Cheap/Good digital camara ?

[DNSDisney]

What cheap but good digital camara would you recommend. And how much does it cost ?
Would like one that we can add memory stick/card to hold more pics than just standard 8mb.
Also can anyone tell me the difference between digital Zoom and optical Zoom? Don't want to spend more than about 200.-250.
Thanks
Sharon

 

[DMRick]

Don't know what you mean by cheap..but you can get a great Olympus for a reasonable price. Look in this weeks sale brochures..they have several on sale. I wouldn't get less than a 2 mega pixel if you want to print them out at about 5 X 7 and look nice and sharp.

You want the highest optical zoom..that's a real zoom. Digigtal zoom is just like putting the picture on your computer, and making it larger. You don't get any more pixels, just bigger (and not always clearer) pixels.

You can purchase extra smart cards (and I would suggest you get the disk reader..usually under $30..my new one was free at Stapels with purchase of a 64 meg card)..usually only $15 for the reader anyway). which can hold up to hundreds of pics, depending on the size you take them in.

 

[QuickGold]

HP's older models are very good and tend to be in your price range. Be sure to shop around and check out pricing. Also, for very good deals, check out http://www.fatwallet.com There is usually alot of great deals there and just be sure to look for the ones involving digital cameras.

 

[eeyorefanatic]

I got a Kodak DX3600 with 2x optical and 3x digital. It is 2.1 megapixels so 4x6 prints should print ok. I picked it up at Walmart for $248. I will post some pics when I get back (leaving Thursday.

For prints you don't want to go less than 2 mega pixels. And as someone else said the real zoom is the optical zoom. You also want a camera that takes compact flash memory as that is the cheapest and most prevalent memory.

www.newegg.com has by far the cheapest memory of any place online. You can get 128MB of Compact flash for $43.

 

[Gillian]

A friend of ours also just got the Kodak 3600 & really likes it! I have an older kodak model & am very satisfied with it. We have a 64 mb card.

 

[DNSDisney]

Thanks for all the responces.
With the Kodak's we have seen the all have docking stations, but don't tell if that is a charger of some kind or something that helps upload your pics. What is it?
My husband wants to get a sony but i think we can do better with someother brand. Sony's are high$.And what is a disk reader?
thanks again
Sharon

 

[DMRick]

www.newegg.com has by far the cheapest memory of any place online. You can get 128MB of Compact flash for $43.

Compact flash or smart media card are good ones. Althought the sony "stick" is also good..and the sony's are very nice and easy to use (I have a Olympus but I do like the Sony's). They cost more, mostly because you can use a floppy as well as stick with most of them. Be sure you know what size your camera will go up to for flash/media card..mine only uses up to 64 megs..plus I like havinga few cards, in case I damage one...although I've been pretty rough and so far so good.

A reader sort of looks like a mouse. It plugs into a usb port (usually) and has a place to slide in your card (some printers have these built in). It thn acts like another little harddrive to look at your pics. Very, very fast, compared to uploading from camera to computer. Like I said, jus tlike another harddrive.

I bought my camera at Buy.com, after checking mysimon.com for cheapest places that I would want to buy from. But if you know nothing about digital cameras, Compusa if you have one, is a great place to buy, since they usually throw in another media card/flashcard and a free class, that is very good. Their prices are OK too. 2 megapixels (or 2.1) is good for up to 5 X 7 printouts, and 3 (or 3.2) are good for 8 X 10.

 

[bjcgl]

The docking station is a recharger and something that supposedly makes downloading easier. We have the Kodak dx3500 without the docking station and have found that downloading the pictures is very easy - they supply a cable and software and when your camera is hooked up and turned on, it automatically goes to the download screen. We'll see how long the batteries actually last before we decide whether the recharger is necessary.

 

[eeyorefanatic]

get rechargable batteries instead! I picked up a charger and 4 AA NIMH batteries from Energizer for $24 at BestBuy. I know you can probably do better but I am leaving in less than 18hrs

They had 8 packs of AA's for $20 I think. This way you would never run out of batteries!

 

[Fire14]

I love it. It takes great pictures, I also have the flash card reader and would highly recommand this. As for docking station It sems like a big fance rechager to me, not something I'll use. I have recharagable batteries that came with my camera and I use those or Engerzier ultima. I personally love my dig. camera and am considering buying a new one very soon.

 

[DNSDisney]

Well we bought one today. Went with the Sony p50. Also got an extra memory stick 64k, and a reader. By the way , thanks for the heads up on the reader we had heard nothing about one until you guys. Got it online at Walmart... free shipping for any digital camara purchase. And the p50 is being replaced by the p51 so we got a pretty good price on it.
Thanks for all the information!
Sharon

 

[frannn]

I got it at Kmart (going out of business) for my DH's bday. We never had one before, and I paid about $72 + tax for it. Is this going to take crappy pictures? It is a Panansonic 1300 (I think). Did I get a decent deal?

 

[DNSDisney]

from my understanding it is best to go with a 2.0 pixel or higher. Also if you want a zoom feature look for optical zoom . Digital zoom doesn't mean much. You can do the same thing as digital zoom on your computer once it is uploaded. that is some of what i have learn in less than a week

 

[frannn]

Duh, not a panasonic.
Thanks!

 

[jiminyfan]

I wanted a digital camera for my 2 year old son and saw a ad for the Kodak 3200. It is not a great camera, but give very good pictures for the price. They print 3x5s very clear.