Buying a new camera, need lots of help!

[Ricmiclvsthemouse]

TIA to anyone who responds, I'm getting desperate and need your help.

I am looking to buy a new digital camera, probably P & S. I have never had a digital camera before, but hubby is insisting we move into the 21st century.

I need suggestions on relatively inexpensive P & S cameras. $400 or less please.

Zoom is important to me, and of course pixels. And I'm thinking that AA batteries might be the best way to go.

I'm open to any and all suggestions. Hoping to get a majority opinion that says 'get camera X'.

Thanks again!

 

[shep]

Got a Canon S3 & Love it..Still have a lot of bells & whistles to figure out though...

$400 should cover SD cards, case, & batteries, maybe even a tripod!

 

[Nikel]

I agree with the S3 recommendation. It's a great little camera.

 

[ericamcl]

I have an S2 IS (the model before the S3) and I LOVE it.
I've had it for over 2 years w/ no problem at all..takes great pics, very easy to use.
I actually bought an Energizer recharge-able kit w/ an extra set of batteries...just rotated them out and they lasted for over a year. This saved me the cost of buying new batteries all the time.

I'm finally moving up and getting a DSLR, but plan on using the S2 part of the time as well

 

[Tuffcookie]

I vote for the Canon S5. It is $399 at BestBuy right now and will give you 12 x optical zoom and 8 MP!

TC

 

[Master Mason]

First of all, what do you plan on using it for?

What's important to you, you said Zoom, which would lead one to think of the bridge cameras such as the S3 or S5. Both of these have image stablization, which will help you to keep the camera steady and avoid camera shake in your pictures, it will not help to freeze action though.

The Fuji 6000 model is well thought of for it's low light ablities, it has a larger sensor, which means that it will capture light better, but it uses a system of bumping up ISO for it's "image stabalization"

Also, what have you been using in the film world?

 

[misha]

I vote for the Canon S5. It is $399 at BestBuy right now and will give you 12 x optical zoom and 8 MP!

TC

We just got this camera - and I LOVE it! My poor dogs - I keep practicing by taking their picture in every setting! It's gotten so bad that as soon as Bosco sees the camera he runs and hides!

I don't think I'll have everything figured out before we leave but I do have the basics down and it is a long drive....

Any tips you have would be wonderful!

 

[Khokhonutt]

Another point on zoom, with point and shoots, is to pay attention to the optical zoom versus the digital zoom. Optical zoom is the real, practical zoom. Digital zoom is what they typically like to print on the camera to impress you.

Digital zoom, on any P&S I've seen, doesn't actually give you any more zoom, it just crops out the center of the closest optical zoom. This typically results in poor picture quality.

For this reason, the first thing I've done with any of my point and shoots is turn the digital zoom off. This is not possible on all cameras (at least I can't find the option on my kids' low end Kodak).

Jeff

 

[Groucho]

BTW, $400 is hardly inexpensive for a point-n-shoot - frankly, you'll have a hard time spending more than that (and I would definitely recommend against it!) Most "pocket" ~3x zoom cameras will be somewhere around $200, and most of the big-zoom models are around $275-350.

 

[Oogie-Boogie]

You may also want to wait for the Canon SX100 to come out next month. It's Canon's first point and shoot entry into the 'super zoom' market of over 10x optical zoom.

The Sx100 is smaller and lighter, much more 'pocketable', but the S5 has the swivel LCD and a flash hotshoe if you ever want try more advanced stuff with external flashes.

I'm planning on buying an SX100 for my wife's birthday to replace her aging Canon G2. She tried the G2 for years, but never liked it due to it's size and complexity, she missed her old powershot constantly..

Another camera you might want to look at is the Panasonic TZ3. It's been proving itself a very popular camera for the long zoom P&S folks.

The only real negatives on it are less dynamic color than the canons, and a rather flimsy lens door. It's really a great camera.

Good luck!

ps. My post count is too low to post links (newb to dis!) but check out dpreview . com for great reviews, photos, and stats on just about everything related to digital cameras.

 

[SrisonS]

Here's another vote for the S3....or at least the newer S5.

 

[shep]

Canon S5..$341

I posted earlier about the S3 but this deal looks very good..

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Another vote for the Panasonic TZ3. Great Image stablization, and near flawless Auto/simple mode , numerous 'scene' modes, ISO priority mode,etc. etc. Check out the camera reviews at DPreview.com as the other poster said. Got mine for around $319 at Costco back in June, probably cheaper by now.

 

[Ricmiclvsthemouse]

I ended up with a Canon Powershot 630, just because I waited so long to choose one and it seemed fairly easy to use, at least for snapshots. 8 mp, 4x optical. Not the zoom I wanted, but it was sufficient. Plus almost everyone mentioned the Canons so it seemed reliable. We enjoyed using it on our trip. We looked for the S2 & S3 but could only easily find the S5 for close to $400. We couldn't buy online because the time frame was so short. I know I said I was willing to spend that much, but after balancing the checkbook-- -- I decided to spend less! I wanted money for vacation after all! We paid about $220 at Sam's Club and also purchased two 1 Gb SD cards (to switch out so if one got lost we wouldn't lose all the pictures of our trip--a tip from the board!) for $15 each and a 16 pack of lithium AA batteries for $20. Seemed like a good deal. The camera takes 4 batteries and we didn't have to change them at all. We took about one memory card worth of photos.

Btw Master Mason, I was using a film SLR--Canon EOS Rebel previously.

I just wanted to thank everyone that posted. It is so heartwarming to see how friendly and helpful people are on this board.

 

[Master Mason]

well if and when you decide to go SLR in the digital world, a lot of the accesories you have would still be usable if you opted to go the canon route.

I used a film SLR for many years, then had kids and went to P&S's, but now that I have moved back to SLR's I am once again loving photography

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

Another vote for the Canon S3/S5 ... just got back from Disney with mine and I had a great time!

It's an extremely versatile camera; great IQ, great zoom, great video, fantastic battery life on 4 AA's....