Digital Camera Purchase Advise

[jessicajulie]

Hello everyone -

I am thinking about purchasing a digital camera for our cruise next month. Quite frankly I am tired of paying an arm and a leg for photo processing only to have over half my pictures turn out blurry, no flash, red eye, people moved, etc.... Here is my delima. I know nothing about digital cameras. Where do I start. What would be a good quality, affordable, easy to use digital camera to start out with. I also have questions about the storage options. Since I can't download on the trip how can I get the most memory on the camera. And what about the new cameras that I have seen advertised that have a docking and printing station of their own instead of hooking up to your computer. Any advantages there? Especially since we have an older computer and we may need to upgrade our computer in order to run the software needed. What about good quality photo printer?

Hopefully this is OK to post to this board but I thought it tied in because we all need to know how to get great quality pictures on our Disney Cruise - right?

Thank you in advance for all your advice

Kristin

 

[papa]

Kristin here is a great place to start. Digital Camera link Hope this helps.

 

[my3kids]

Consumer Reports addressed this in either April or May. I got one based on the advice in the magazine. Your library should have a copy you can read.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Kristin,

We too just entered the world of Digital Photograpy!!! The camera that we have may be a little more than you are planning on spending, but we were able to get a GREAT deal on it, and we really love it so far! We have the Fugi Finepix 3800. 3 megapixel, which is great. It has a 6x optical zoom which is so awesome! (Hint - look for Optical Zoom, not digital...) Yahoo recently listed this camera as a Top Pick.

Here are tips for any new digital camera owner.

Unless you want to constantly carry a laptop to download your pictures, buy an extra media-card or two for your camera. We found a great deal on ebay for an XP-media card that will hold a LOT of pictures.

Also, make sure that you ALWAYS have batteries, and keep them handy with your camera!.... All digital cameras just EAT batteries. Our Finepix uses AA (double A) batteries, so we bought some high quality rechargables... Remember, if the camera you buy uses some expensive unique lithium battery instead of like the AA's then you will be constantly buying new ones - $$$$$$$.

Our Finepix does not have what you are mentioning as a docking station... But, for thirty-something dollars at WalMart, we bought the little XD card reader, which stays connected to our computer, line another tiny disk drive... Just slip the card in, Voila, that simple.

Seems like I remember a great site that I visited called, I think, Steves Digicams... Just try an internet search and see if that finds it for you. Somebody over on the Community Board also just recommeded that same site. There have been some good threads on Digital Cameras over on the CB. If you are able to do a search, that may help.

You will LOVE having a digital camera! No more expensive film developing and bad pictures!!!

 

[BunnyV]

I have a Sony CyberShot and love it. It is a 3.2 and the photos turn out great. It is easy to use as I wanted a point and shoot. It also can do silent movies too.
Simple and easy.
I am not sure the Consumer Reports rating but I don't think you can go wrong with Sony.
Got mine at Sears and bought a 2 year extended product protection plan for $50 just in case anything goes wrong they will replace it.
Be sure to cover the screen of any digital camera with a Palm Pilot screen protector so it doesn't get scratched. Ask me how I know
Bunny

 

[jgalecpa]

Go dig up someones "MAY 2003" Consumer reports. Great review.

Don't overbuy. We are not all Richard Avedon. 2-3 megapixel is fine. We got a 2 Mgpxl Canon Powershot A40. Very easy to use with zoom.

Get extra memory. We got a 256mgb flash card at Sam's Club for only 60. Equivalent of 10 rolls of film.

We find Shutterly.com to be a great film service. Much easier than kodak's ofoto.com. Easy to "publish your pictures" to their site. then you can send friends a link to your shots and they can view them without downloading to their pc. No password necessary.

You can also have them print and mail them to you. They are FAST and cheap. Hard to do it yourself for the same price and they have good/easy cropping, red-eye reduction, etc.

Here's an example of some shots I took 2 days ago.

http://www.shutterfly.com/os.jsp?i=67b0de21b33e4db7257c&open=1

(nice rockfish, 'eh)

I was dragged kicking and screaming into digital this year and I haven't taken my 35 mm out since.

 

[GenieDana]

For less than $300 including shipping (both at mwave.com and Newegg.com), don't overlook the Nikon Coolpix 3100. 3x optical zoom, AA batteries, 3.2 Megapixel, Compact Flash Memory, great latency. Specs can be seen at:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Nikon/nikon_cp3100.asp

and

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0302/03021803cp3100preview.asp

 

[BunnyMom]

That must be my first advice!!! I am a "newbie" to digital photography and I must admit, I thought I needed the "newest", "best", and "most expensive". After a little research, I found that not to be true. All the posts above have really great advice!!! My best advice is to not rush!!!! A couple hundred dollars or more can be a VERY big expense, if you're not happy with what you wind up with.

Take the above advice, and TAKE YOUR TIME. Find friends with digitals, ask strangers with digitals, look around at Wal-Mart and BestBuy. Read the magazines, read on-line Consumer Reports.

Just don't buy the first "deal" that you think you've found.

I'm very happy with my Kodak, but now that I've seen my friends Sony. Well................... I wish I would've waited.

Good Luck!!! And Happy Shopping Around!!!!!

Terry, Pat & Ian

2003 5/17 Eastern
2002 Western Innaugural
2000 WDW Shades of Green
1982 WDW Off Site Honeymoon

 

[ruvidu]

Good advice from all the posters on cameras.

Recently purchased this printer. It has ports to accept all camera media. When you insert your memory card or stick it allows you to print an index of thumbnail sized photos and then you can print 8X10 down to 4X6 without even being connected to a computer.

HP Photosmart 7350W Photo Printer

$168.76

Model: Q3037A

Up to 17 ppm black
1200 x 1200 dpi black
4800 x 1200 dpi color

Features
True-to-life photo quality with 4800 optimized dpi* or up to six ink color printing
Easily print from your digital camera memory cards or connect your hp digital camera with direct printing capability to the front USB port
Conveniently print digital photos from your computer, any camera card or HP photosmart direct printing camera
*Up to 4800 optimized dpi color printing on premium photo papers and 1200 x 1200 input dpi when printing from a computer.

Product Specifications
Color printing
Print Speed Black: Up to 17 ppm
Print Resolution: 1200 x 1200 dpi black; 4800 x 1200 optimized dpi color
Print Technology: HP Thermal Inkjet
Connectivity: 1 USB port and 1 front USB camera port for connection to HP digital camera with direct-printing capability
Duplex Printing: Automatic (optional w/the purchase of a duplex accessory)
Duty Cycle: 5,000 pages per month
Mac Compatible
Memory: 16MB
Media Types: Paper (plain, Inkjet, photo, glossy, transparencies, labels, cards, iron-on transfers, banner paper)
Media Sizes: US letter, legal, executive, envelopes, index cards, 4" x 6.5" with tab
Paper Handling: 100-sheet input tray, 24-sheet 4" x 6" photo tray
Paper Trays: 1
Input Capacity: 100
Power Consumption: 45 watts maximum (printing), 5 watts maximum (idle), 2 watts maximum (off)
Energy Star Compliant
Memory Stick Compatible
Compatible Operating Systems: Microsoft® Windows (Me Millennium Edition, 98, 2000 Professional, XP); Macintosh (Mac OS 9 or OS X v10.1 or above on G3 processor or greater)
Dimensions: 18.7"W x 15.4"D x 6"H
Weight: 14.3 lbs.

Hope this helps.

 

[jessicajulie]

Thank you to everyone for all your advice. I will be printing this thread off and taking it home to start my research.

Again, I really appreciate the info since I had no idea where to start.

Kristin

 

[familydad]

We bought a Canon Digital Elph PowerShot something or other. Like the other posters, I am also a newbie and did gobs of research before buying. Ours does a fine job. We bought an extra memory card since the one it came with only holds about 40 pictures. The extra memory will hold about 120 pictures. The camera will also take 10- to 15-second videos with sound, which REALLY came in handy.

Probably the think I like best about this camera is its size. It is truly small enough to fit easily in your pocket. The worst thing about any camera is if you DON'T USE IT because it's too bulky to carry around! This one is so handy to just carry around and if a good photo op comes up, you have the camera handy!

One thing we didn't buy was a special hard drive unit that you can download pictures to for storage. I just bring my laptop on vacation and download to that. It's probably important to have one or the other so you can take LOTS of pictures and choose from the best ones. Our two-week trip to Disney (including a 3-day Disney cruise) generated literally THOUSANDS of pictures, which I narrowed down to hundreds. Talk about a great way to preserve those memories!

 

[JLSM97]

I bought a Fuji Finepix 2800zoom a year and a half ago and LOVE it. (Feel free to check out my epinion on it here: Fuji Finepix 2800zoom). Sounds like the 3800 that Wishing on a star mentioned is the updated version. And I agree that digital zoom means nothing--you want optical zoom.

I went through a long research process before buying my camera. Epinions was a great resource once I'd narrowed down my choices. Steve's Digicams was also a good one.

My best advice is this:

1. Do a little research to see what's available and decide on some features you really want. Go to an electronics store and write down model #s you like, then search the Internet for reviews on them. Also, don't get obsessed with megapixels--a 2-megapixel camera will be perfect for snapshots; if you enlarge photos often then you should go with a 3MP or higher.
2. Based on your research, decide how much you want to spend. Don't forget all the accessories (memory cards, AC adapters, case, batteries, shipping)! Check Amazon for prices of that stuff.
3. STICK TO YOUR BUDGET! You will always find something a little better for a little more $$. You can easily spend much more than you set out to if you get pulled in by a bunch of extra goodies.
4. Obviously, try to get the most for your $$. Compare features, check out reviews on epinions and Steve's Digicams.
   [/list=1]
   
   Our cruise last month was the first BIG vacation with the digital camera, and I was absolutely thrilled with my pictures. You can see a few of them in my trip report:
   Jen's Magic-al Cruise.

 

[HomeChicken]

Taking a camera with you was like
"do I take the camera to dinner tonight? nah,,to big and a pain"

Not a problem if you buy something that will fit in your pocket.


I have had 4 digital cameras by buying and selling them since I wanted something different and now this is my 4th I have come down to the size does matter! I have the Canon Elph s200, I also was looking @ the "Pentax Optio S" & "Minolta Dimage X"
All of these are close to the size of a altoids tin and are not odd shaped and have optical zoom.
I ended up with the canon elph for the sturdy case and quality
Buy a 256 mb card and extra batteries for sure

 

[happylady]

Originally posted by Wishing on a star

Also, make sure that you ALWAYS have batteries, and keep them handy with your camera!.... All digital cameras just EAT batteries. Our Finepix uses AA (double A) batteries, so we bought some high quality rechargables... Remember, if the camera you buy uses some expensive unique lithium battery instead of like the AA's then you will be constantly buying new ones - $$$$$$$.

We, foolishly, purchased our first digital camera a few weeks before our cruise. Our problem was the batteries. We used duracell AA batteries in the camera. I went through 4 or 6 in the week before the cruise, just practicing around the house. I took 24 extra AA with us for the camera, two-way radios, gameboy, etc. We used all the batteries in the camera by the second day! I think we bought 3 more packs on board. Unfortunately we lost a few great photo-ops due to the batteries.

Upon returning, I returned to Wal-mart and complained about the number of batteries I was using. The cost of batteries was going to be more than the camera in a few months!! The tech explained that the regular AA didn't have enough power. We now use 'energizer e photo lithium batteries.' In a year and a half, I've replaced them once. At Wal-mart, they cost @ $10.00 for 4 AA batteries.

By the way, I have a Canon PowerShot A10. It takes great pictures and was easy to learn, once I figured which batteries to use!

 

[mmmom]

My 2 cents-love our digital camera but go for the biggest zoom you can get (that's only thing I miss compared to our old 35mm)

 

[snowolf]

bought a sony dcs-71 2 months ago and love it....got extra mem cards and 2 sets of xtra batteries for about 400. which is pretty good. it takes awesome pics and movie clips. looked at a lot of cameras. make sure u get 1 with a least 3 mega pixels for quality pics.

 

[rmbreset]

I have a Minolta diamge that i love, but i bought a Panasonic digital video camera for my recent cruise that allows you to take and store pictures on card media as well. i found myself using this camera more, it is small and I don't have to carry 2 cameras around. The megapixels are not as high as a picture only camera but they are good enough for most events.

 

[mickman1962]

You MUST get rechargeable batteries for whatever camera you buy. Regular alkalines are useless in a camera. In order to really recomend a camera we would really need to know your current abilities and just exactly how you plan to use it. What type of camera you are currently using is also very valuable info. Would you rather take a few extra seconds and get a really good shot or are you comfortable with just clicking away and not worrying about anything?

 

[geffric]

2 - 3 megapixils is all you will need, prints great. We use Snapfish to upload the pictures and get prints but Wolf/ Ritz Camera will print for the cmpact flash or other card too at 29 cents per print.

Zoom is an issue I still use my 35mm because of the zoom and shutterspeed.

However, I have taken great pictures of the fireworks with this camera. When we went for 2 week vacation last year, I took my battery charger(comes with the camera 0 and 256 mg memory card. I held 200+ pictures.

 

[Empire Day]

If your looking for point and shoot with a little extra (if you want) a low cost one is Vivitar -vivicam3715, I bought one for our trip and put over 900 pictures on it with a 256mg SD memory card the camera is 3.3 Mega pixle and you can ajust down to lower quailite I used a step below that to get more shots. it is my first dig. camera as I didn't want the hassel of developing all that film either I bought it at wal-mart for 157.00 the SD card was 49.00 at target a card reader for $5!!!! at walmart and it came with 2 softwhere CDs that seem ok, It is really easy to get them on your computer with a card reader its like using a floopy just real tiny!
What ever you get I recomend a memory card of at least 256mb and a reader for it!