Digital Camera Recommendations

[Kanga1]

First of all, thanks to all the wonderful people who answered my questions about digital pics and scrapbooking...you've got me hooked!

Now that I am DEFINITELY buying a digital camera...what brand/specs do you recommend? This camera will be used as my only camera for our trip so I will be printing alot of the pics. And I have a 4yo so it needs to take "quick" pictures. (I hope you know what I mean!)

How many megapixels should it have? Brand name? Opitical vs. digital zoom? How do you keep the batteries charged for a whole week? What size Secure Digital Card should I get?

Sorry for so many questions...just want to make sure I get the right one!

 

[dirkus]

This is a huge topic. Also, what is best for one person may not be the best for you. You need to determine what features are important to you and then find a camera that fits the bill. Check out the Digital Photography Review site. There is a ton of information there. Specifically check out the Buying Guide link at the left of the screen.

Good luck!

 

[Disney_1derland]

You definitely want Optical Zoom, digital zoom kills your picture quality.

If you will be using the pictures for scrapbooking then get the highest number of pixels you can afford to get (minimum of 4 I would say).

Decide what is important to you. It took me some time to decide what I was looking for, don't buy anything on an impulse, you will probably regret it later.

I am a big fan of Canon, that's what my newest camera is and I don't think I'll ever go back. The pictures are amazing and I splurged on an 8mp, that's probably a bit much for someone just starting out with digital. I kinda worked my way up from 2mp to 4 and now to 8. My camera has auto and manual settings and the possibility of adding other lenses/filters later on.

It is important to actually pick up the cameras you are considering and decide if they are a good fit/weight for you. I was in love with a certain camera but once i picked it up, I hated it!

Good Luck!

 

[disneyfan551]

I have a Minolta DiMAGE Z1, and it has a 10x optical zoom which is wonderful! Everyone is going to have different opinions, so I highly recommend reviewing some of the sites such as dpreview.com, and also reading the message boards there. You will get alot of very useful information!

Good luck with your purchase!

 

[Tigge50447]

I did alot of research and decided to purchase the Nikon Coolpix 4300. I love it. It has automatic picture but also had a ton of options like taking pictures of fireworks or close ups. It also has like a 10 or 15 second video caption option. It is small and pretty comfortable to hold onto.

One of my friend's liked my camera so much he purchased the same one.

It does have a rechargeable battery which is cool but I purchased another one for disney just in case the 1st one dies.

Say Cheese...........

 

[montblanc]

"How many megapixels should it have?"

Please don't use this as your yardstick in buying a camera. There are many examples of lower resolution cameras outperforming higher resolution ones. Manufacturers use this number to impress consumers, there are plenty of other factors that go into a quality image, for example:

- Lens Quality
- Size of light capturing CMOS or CCD chip (bigger = better)
- Automatic Sharpening (poorer cameras oversharpen, this results in halos around lines)
- Image-processing algorithms

Generally speaking for a 4x6 print you need around 4 megapixels as a minimum.

"And I have a 4yo so it needs to take "quick" pictures."

Most of the digital cameras under $1,000 are still quite slow. They have improved them lately but you still get start-up times of around 3-5 seconds and focus/shutter lag of around .75 second. You can speed up your shots by "pre-focusing". Simply depress button down about 1/2 the way to focus then push down the rest of the way when you are ready to shoot.

"Brand Name"

I would recommend companies that have a solid history of making cameras like Nikon or Canon.

"Optical or Digital Zoom"

Optical is what you need to consider, digital zoom is merely a gimmick, the software in the camera merely "guesses" what is missing in an image when you use it (interpolation).

"How do you keep the batteries charged for a whole week?"

Most of them come with chargers which are quite fast. I would also pay attention to the life of the battery, some cameras don't last beyond 30-50 shots while others can do 500-1000.

"What size Secure Digital Card should I get?"

Don't forget there are other formats like Compactflash for instance. Prices have really fallen and if you have a 3-6 megapixel, 512mb should be more than enough (will give you around 200-550 pictures).

A good serious site for reviews is www.dpreview.com, if you don't want to read the details just skip to the "conclusions" section. Once you figure out a few models you like go to a to a camera store and try them out at the counter. You can then see the response time, feel and capacity for each model.

PS: I used to own a Nikon 4300 as well, it was a wonderful little camera and it takes incredible closeups. It does eat up batteries fairly quickly, the flash is weak and in low light you get color noise. However most of these faults aren't fixed until you spend considerably more on a camera.

 

[Kanga1]

Thanks everyone for all your help! And especially to you Montblanc for all your detailed information...what a great help! Am SO excited about going digital....epecially after reading the other post about digital cameras!!

I'll let you know what I decide!

 

[Sleuth]

You cannot go wrong with a Sony digital camera. This is our second camera, only 3.2 megapixels- the shots are crystal clear, no matter how big we blow them up.

I read an article in PC Magazine over the Summer that had a lot of great info on digitals. The biggest misconception is megapixels. According to the mag, it says that it's the LENS that makes a difference, not the megapixels. Very interesting indeed! Our Sony is a cyber shot and also takes short MPEG videos. We love it and have not had the need to upgrade (we've had it for almost 2 years). We also buy almost everything Sony (two Sony Vaio computers, DVD players, stereo, etc.) and we are sold on them.

Whatever you decide to buy, make sure you get a large storage device (memory stick, etc.). That really made the difference for us on our last trip (we had a 128 MB memory stick.) We took our laptop with us on vacation so that after a day in the parks we would come back and download all of the pics for that day (our 128 MB memory stick would hold up to 200-300 high quality pics or 900 plus low quality ones.)

 

[Suzanne033]

We just bought a Nikon CoolPix 4800. It has 4MP and 8.3 optical zoom. I love it.

 

[BevS97]

I also have the Minolta Dimage Z1 - it's a fantastic camera and the 10x optical zoom is brilliant, but I did find it quite bulky to carry around the parks. For everyday use it's fine, but I was getting a little fed up of it at WDW (saying that, I love all the photos I took with it).

Batteries - mine uses normal AA batterys, you can buy different types of rechargable batterys, I didn't know this until recently. I invested in some good quality rechargables (they have 2400 on the side, not sure what that means but I know its better than 1300 which was what I used to have). These batterys lasted ages - I always carried a spare set, and recharged them every night, but they really do last very well. Also, since it's just AA batterys you can always use normal disposable batterys in a pinch.

I have a 256 meg and a 128 meg card, I can get 300 and 150 photos on them respectively (high quality). When they were full, I took them to Walmart and had them copied to CD - it was only £4.99

 

[hookedondizney]

My vote is for an Olympus! I had the Nikon and it just didn't do for me. I got the Olympus and it has been compact, beautiful pics, and overall just great! I love, love, love it. Good luck!

 

[russtwinsmom]

We chose our Sony becausee....

1. It had a LARGE viewing screen on the back of the camera

2. Memory Stick storage that are compatible with our Sony camcorder

3. Optical Zoom

4. Easy printing capabilities at home and at do-it-yourself camera/drug stores.

HTH,
RTM

 

[Memaw2Wm]

Another Canon lover ... I recommend the Canon A series (we have an A40 and an A60) ... these cameras are small but take wonderful photos. They use compact flash cards and I'd get a 512MB so you can store lots of photos. They use AA batteries, but I bought my DD a recharger and the NMIH (?) batteries.

HTH

 

[MrsPete]

You will LOVE digital. Since I don't know your price range, your photography expertise, or how you intend to use your camera, I'll just give you some general advice:

1. If you buy from Wolfe Camera, they have a 10-day no-question take-back policy. Other places might have the same type thing. So you can buy what you think you want, and if you're not happy with it, you can switch it for something else.
2. Even if you're good with a 35 MM, there's a learning curve for digital. Do not buy a digital and plan to read the manual while driving to Florida. Allow yourself some time to learn the new format and have some pictures developed.
3. Your new camera will probably come with a small memory card. Immediately buy a larger card so you'll be able to store literally hundreds of pictures. It's nice if you can take a laptop with you so you can download every day.
4. If you're going with a digital point-and-shoot, you can get a plastic camera housing that'll make your camera an underwater camera. Very cool for drivers who want to take more than 36 pictures without re-surfacing.