Digital camera - need recommendations

Rafter-S

I need to buy a digital camera--preferrably a small one that will fit in my coat pocket. My needs are to share photos via email and also be able to make small prints if necessary. I would like to have a zoon lens, but it's not critical...and price is somewhat of an issue.

What do you recommend? Where do you recommend buying it?

offeror

Best Buy has a selection of computer cams that double as carry cams. The nice thing about them is if you want low resolution and small prints, they have that. The disadvantage, of course, is that you get what you pay for in this case -- they ONLY have low resolution, small pictures. Try to find something in your price range that you won't outgrow in a hurry. You may not need "megapixel" resolution but 480x600 would be a lot better than the minimum, which is around 240x300 pixel resolution.

Best Buy discounts items that have been brought back by a customer. Check out that corner of the store too. That's how I got a Panasonic digital DV camcorder with "still" capability for $300. I assume the same kinds of discounts apply to less expensive items.

- Life NRA Member
"If cowardly & dishonorable men shoot unarmed men with army guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary...and not by general deprivation of constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878

4wheeler

I have a Sony Cyber-shot 1.3 mega pixels---my daughter bought it on sale for 120.00. It has a 3x digital zoom. It really likes to use up batterys until I got a card reader so I would not have to down load pictures with the camera.For the money it is a decent camera but I wished I had the money for a more expensive camera but I like guns more. Hope this helps.

"It was like that when I got here".

RugerNiner

I've been thinking about one of those Sonys using the Floppy Disk.
The model I'm talking about also has memory stick.
Second Choice is the new Minolta.

Any Pro or Con Insight on this choice? I don't want to blow $600.00 for nothing.




Remember...Terrorist are attacking Civilians; Not the Government. Protect Yourself!

squeakyc

I use a Hewlett Packard photosmart 612. It has auto focus, flash, view finder, zoom lens and a bunch other functions. Also you can buy other lenses for it if you want to do more things, like a macro lens for close up work. It is also reasonably priced $350.00 Canadian. It is very reliable, not to big and easy to operate.
PS; I've had it a year so they may not make this exact model anymore, it's probably a 612A by now.

Mercury

Let me throw me two cents in here, since I just did about (literally) 100 hours of research on digital cameras.

I ended up getting the Canon S110.

I cannot say ENOUGH about this tiny camera! FANTASTIC!

It is small, takes fantastic pictures, uploads them easily to a computer, or directly to its own printer, and is great on battery life!

It also takes digital video, which you can play back on your computer, or on the tv. Only does about 15 seconds, but well worth the money.

You can pick them up on E**Y for about $350-450, and pick up a nice 256 MB Compact Flash card for under $100.

Again, I did a TON of research.....and the Canon comes out WAY on top.

For those thinking about a Mavica (with the floppy), DON'T BOTHER!

I used one quite a bit.....huge, clunky, slow, and very prone to breaking down!

If you are thinking about getting soemthing that uses Sony's Memory Stick, DON'T!!!!!! You'll WAY overpay on the sticks! Sony has a lock on them, and jacks up the price!

Go with a compact flash card........cheap, and very easy to use. They don't have a controller on the actual card, either, so you won't have problems with them "dying" like some of the other cards do.

Good luck, and don't scrimp....buy a decent camera. Cheap ones will just irritate you.

Merc



NO! You may not have my guns! Now go crawl back into your hole!

****************************************

"Tolerating things you may not necessarily like is part of being free" - Larry Flynt

Knifecollector

I have a Kodak DC3400. I got it at Wal-mart for $200. 2 megapixel. I have it connected directly to my computer. Excellent for adding pictures to e-mail. It has a zoom lens, memory card, software for your computer and other features. I use mine for for E-bay a lot. You can save your pictures to a digital album and print pictures from there. I would not buy any digital camera under $ 100.

nunn

I like my Sony Mavica. Good service for over 2 years. If it breaks I will get another. It uses a disk for medium, super easy to go from camera to computer.

The local SO just built a new jail. I noticed that their new book-in camera is a Mavica.

SIG pistol armorer/FFL Dealer/Full time Peace Officer, Moderator of General Discussion Board on Gunbroker. Visit www.gunbroker.com, the best gun auction site on the Net! Email davidnunn@texoma.net

bgjohn

I have a Sony Mavica. It works good for taking pictures of my auction items. Best of all it uses a 3.5" floppy for easy upload on my computer.
JM

Alpine

Just bought a 128 mb memory stick for my Sony DSC-85 for $89.00. At 4.1 Mega pixels it captures pictures that are to big in file size for most uses. However with the 128 stick I can capture several 15 secound videos and 40 pictures. Great camera.

"If you ain't got pictures, I wasn't there."

kgnovum

I have a Canon Sure Shot 20. It is small, has a zoom lens and very high resolution when needed. It has functioned flawlessly for over 2 years now. I use it mostly to take photos of equipment and e-mail them to customers overseas.

When you e-mail photos, be sure to set the camera resolution down and then "compress" the photos before sending, otherwise it takes a long time to send them and some e-mailboxes are not large enough to accept high resolution photos, which can be 1 mb per photo! KG

pigeoncreek1

I just purchased a Canon Powershot A40 for $299 at best buy. Its an awsome camera for the price. I upgraded the memory to 64M and got 8 rechargable Ni-Mh batteries to complete the outfit for under $400. You can check out some reviews at:

http://www.cnet.com

http://www.pcphotoreview.com

hope this helps!

Gun control is hitting your target

offeror

A friend in the antique business asked me to select an appropriate camera for him, and I picked a Sony Mavica that relied on the 3 1/2" floppies for media. It worked great, except that a disk got stuck in the slot (the metal "shutter" hooked onto something in there) and it had to be sent back to the factory because no one locally could get the disk out. The other disadvantage to the floppy is its maximum size of 1.4 meg. That's between 12 and 16 hi-res pictures or a larger number of lo-res. Also, the camera always numbers every disk's photos with the same set of ID numbers, so you need a separate folder on your drive for each floppy's raw output.

Once you get used to using the USB port and cable, and uploading via software, I think you'll find it's better, faster, more reliable and the recording media holds a lot more pictures from a single "shoot." In fact, if you really want disk as your media, there are now cameras that use a CD-ROM and hold a lot more pictures than a floppy.

Anyway, I believe Sony's are all high quality cameras -- the macro output is particularly classy and sharp looking and easy for the novice to shoot. If you're into jewelry on eBay or something like that, it's a dream to photograph your items. But beware the stuck floppy. I agree about the proprietary memory cards. Use generic media, whatever you do. Just make sure what you do get is value, not junk.

- Life NRA Member
"If cowardly & dishonorable men shoot unarmed men with army guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary...and not by general deprivation of constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878