Digital camera advice for WDW

[mommyflower]

Hi Everyone!
Over christmas I broke my digital camera. We will be in on our first disney cruise & WDW at the end of Feb. I want to get a new camera in time for this trip and my ds birthday which is feb 1st. I am having a hard time deciding because my old camera was an oylmpus C-3020, very expensive, it was a gift. I loved it, but it a bit larger than I would have liked. I would like to get a 3 MP and spend $300 or less. I have been looking at the Kodak Easy Share DX6340 and the Canon Powershot A70. Has anyone had any experience with these? I would really like to know how wdw vacation pictures come out with these two cameras or anyone else's top choice. I love to take pictures and I take a lot of them, especially on vacation. Any advice or comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[tricia]

I love my Canon A70. takes great pictures, although I have not had it at WDW yet. easy to operate and takes great pictures in the auto setting, yet has tons of flexibility. My Dad likes it so much he just bought one for himself.

 

[FatCow]

I second Canon A70. The best 'feature' is that it can take any AA batteries and if you use ni-mh rechargeable batteries, you don't have to worry of not having enough juice to power your digicam for a full day at Disney.

 

[clori]

I recently bought the kodak dx6440 easyshare camera. I think it is essentially the same only with 4 megapixel. I haven't been back to wdw yet but the family pictures I have taken are great. The camera is very user friendly for people like me and has some manual features for more tech people like dh. My fil is a professional photographer (though not with digital) and said the lens is one of the best brands and he was impressed with the camera. The dock is convenient though not necessary. For trips we will use Nimh rechargeable AA batteries. I like the video with sound feature but it definately doesn't replace a real camcorder.

 

[MarkLem]

I just spent 3 months researching cameras.

The A70 hands down gets tremendous reviews for it's picture quality, it's price, the fact that it will run on AA batteries (get rechargable ones though) and not expensive proprietary batteries.

Also look at the A80. It has a swivel LCD viewer, 4 MP, also excellent if those features are worth it to you.

Here's a link to an excellent review site I found

http://www.dcresource.com/

 

[mickeymule]

I have a Canon Powershot A60, was contemplating an A70, but for the 100 bucks, I don;t think that the extra 1 MegaPixel would make any differnce. here is a picture that I took with the camera, it is quite large, so if you have dialup you may not want to try it. I paid 200.00 for mine, and I love it. Good luck.

http://home.comcast.net/~keith_mueller/castle.jpg

 

[roserae]

This is a great camera. We also spent several months researching digital cameras before buying this one. It has lots of features and is easy to use. Our picture prints turn out great, you'd never know it was digital. The picture below is from this camera, but of course, it has been resized to fit in my signature line.

The camera is a very nice size. I was worried it would be too small and awkward to hold, but it is surprisingly comfortable in your hand because of the curviture on it.

 

[Simba0319]

Mickeymule...When did you take the picture. Besides the fact that the pic is beautiful, I noticed a stroller but no people in it. What time of year was it? I would love to be in the park when it is that empty!!!

Thanks, Emily

 

[Geoff_M]

Another great digital camera review site is www.dpreview.com They offer the most comprehensive reviews on the net. I'd also recommend the Nikon CoolPix line-up too.

 

[mickeymule]

Simba0319

Thanks for the compliment. We took the picture the first week of December and we were on our way to Cindy's breakfast before the park opened. If you look to the right in the bushes, you will see someone and they have their kid. It was almost a perfect picture for me. I need to try real hard in Photoshop to fix that

 

[walli87721]

have kodak 6340 best camera i ever had
easy to operate

 

[CheshireVal]

I've got a Canon A60 and love it. It's got TONS of features-- I've only had the camera for a few months and I'm still learning how to use some of the more advanced settings.

I took it with me to Disney in December and got some great pictures-- it especially captures nighttime shots and fireworks very well.

 

[kristin3483]

Just wanted to say that I received the Kodak 6340 for Christmas and it is an excellent camera, especially for the price. It takes great pictures and they are easy to email and upload. It also takes good short videos.

 

[ColoradoDis]

I have the Kodak and agree that it's easy to use and flexible. It also uses AA batteries, though I bought the 15 minute regargeable ones.

 

[MHopkins2]

My Christmas present to myself was the Sony DSC-P32, and I LOVE it. It's 3.2 megapixels, and cost only $179 - which includes the battery recharger. (It also takes regular AA batteries in an emergency, but the rechargeables last longer.) The best part is, it's teeny, but still has a regular-size viewing screen. The only thing it doesn't have is an optical zoom - but the digital zoom has worked great for me so far, and the no-optical helps with the size factor.

 

[ktglads]

I bought the Kodak 6440 a couple of months ago before a trip to Africa when my old camera broke while I was in WDW (luckily I had a couple of spare disposable ones with me). I needed something that took AA batteries that I could easily carry around with me. The pictures came out amazing. You would think that some of them were postcards. I took the camera to the parks with me in December and again, the pictures were great. It was much lighter than my other camera and easy to tote around.

My mother (who is technolgy impaired) got the 6340 camera to use at school and even she can use it easily, which is a feat in and of itself. Definitely a good camera that is easy to use and prints out good pictures.

Make sure you price out everything else with the camera (memory cards, batteries, etc) to factor into the price. Also, be sure to check the weight of the camera with batteries inside to ensure that it is comfortable for you to be carrying around with you all day.

 

[disneyfan551]

I have also been researching this for a month. I second the suggestion to check out dpreview.com, they even have forums by brand name of camera!

Here's some info. I found interesting, posted from another DISer...

I just got the January 2004 PC World magazine and they have their Top 10 Digital Cameras
1. Nikon Coolpix 3100
2. Canon PowerShot A70
3. Canon PowerShot SD100-Digital Elph
4. Kodak EasyShare DX 6440
5. Pentax Optio 555
6. Sony Cyber-short DSC-P10
7. Kyocera Finecam L3v
8. Minolta DiMage G500
9. Fuijifilm FinePix F700
10. Minolta DiMage Xt

Their ratings put these cameras all within 10 points of each other on their ratings test. Prices ranged from a low of $250 (#7) to $550 (#5)
Next month they are going to have a list of advanced cameras for serious photogs! yeah!

My choice was the Minolta DiMage Z1, and I LOOOVE it! Regardless of your decision, I would buy it and try it out. If you buy it at Walmart, you have 2 weeks to return it, even if you have used it. If you do the same at Best Buy (example!), then you have to pay a opened box restocking fee.

Good luck on your decision! Everyone has their own opinion, and can only really tell you about their camera. Check the review sites!

 

[WilliamsMom]

Our organization teaches technology classes including digital photography. For more information visit our website at:

www.raftctc.org

Below is the advice from one of my staff members, Nancy.

"I wouldn't recommend buying anything under a 3 megapixel camera. As far as brand goes, my first choices are
Nikon, Canon, & Sony, not necessarily in that order. Several people I know have Kodak cameras and love them, and their photos are very good. A good web site for helping individuals decide what features are important
to them is the Kodak web site, www.kodak.com. They do a good job of explaining features in layman's terms. I generally look for "less is better" in terms of not having too many choices that I won't ever use; generally the more features a camera has, the more complicated it is to use.

I try to get equipment that will do what I want it to to do, and not a lot of other "neat" things. It's actually easier for me to tell you what features I've found that I do not like:
On the Sonys, the round controller button for the menu choices is
difficult for me, as I haven't played enough video/computer games to become adept at that type of control, but someone who has, would have no problem with it. What I dislike about my Olympus is that when you set the menu to a resolution the camera goes back to the default setting when you close the
lense cover, which you do frequently to save on battery power. Also, the batteries are AA and not rechargeable and get used up rapidly under certain conditions of use."

Hope this helps!

 

[dmensing]

I'll add to the recommendation for the Canon A70. I researched cameras for several months, asked friends and neighbors about their experiences, and for me, it came down to the A70 and the Nikon Coolpix 3100.

I don't think you can go wrong with either one of these, but the main concern I had with the Nikon was feedback on the battery life. I believe the Nikon uses 2 AA batteries (or NiMH equivalent) and the Canon uses 4.

My only recommendation, which will push you over your $300 budget, is to buy the rechargeable NiMH batteries and a larger memory card. I'm not familiar with the Olympus camera, therefore, I don't know if it uses the same card as the Nikon/Canon.

If you have any specific questions, please feel free to PM me.

Thanks!
Dan.

 

[mommyflower]

Everyone has been such a great help. I think we are going to go with the Canon A 70 after reading many reviews. DIS is such a great place to go for advice. Thanks again everyone!