digital camera questions

[Rock'n Robin]

DH and I are thinking about getting a newer digital camera for our next trip. We have an older (1999) RCA model but it's pretty big. Is more megapixels better? Do you have to spend a lot to get a good one? Any recommendations?
Normally I'd research a dozen sites but our trip is in 11 days, and with the holiday in the middle and decorating for Christmas my time is short. I thought I'd ask the experts here first.
Robin M.

 

[Kermit]

I would strongly recommend getting as many megapixels as you can afford. At least 3, 4 is better. I've heard that 3 will print 8"x10"s with good clarity, but ours is 4.6, so I've never tried it.

Another thing to look for is optical zoom. Digital zoom is basically worthless. It's like enlarging a photo with your photo editing software, so it obviously results in grainy pictures.

Look at this thread from a few days ago for a lot of good tips.

 

[ead79]

Generally speaking more megapixels is better, but for the typical amateur photographer, there is no need for a really high megapixel digital camera (now if you're Dan Murphy, that's another story, LOL! ). I have a 2.1 megapixel Fuji Finepix 2600 zoom that I really love. It has 3 quality settings (higher quality pictures take up more memory card space). I have only taken pictures on the medium/default setting, and have had them printed as up to 5 x 7's with no problem at all. If you want to make a bunch of 8 x 10 pictures you would have to increase the quality setting to higher or buy a more expensive camera. I have found my digital camera to work well both during the day and for those neat night time shots. Feel free to PM me with any questions. I do recommend buying a larger memory card than the ones that come with some of the cameras. I bought a 128 MB memory card, and have never used it up. Once again, if you're Dan Murphy, you'd need a MUCH bigger card. Hope this helps!

 

[resQmermaid]

Pixels and megapixals are important. I mean you want the best for the buck, of course. But we bought a sony mavica. Good camera. It is not real good if you are wanting to really blow up pics. But if you want convience then it uses floppys. We use it all the time. My husband uses it for work all the time. We paid about 350.00 to 400.00. Make sure that it is the Mavica. It is really nice cause if you want to send a pic to grandma tell put it in and send or if you are going to someones house that has a computer then just bring the floopy.
My friends has a Nikkon. She really likes hers. I am sure that she paid a pretty penny it is awesome though. I think she told me 650.00. Good luck.

 

[TheLionKing]

I had the Sony with the floppy disk writer.

You will find yourself using a ton of floppies and you only get maybe 6 pictures on one floppy. In no time it becomes very inconvenient.

It may work for the poster above, but for a trip, the floppies become very inconvenient. You can always transfer the pictures back to a floppy once you get them on your computer and give them to your friends or relatives.

My recommendation is going with a camera with memory cards.

A for how many megapixels you need, it depends on what you want to do with your pictures. For posting on the web or emails, 2 megapixel will be fine. If you want to print images of 4 x 6 or less, you will be fine with 2 megapixels.

Where you may find the camera most vexing is with the zoom. Less expensive cameras have lower quality zoom lenses.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Here is a link to recent threads dealing with digital cameras. Go check some of them out, lots of good info there.

And Elisabeth.......

http://www.disboards.com/search.php...d=482696&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending

 

[Towncrier]

We just bought the upgraded model of Elisabeth's camera, the Fuji Finepix 2650. I know someone that has had the 2600 for a year now and he has completely abandoned his conventional 35mm camera. If you intend to make 8x10 prints, you will want to consider a camera with more megapixels. But if you are doing primarily 4x6 prints, a 2 megapixel camera will work just fine.