Buying a camera help? Please?

[Mouse House Mama]

Hello photographers! I need to replace my digital camera. I currently have a Kodak Easyshare and the shutter speed has gotten so slow that it is hard to take photos of any event. I was hoping some of you could steer me in the right direction. I used to have an Olympus and loved it. The pictures were so much clearer than the Kodak. I mean the Kodak is nice but I think the Olympus was crisper. So.....

I need it to cost under $100.
I need to to have that stabilizer thing where if your hands aren't steady it doesn't make the picture blurry.
I would like a nice zoom.
Of course red eye and all that jazz.

So what do you gurus reccomend? TIA!

 

[pyrxtc]

unless you are buying used, you ill not get all that for under $100. You have to spend for quality. the $100 camera will break faster and you will just have to keep replacing it and with that money you could get a good camera that will last you years.

 

[photo_chick]

Finding a decent digital camera for under $100 is a challenge, but not impossible. Though you likely won't be able to get one with image stabilization or a lot of zoom on that budget. If you could go up to $150 it would open up more possibilities.

Most cameras do have red eye reduction, all that does is have a flash or series of flashes before the actual picture to help get the pupils to contract so that when the actual flash of the picture goes off it doesn't bounce off the back of the eye.

And the reason your Olympus probably seemed better than your Kodak is because it was. Sadly Kodak digital cameras do not deliver the same quality that we've come to expect form Kodak film products.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

Thank you for your help. I can raise the budget a bit but I was hoping not to. Hope springs eternal! I am going to go with my gut and get an Olympus. Now here is my other question. Can you explain the zooms to me and what numbers I should be looking for? I never get the whole Optical Zoom vs. any other zoom. I am simply a point and shooter! TIA!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Olympus I use an Oly dSLR so I'm not as familiar with their point and shoot products. But if you look on dpreview.com there was a new Oly pns out recently that looked really nice. (I think the price was significantly higher, though. Check it out anyway. You can read older reviews as well, and you can also read reviews on Amazon.)

Don't bother with digital zoom, optical zoom is the thing you want to know about. 3X won't give you much zoom. 6X will give you more. Super zooms give you as much as 12X or more. That means you can get closer shots from farther away. I like the superzooms for that. (I used a Canon S3IS for a long time.)

The one thing you should know is that most point and shoot cameras will always have difficulty in low light and with movement like sports. There are ways to overcome it - to a degree - but it involves learning about principles of exposure, which you can begin to do via a book called Understanding Exposure. That will help you get better pics no matter what camera you buy.

HTH. Good luck.

 

[Frantasmic]

Check www.woot.com daily for a week to 10 days. They often have decent small cameras. I'd also look at overstock.com and buy.com just to see what they have.

Olympus is going to be difficult at that price range.

http://cameras.about.com/od/topcamerasatpricepoints/tp/Top_Cameras_Under_100.htm

http://about.pricegrabber.com/searc...90280/search=olympus+7010/st=product/sv=title

http://reviews.cnet.com/less-than-$100-digital-cameras/