Calling All Digital Camera Experts

[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.

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>>>>>>>>

 

[MOMTOCUTESTDOGEVER]

I have a Canon A620 and I love it!!

 

[GenieDana]

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]

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. I wish we would have realized that when we bought it. I'll be watching this post to see what everyone recommends.

 

[goin2disneyagain]

I have a digital Canon SLR and love it.

 

[JoeLisaAllison]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Just moving this thread over to the photography board.

 

[Dzny Nut]

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

 

[Anewman]

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]

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]

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

 

[tulsamomof2]

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]

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!!!)

 

[GrayFal]

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]

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]

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]

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)