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Pinky3

03-12-2006, 07:46 PM

MOMTOCUTESTDOGEVER

03-12-2006, 07:50 PM

I have a Canon A620 and I love it!!

GenieDana

03-12-2006, 07:57 PM

Which Easyshare? There are some very good ones (maybe not the model you have).

Kodak makes some good Point-and-Shoots and very good professional SLR's

A good one to look at for the money (about $350) is the Kodak P850. This one recently had a firmware upgrade that really improved its performance over the already outstanding reviews it received.

Another good one is the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20. Both the Kodak and Panasonic have 12x image stabilized lenses and do well in low light and indoors (the Panasonic will do F2.8 at full 12x zoom). Kodak has a good movie mode.

If you wan faster, you will have to go SLR.

Here are several good sites to read reviews:

http://www.dpreview.com/

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/cameraList.php

http://www.imaging-resource.com/DIGCAM01.HTM

http://www.steves-digicams.com/hardware_reviews.html

MommyMouse

03-12-2006, 08:03 PM

[QUOTE=Pinky3]I have a Kodak Easyshare and I hate it. Too much time waiting for flash to recharge and you can't take picture one after another quickly.

We have the Easyshare too. I have had so many "Kodak Moments" not turn out because of that darned flash issue. :furious: I wish we would have realized that when we bought it. I'll be watching this post to see what everyone recommends.

goin2disneyagain

03-12-2006, 08:14 PM

I have a digital Canon SLR and love it.

JoeLisaAllison

03-12-2006, 08:20 PM

Hi,

We bought the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20 in December and we love it. It's easy to use and takes great pictures.

Lisa

geffric

03-12-2006, 08:23 PM

Try the Canon S2 IS or the new one that is coming out at the end of May Canon S3 IS..

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0602/06022111canons3is.asp

I have a Canon S1 IS and was going to upgrade to the S2 but with the reviews for the S3... I am going to wait and get this one..

rtphokie

03-12-2006, 08:33 PM

I have a Kodak Easyshare and I hate it. Too much time waiting for flash to recharge and you can't take picture one after another quickly.

I am ready for a new digital camera and looking for advise from you guys.

What would you recommend?

First cruise 9/30/06 - must have new gadgets before then to take excellent picture like those posted here.

HELP>>>>>>>>

Rule of thumb, buy a digital camera from a company that makes cameras. Not one that makes film (Kodak or Fuji), or one that makes computers (HP, Sony), or one makes watches and calculators (Casio). That leaves Canon and Nikon and to a lesser degree Olympus.

Of those 3 Canon has the best selection aimed at consumers. I've got a 4 megapixel Canon G3 that produces far better results than 8 megapixel competitors. You cant go wrong with any of the Canon powershot or A series. Watch the sunday paper for sale ads. Try out a couple before you buy.

lenshanem

03-12-2006, 08:46 PM

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ2.

I did alot of research before I bought this camera and it has been awesome! I wanted something easy that took great pics and I haven't been disappointed at all.

lbgraves

03-12-2006, 09:00 PM

Just moving this thread over to the photography board. :)

Dzny Nut

03-12-2006, 09:23 PM

I suggest the Olympus FE-100. 4.0 megapixel, 11x total zoom, and 1 touch design

Anewman

03-12-2006, 09:39 PM

I suggest the Olympus FE-100. 4.0 megapixel, 11x total zoom, and 1 touch design

And currently $99 on outpost.dotcom(FRYS).

2.8 optical zoom, dont we all turn off digital zoom?

manning

03-12-2006, 10:04 PM

Rule of thumb, buy a digital camera from a company that makes cameras. Not one that makes film (Kodak or Fuji), or one that makes computers (HP, Sony), or one makes watches and calculators (Casio). That leaves Canon and Nikon and to a lesser degree Olympus.

Of those 3 Canon has the best selection aimed at consumers. I've got a 4 megapixel Canon G3 that produces far better results than 8 megapixel competitors. You cant go wrong with any of the Canon powershot or A series. Watch the sunday paper for sale ads. Try out a couple before you buy.

What's interesting is that Sony makes almost all of the CCD's for all of the brands of cameras. If you remember there was a recall of cameras from Canon and other camera makers. It was because of the Sony CCD they were using. Also Konica Minolta has left the camera business and turned over all the camera assets to.....Sony.

Don't count the other companies out. Panasonic,not known as a camera manufacturer, is giving the traditional camera makers a run for their money. I have owned many Canons and am looking at Panasonic with interest. Their small TZ-1 10x zoom (35mm-350mm) and the FZ30,a direct competitor to Canon s3 is, has peaked my interest. If I was buying today I would go with one of these. However if Canon matched what they have I would take another look.

My wife has two Sonys she is happy with.

We all enter this area with bias. In the 70s I had a Canon SLR and the person I worked with had a Minolta SLR. We had a running debate as to which was the better camera. And there were the Nikon fans.

It comes down to doing your homework and picking the one that fits your needs the most.

You make mention of your G3. I still love my G1. Canon does make a good product.

Jennasmomma

03-12-2006, 10:36 PM

I have the canon powershot A85. I love it. Its small and compact but yet takes awesome pictures!

tulsamomof2

03-12-2006, 10:52 PM

I need to replace my Kodak Easyshare also!! The camera just will not take indoor photos! I have missed my kids' honor roll, basketball, and choir performances -- the camera just will not take pictures indoors when there are those fluorescent lights.

Any camera suggestions that do well with gymnasium lighting???

Lynn

Kelly Grannell

03-12-2006, 11:13 PM

GrayFal

03-12-2006, 11:50 PM

which Kodak easyshare is everyone hating,,,I was looking at a Kodak Easyshare Z700 4.0MP Digital Camera...is it VERY bad for indoor pictures,,,I hate a slow flash......

Kelly Grannell

03-13-2006, 12:28 AM

Kodak is famous for its film grain, which I think the reason they bring it over to digital cameras. Let me put it lightly. At ISO 80 or 100, the digital noise on the Kodak is at par with ISO 200 from other cameras and at par with ISO 320 on dSLR.

Kodak also tend to push the colour saturation. If you like that, then Kodak is the way to go. If you want natural colour, stay away from Kodak. I personally hate Kodak due to my personal experiences with its film, camera, dSLR and photo papers therefore I'm biased against Kodak.

Don't get me wrong, even with a bad camera (say Fuji S9000, which is worse at high ISO than Kodak P880) you can take good pictures. It's 1% talent, 9% equipment, 90% hard work (experience).

manning

03-13-2006, 01:41 AM

1. Yes Sony makes CCD for other manufacturers, but to THEIR (other manufacturers') specs. Sony makes their own CCD using their own specs which quite unfortunately not as good as the ones they make for Canon (was it due to technological licensing issue? I don't know)

2. Kodak... well, I better shut up

3. If the budget permits, get a Pentax dSLR, it's not as good as other dSLR, but it sure kicks every point and shoots' **** in a big way (and they are selling at the same price as regular point and shoot, around $500/$600 ish including lens

4. If you want to stick with P/S, I'd recommend Canon S3-IS. I saw the ISO800 demo and it's actually as clean (if not a tad cleaner) than S2-IS ISO 400... and it's in grey rather than the old year-2000 silver.

5. Gym lighting? Use ISO 800 on S3-IS, lower the exposure buy 1 stop (I don't know whether it's possible), then using photoshop, boost the levels back to normal, get rid of the noise using Imagenomic Noiseware (freebie for the Community Edition) and you'll get the equivalent of a squeaky clean ISO 1600 (as clean as Canon's dSLR ISO 200!!!)

Those other manufactures were having the same problem that sony was.

Here is a recall alert that appeared on the dpview site for Konica Minolta

Sony UK has finally issued an advisory notice about a problem with the CCDs used in its digital cameras, camcorders and PDA Clies. Sony supplies CCDs for many other major manufacturers who have already issued announcements about their cameras, but despite the date on this notice, it has only come to light today. The affected Sony cameras were manufactured between October 2002 and March 2004 and will experience problems displaying the image, where it may appear distorted or not at all. Digital cameras affected include the F717, 11 P-series cameras, the U10, U20, U30 and waterproof U60, as well as the five megapixel DSC-V1. Sony will, of course, repair all cameras experiencing this problem free of charge.

Click on the manufacturers' names below to find out which of their cameras are affected:

Canon
Fujifilm
Konica Minolta
Nikon
Olympus

This indicates the chips were the same.

Kelly Grannell

03-13-2006, 07:08 AM

What Manning wrote is very true. However, on the other hand, a chip is not the only thing that makes up a camera. Just look at my car (Jetta 1.8 Turbo). With that same engine but with changes ECU (firmware) (say stock VW versus APR) the performance and the way the engine behaves will be quite different. So just because Sony makes the chip (and many if not all manufacturers suffers from its defects) doesn't mean all manufacturers have the similar, or same, picture quality.

Going back to the car analogy. VW, Audi, Porsche, Bugatti shares certain components (one can actually see Audi logo on certain components or one component has 4 different part number designations labelled on the packaging), it doesn't mean the performance of Porsche and VW is similar.

(however, I keep telling myself that I'm driving a Bugatti, especially after seeing the air-intake on a $200K Bugatti has an Audi logo just like my VW) :)

fitzperry

03-13-2006, 08:38 AM

When we were shopping for our last camera, we took a couple of memory cards into our local camera shop and took a bunch of test shots with the models we were considering. That way we could get a feel for each of the cameras and compare the pics on our computer.

goofy4tink

03-13-2006, 09:08 AM

Finally replaced my Easyshare over the week-end. Got a Canon A610...seems pretty good...more camera than I think I need. Got if for $180 at Best Buy and saw it for close to $300 in other places. I've been playing with it for the past two days. Even my brothers thought it was a good little camera. Well, off to try to figure out the Advanced Booklet that came with it...so many things to learn.

WillCAD

03-13-2006, 10:56 AM

...more camera than I think I need.

That's a good thing! You should always get a little more camera than you think you need, because something always seems to come up later that makes you need more camera.

That's not to say that everybody should go out and spend $2000 on a dSLR for WDW pics, or $40K on a Hasselblad medium format rig to take pics of the grand kids, but stepping up a little from what you think you need will give you a little room to grow as your needs change.

geetey

03-13-2006, 01:59 PM

Those other manufactures were having the same problem that sony was.

Here is a recall alert that appeared on the dpview site for Konica Minolta

Sony UK has finally issued an advisory notice about a problem with the CCDs used in its digital cameras, camcorders and PDA Clies. Sony supplies CCDs for many other major manufacturers who have already issued announcements about their cameras, but despite the date on this notice, it has only come to light today. The affected Sony cameras were manufactured between October 2002 and March 2004 and will experience problems displaying the image, where it may appear distorted or not at all. Digital cameras affected include the F717, 11 P-series cameras, the U10, U20, U30 and waterproof U60, as well as the five megapixel DSC-V1. Sony will, of course, repair all cameras experiencing this problem free of charge.

Click on the manufacturers' names below to find out which of their cameras are affected:

Canon
Fujifilm
Konica Minolta
Nikon
Olympus

This indicates the chips were the same.

THANK YOU for posting this, manning! Now I know why I think my Minolta S414 is so bad! It is one of the cameras affected by this!

Kelly Grannell

03-13-2006, 03:58 PM

THANK YOU for posting this, manning! Now I know why I think my Minolta S414 is so bad! It is one of the cameras affected by this!

You should be able to get a replacement unit, I think, if your camera is actually affected by it.

SqueakyMouse

03-13-2006, 06:00 PM

Dh (who is a real photography buff) did lots and lots of research before he bought me the Kodak 6490 a couple of years ago. While I can't say that it compares to the Nikon D50 he gave me this past weekend, it is a fantastic camera. Quite a few of my friends have bought the same camera based on the quality of the photos I've taken with it. I probably ought to qualify this with the fact that dh is NOT a lover of Kodak products (He's a Minolta Man, but sadly Minolta is now owned by Sony)...but he was highly impressed with this camera.

manning

03-13-2006, 06:39 PM

THANK YOU for posting this, manning! Now I know why I think my Minolta S414 is so bad! It is one of the cameras affected by this!

Sony has taken over their camera business. I hope this doesn't complicate things in getting it fixed. I took a quick look at their site and came up with this hope it helps:

http://kmpi.konicaminolta.us/eprise/main/kmpi/content/cam/cam_Attachments/KM_Digital_Camera_Product_Alert.pdf

Maybe it would be a good idea to first call the minolta phone number at this site:

http://kmpi.konicaminolta.us/eprise/main/kmpi/content/contact

Hope it all works out.

johnnyh14

03-14-2006, 07:09 PM

i'm wondering first off, would you like a digital point and shoot like your kodak or a digital slr like the film camera lense combination you used in photography class. sony and cannon make a good point and shoot camera and do some others. nikon and canon make the best digital slrs. now a days a consumer camera has the features of a pro digital of 5 years ago. do not obsess over mega pixels. find a camera that fits your hands, needs and budget. check out the epinions website as well as popphoto website for ratings. :)

mannasn

03-15-2006, 01:11 AM

I'm also an Easyshare owner.. Love the rechargable battery.. that's about it. I have no luck with it, other than taking out of focus, dark pictures. Bah!

I'm looking to move up, but am a little intimidated by the DSLR cameras. I want something I can take shots with quickly... and the last experience I have with an SLR is my Dad's 1970s Canon AE (which takes awesome shots, but is time consuming to focus, etc).

Cameras boggle my mind! Anyone have any suggestions of where to start or affordable/relatively easy to operate DSLRs?

johnnyh14

03-15-2006, 07:13 AM

check out the new nikon d50 or the newest similar canon product. i can't vouch for canon for digital but i have a few nikon digital dslr's d70, d2h & d200 and love them. the new d50 has hundreds of thousands of camera settings programmed into them so on the auto settings you are guaranteed perfect exposures. except of course with a underlit situation. the built in flash is usable but a real flash would be a nice addition. as you get more comfortable move the mode to aperature priority and start exploring. a dslr is nothing to be afraid of. i have owned several old canon film cameras and know exactly what you mean. :thumbsup2

Kelly Grannell

03-15-2006, 07:55 AM

You can't go wrong with either Canon or Nikon on dSLR. Canon owns 59% of the dSLR worldwide marketshare (number 1 seller, obviously) and Nikon is the number 2 seller.

Regardless of what I think of Canon (I'm a major proponent of it), the only reason Canon own 59% of the marketshare is (I think) due to their foray into Rebel and Rebel XT price range much earlier than Nikon D50 (by about 2 years).