

Other cool features: Very small: fits in almost any pocket. Uses a lithium ion rechargeale battery which lasts a long time on a charge. Backup batteries for this camera can be bought dirt cheep on ebay. 2" LCD on the back of the camera= big and easy to see and review pictures. This camera also has 3x optical zoom (in case it hasnt been mentioned digital zoom = crap (so look for optical)) and can take video with audio. The video can be taken at up to 60 frames per second at lower resolution and 30 frames per second at 640x480 (Disney animates at 24 frames per second) Another point to consider is the memory type that each camera takes: sd 300 = SD card = Most universal, most afordable, most availiable memory cards on the market.

And then there is the stich assist feature: yo can take a series of pictures and the camera will overlap them and "stich" them together for you.
So say you're wanting a panaramic shot of something, you can take a picture of the first half of it, the camera will store that and shift it over so you can line up the second shot.

That said: a) Dont by sony...even with the carl zeiss lens they are garbage. b) If not Canon then consider a panasonic with a leica lense (Leica is a microscope manufacturer as well, they know how to make lenses) c)No Fuji, Kodak, Cheep brands,samsung, or minolta. (for various reasons)

All and all you will see something you like and if you are not sure take down all the info about the camera and post it here and maybe we can help you out!

here are a few pics fro my camera

Hope this helps!!!!!!!!!!!!

mymx.3 · Post by **mymx.3** » November 19th, 2005, 10:19 am

lol ...... thanks for all of your info .... I really appreciated it

I bought one yesterday ... impulse buying ... LOL

Ok .. I bought the Panasonic LUMIX DMC-LZ2PP

Don't ask me much about it ... I don't know LMAO .. hey I just got up

Anyways ... I shall play around with it today

THANKYOU!!

DEB

Gro Harlem · Post by **Gro Harlem** » November 20th, 2005, 4:41 pm

for the record, sony cameras suck.

Mine broke after 4 months of regular use. The battery stopped holding a charge. I bought another batt & that one wouldn't either proving the cameras built in "charger" somehow messed up.

+ they use their own proprietary BS formats (memory sticks) that cost an assload more then XD, SD or CFII cards that other cameras use.

Only thing good about sony is their LCD's are the best in the business & their menu's are easy to figure out.

I use Canon personally. Their image quality is top-notch, they use universal format cards (XD or SD these days) and their menu's are almost a direct ripoff of sony's. I love the "Digital Elph" series of cameras. I have an old S200 that I'm still using todya. My dad has a SD500 which is smaller than a cell phone yet 5megapixels & has a bigger screen than my S200. They take great pictures & are so small that you can literally bring them anywhere anytime. My camera is 3.5 years old now & has taken over 9000 pictures & still works fine. I've evne dropped it onto asphalt on more than one occasion and it still functions perfectly fine. The battery also hasn't failed on me yet after probably 50-100 charges.

bushidosword · Post by **bushidosword** » November 20th, 2005, 9:47 pm

/\ I see you and i agree

cdngrl420 · Post by **cdngrl420** » November 22nd, 2005, 2:02 am

i have a sony dsc 40 and it is far from top of the line but it does what its suppose to... takes clean shots with ease for someone that does not plan on taking professional shots just needs it for day to day use i would recommend it and now i think it goes for like 229, pretty cheap for a trusted brand camera. When it comes to digi cams and all other new technology you get what you pay for or you pay for the brand.... deb thats a good impulse buy you can never go wrong with panasonic take some shots so the pros here can analyze your impulse buy haha.