Digital camera suggestions?

[SorcererDonald16]

Hi all! I'm headed back to the World in May and have decided I really need to get a digitial camera before then. I take so many pictures that I feel like I'm changing film rolls every hour or less in my 35mm camera, and it all becomes too much to lug around and later develop. So, seeing as I know nothing about digital cameras, I come looking for advice on what to buy.

Some things I want/need in a camera:
1. Needs to cost no more than in the $200s (can be close to $300, but not $300).
2. I don't like the little tiny cameras, but I also don't want to lug some heavy-as-all-get-out camera around with me either.
3. I'd like a camera that takes good fireworks and baseball pictures, good pictures at night (preferably GREAT pictures, but I am guessing that's out of my price range).
4. The zoom feature is very important to me, as I take many pictures from a distance.
5. I need an auto-focus feature, as well as a video recording feature.

If anyone has any suggestions, I would so appreciate it.

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Hi all! I'm headed back to the World in May and have decided I really need to get a digitial camera before then. I take so many pictures that I feel like I'm changing film rolls every hour or less in my 35mm camera, and it all becomes too much to lug around and later develop. So, seeing as I know nothing about digital cameras, I come looking for advice on what to buy.

Some things I want/need in a camera:
1. Needs to cost no more than in the $200s (can be close to $300, but not $300).
2. I don't like the little tiny cameras, but I also don't want to lug some heavy-as-all-get-out camera around with me either.
3. I'd like a camera that takes good fireworks and baseball pictures, good pictures at night (preferably GREAT pictures, but I am guessing that's out of my price range).
4. The zoom feature is very important to me, as I take many pictures from a distance.
5. I need an auto-focus feature, as well as a video recording feature.

If anyone has any suggestions, I would so appreciate it.

If you are used to an SLR, you may feel limited by a regular P&S digital. FWIW, I use and like a Panasonic TZ3 digital camera. They sell for around $200+ now and has great optical image stablization and what they call smart mode. It has a 10x zoom and starts out at 28mm so it has a pretty good wide angle for a P&S. I use this for a P&S when I am too lazy to carry my D80 (which is rare). Before I got the D80 this is the camera I used. It also does record video, however once in video mode you can't zoom in/out. I've heard they are coming out w/ a newer model that has the active zoom feature while in video mode.
Good luck!

 

[ukcatfan]

You just say 35mm film. Is it a SLR? If so, what brand? There are some used deals that might fit your budget if you already have lenses. Check out http://www.keh.com You can even put together a used DSLR kit for less than $300 there.

Kevin

 

[Master Mason]

He said he wanted to be able to video, so that would eliminate any of the dSLR's

 

[Melissa_E]

Find a Canon S3 maybe S5 if you catch a sale or the Sony H2/H5 or the H7 if you catch a great sale. They fit your needs and don't have all the features of a dSLR but have a lot of extra features than a generic P&S.

Both have great zoom, features to do nice fireworks shots, and video with sound.

 

[SorcererDonald16]

The camera I have now and have had for the last 3 years is an Olympus Stylus 150 (I believe that's the number, don't have the camera nearby). Not one of those fancy cameras by any means, but it cost close to $200 at the time. Mostly I'm happy with it, except at baseball games. Baseball pictures only come out in the daytime; otherwise they're blurry. Fireworks pictures are hit or miss.

I appreciate everyone's suggestions. I sadly admit I'm a gal whose a bit lacking in the camera knowledge department, so I don't understand some of the terminology, though I'm trying to learn.

 

[ukcatfan]

Mostly I'm happy with it, except at baseball games. Baseball pictures only come out in the daytime; otherwise they're blurry. Fireworks pictures are hit or miss.

For low light baseball, a p&s digital is not going to be any better and could even be worse. For fireworks, use a tripod and a long shutter speed. There is a link on fireworks shots on the techniques sticky.

Kevin

 

[tinkergrumpybuns]

2. I don't like the little tiny cameras, but I also don't want to lug some heavy-as-all-get-out camera around with me either.
3. I'd like a camera that takes good fireworks and baseball pictures, good pictures at night (preferably GREAT pictures, but I am guessing that's out of my price range).
4. The zoom feature is very important to me, as I take many pictures from a distance.

Hi,
Doing trip in early May as well, and in need of new P&S with some bells myself.
I have driven self half mad looking at all the online spots, found a good review from a link somewhere on this site.
I want 6-10x zoom, macro, some more manual control , and not so small I can swallow it. Article compared the Panasonic TZ3, Canon SX100 and Sony H3.
After all was said and done, they rated the Canon slightly above the others.

So , on my "touchy feely" trip to local electronic stores...
*TZ3 nice LCD, nice pix it appears, but only scene modes.
*Sony, metal body, nice menu, good macro ( but review says color is saturated and red , I've seen some say tough to focus, yet who are "they".) Uses memory sticks.
*Canon nice menu, bigger then Sony, plastic body, reviews say it eats batteries and big lag with flash.
*As I remember they all use AA batteries.
*Looked also at the Canon 720 and thought it was pretty comparable to the
SX100, for what I am looking for, but only about $20 less.

Sign up for ebates.com. Tuesdays they post hot deals, and you can order thru them and pick up at stores and get some "kewl cash back", and best prices and deals on shipping .

All said, I 'm still unsure.<G>
Let me know what you think?
Nancy

 

[Groucho]

If you're going from 35mm film to your first digital camera, you will almost certainly be disappointed with low light performance.

The reason is that every 35mm camera uses, of course, the same size film. The cheapest throwaway 35mm and the most expensive high-end pro-quality 35mm can use exactly the same film, with the same low-light performance. (Though

However, this is not the case with digitals. In an effort to shrink them, the point-n-shoots have absolutely tiny sensors - the sensor being the "film" of the digital camera. When you buy more expensive digital cameras, a good amount of the cost goes toward a larger, better sensor.

Here's a graphic I created that shows relative sizes:

The vast majority of the point-n-shoots use a 1/2.5" sensor - the smallest one shown there, while your film camera uses the largest size shown there.

Now, it's not fair to directly compare film to digital, but you can imagine that such a small sensor is going to have a hard time capturing light... hence, the disappointing low-light performance, which can be surprising to someone used to getting decent low-light photos with their film point-n-shoot.

Based on your requirements, I'd actually see what a used Fuji S6000fd is going for nowadays. That camera has much better-than-usual (for a point-n-shoot) low-light performance, good zoom, shoots video (as all modern digital cameras do), and has a good number of advanced features available to you.

 

[cmwade77]

If you are heavy theme park visitor (we live in So. Cal., so we visit numerous of them regularly) I would stronlgy recommend either the:

Olympus 770SW ($220-$300 using Froogle, please note that the MSRP is higher, but we paid around $250 for ours when it first came out and that included the extened warranty, which may have been a bit of an overkill considering the camera is pratically indestructable, but it's nice to have the piece of mind and an extra battery, case, metal neck strap (which is very handy with it being waterproof to 33ft for an hour) and two 1 GB memory cards at Best Buy)

or thier new model the 1030SW (However with just a quick search on Froogle, the lowest price that it yields is $317, you may be able to do better though)

Do yourself a favor and do not skimp and go for the 850SW or 790SW, the website never shows it, but they both lack a lot of the manual controls that the 770SW offers.

Note these are all P&S cameras, but we love our 770SW, I have taken it in the pool, on Splash Mountain, in the Soak Zone at the Shamu Show, I have even put it in the water where you can pet sharks at our local aquarium (That was interesting, did you know the sharks sense electrical impulses? They were drawn to the camera, of course none of them were dangerous, as they would not let you pet them if they were for fear of lawsuits.

I would also recomend that if you get a camera that uses XD cards that you get a device called a USB Bridge and a card reader that reads XD cards and another one that reads all formats, then when the xd cards are full you can transfer the pictures to a SD card (Which usually costs 1/2 or less of what a comparable size XD card costs) or other cheaper format card.

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Article compared the Panasonic TZ3, Canon SX100 and Sony H3.
After all was said and done, they rated the Canon slightly above the others.

So , on my "touchy feely" trip to local electronic stores...
*TZ3 nice LCD, nice pix it appears, but only scene modes.
All said, I 'm still unsure.<G>
Let me know what you think?
Nancy

Hi I believe this is not accurate. There is a way to go into a manual type mode and set the ISO. I think it's caled intelligent ISO. You set that, and it determines what your Aperture and Shutter speed should be. You can turn the flash on and off, and I'm sure there are other things you can do. I haven't really messed with it in anything other than Simple mode, because the simple mode worked fine for me. I think, was it BobQuincy that said he had the same P&S and was impressed by it? Someone help me out here. I think it was he that may have posted that in the past. Whoever it was knew which simple mode worked better, etc. I set mine right out of the factory and never touched it again, so I forget which it is.
I have some really low light photos that came out better in simple mode than anything I could achieve messing with the ISO, so that's why I never bothered with it. The scene modes are plentiful and decent, but again for a simple P&S, the TZ3 was great; Little to no thinking involved whatsoever!

 

[tinkergrumpybuns]

Thanks, I do remember that on one of the review sites it said you could monkey in the menu's to get more options, but I really would like to "see/ do" it and see how easy it is to do before I plop down the $$.<G>

Am thinking, what I really want is a decent P&S that has options for some artistic license.... maybe the powershot 720. Zoom and Macro , my favorite obsessions. <G>

There is somewhere on this site a link to a comparison shop between the Panasonic TZ3, Sony H3 and Canon sx100.
Wish I could find it again.

 

[SorcererDonald16]

I seriously must be camera-ignorant, because I'm reading the posts since I last posted and I'm having to actually look up some of the terminology. I appreciate everyone's time and thoughts on this. I went to Best Buy and looked around before I posted here, but I was so confused I knew I needed to ask for some opinions and advice.

Groucho, those pictures were particularly helpful. I would definitely need a camera with a larger sensor, as long as it doesn't leave me in the poorhouse (my actual trip is doing a good enough job of that! ). I'll check into the Fuji later today.

If anyone else has any thoughts to share, I'd appreciate it!

 

[SorcererDonald16]

Any other suggestions from anyone? I won't be deciding on a camera until the end of April, so any and all ideas are appreciated.

 

[Shir Kahn]

I think the Canon SX100 sounds like it might be perfect for you. It has a 10x zoom, takes great video, it's not as big as the Canon S5 IS either. It does take AA batteries, so I would recommend getting a set of rechargables, as cameras nowadays just eat regular alkaline batteries.

Oh yeah, I really like the TZ3 as well. Has a 3" LCD and a lithium-ion battery, which is a plus in my opinion. It also has a 10x optical zoom with wide angle. Very nice camera.

 

[tinkergrumpybuns]

I think the Canon SX100 sounds like it might be perfect for you.
Oh yeah, I really like the TZ3 as well.

Just wanted to say, I was all ready to plunk down the plastic and get the SX100 ( canon), but they had a G7 demo model for the same price and I liked the metal case and good reviews on this too. The only draw back in reviews I found was the lack of shooting in RAW and static LCD screen. Both not an issue for me. I'll let you know how I like it. Just getting used to menus and stuff, but so far, shoots excellent photos.

 

[Shir Kahn]

I've actually been playing with the Canon G9, the newest in that series and yes, it is fantastic. One perk of my job is that I get to try all the latest and greatest electronics out! I love it!

 

[wano]

Just bought a vivitar 6200w it's a little bigger than a normal camera but its waterproof ,shockproof,6 megapixle & takes 2AA batteries . With my 2 gig memory card it holds over 900 pics . got it at target.com for under $150 w/shipping .

you can see at http://www.vivitar.com/en-us/Products/6Megapixels.aspx

other features are:
6.0 Megapixels
Rubber Armored
Waterproof – 30 ft
2.0” Color LTPS
16 MB Built-in Memory
PictBridge Support
Flash - Built-in Multi Mode, Auto / On / Off