HELP with digital camera

[ceecee]

We would love to get a new digital camera for our Sept trip...Those who have one, what's a good one without a huge cost??? Thanks!!

 

[kecall]

There is no really GOOD one w/o a HUGE cost!!!

Seriously, we just went through the same thing, and the best advice I can give you is to buy a camera as "high-end" as you can afford. The better the camera, the better the results. If you want 35 mm. quality, you will need to buy a camera that has 3.3 mega pixels or more. (Pixels = "picture elements; anotherwords, digital pictures are made of of tiny squares of color. The more pixels you have, the better the quality of photo. Conversely, the fewer the pixels, the poorer the quality of your results.) Sony has come out with some excellent ones (Mavica), but they are pricey.

My advice to you is to go somewhere that has knowledgeable salespeople and "pick" their brains. (Our Circuit City has excellent salespeople!) Learn all you can; try the different ones out. Once you've found the one you like the best, then "shop" for the best price.

 

[LoDivaLoca]

Just since this is the BUDGET Board....I think digital cameras are expensive toys, and not really worth it. I bought one about a year ago, a pretty good one too, but I wish I has saved the $$ & got a video camera instead!

 

[Disneyfun1]

a couple months ago, i bought a Hewlitt-Packard 315. I do like it very much. Its a 2.1 mega pixel camera. It came with an 8mb memory card which takes about 80 pix in low quality mode for e-mail, or 20 or 10 for higher modes. I plan on getting a 64 or 128 mb card before our trip to wdw, since memory is getter cheaper. I think the pix are clear. I still am using the original batteries and the batt meter has not moved once. I bought a power adapter at walmart for it for when i use it indoors for $15. I paid $299 for the camera. Good luck!

 

[UrsulaFan]

i HAVE TO AGREE WITH dISNEYFUN1. i bought the HP 315 & the HP photo printer (Best Buy had FREE financing for 18 months) i have been extremely pleased with it. now i need to get a cd burner to put my pix on cds. they take up a lot of space on the hard drive. we will be taking DH laptop & burner with us to WDW.

 

[UrsulaFan]

Oh, something else. I was going to get a $600 camera & not get another printer, but a friend suggested I buy a less expensive camera & get a good printer. I did spend $800 w/tax by the time I got cables (for printer) & extra memory for camera.

 

[Disneydenise]

I was looking at the Sony model at circuit city today. The salesman had said that if you have a good printer, that a 2.2 pixel was probably okay for what most people will use the camera for. I have a really good 35 mm I will take with me also. The sony has lots of neat toys to make the downloads easier. The one I was thinking about was only $400. I know that I will be using my other camera for stills too and I really don't know if I will be happy with the quality of the pictures with the digital. We got a new video camera last year and it takes still shots, we never bother to hook up the whole thing to get the pictures off of the card. I was just tinking if I could hook it up easily I may actually print them up this time. The zoom was another consideration. He told me that I need an optical zoom. I just wish I could return the thing if I thought it was too hard to use or I didn't like the pictures.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

I have a Nikon coolpix 950 and it takes excellent shots and can be blown up to 11x14 without pixel loss or grainey look. It has 2.11 mega pixels.
Fuji has an excellent one out there, 2.2 mp and it's quality is excellent and it runs right about 250.-275.00.
I would not advise anything below 2.2 mp. And, by all cost avoid anything with Polaroid attached to it. They, in a word, s**k.

 

[allyn]

a 2 megapixel camera is fine for most folks. try to get one with an optical zoom, if possible. these are probably around $400. without optical zoom, you will probably spend $300. don't forget you'll need to purchase extra flash cards (you may need a lot if you take a lot of photos) and you'll want rechargeable batteries for most cameras so factor this into the price you are prepared to spend so you aren't surprised. i would recommend these brands: nikon, canon, olympus, sony.

 

[kecall]

DisneyDenise -- Just thought I'd share w/you that when you purchased our camera @ Circuit City I was told that I had 14 days to return it if I wasn't happy with it.... I felt like you...you have to try it out before you know if it's the right one for you....sooo....you might check & see if that policy is true for you....

 

[Disneydenise]

Thanks for your help. I called the store and they do have a 14 day return policy. I think that I would feel ike I was stealing the camera if I returned it because I waited till the week we are leaving to go and purchase it. Its my fault I have been toying around with this idea for months now and have been too afraid to buy the thing becuase I am thinking I really do have enough stuff.

 

[fkj2]

You can do some digital shots with a video camara. In the past, I have typed "discount" video camara into any of the search engines and you can look at web sites for the best deal. Although I purchased mine over the net, I would also go to a local Circuit City, etc. and try to get them to price match (or come close) the web price. I recently saw a Panasonic V 751 (I think) priced on the web, just the camara case was extra) for $419. Look in the Consumer Reports at your library for recommendations.

 

[kecall]

DisneyDenise -- I TOTALLY understand!!! Is it possible to be toooo prepare for a Disney trip???? --- Sometimes I wonder........

 

[vegadog2]

I have the sony mavica camera with a 10x optical zoom it uses a 3.5 floppy and you can take photos all day on one battery charge."it's a great camera" i had two other digital cameras and hated them i won't say what brand they were.a important thing about digital cameras is battery life.

 

[Diznut84]

Here's my take.

I prefer a 2 megapixel camera. I like to print my pictures out no larger than usually 4x6 but I do like to crop them. I previously had a 1 megapixel camera but I wanted to frequently crop and found the resolution wanting. If not cropped, the 1 megapixel 4x6s looked spectacular.

Here are some suggestions: If you want to replace your regular camera, get a 2 megapixel camera with a good optical zoom. I purchased the Sony DSC-P50. I also like the Canon ELPH because it is so small. You'll want to practice quite a bit before your trip because it takes some getting used to. You'll probably end up taking several pictures and then only keeping the best ones. You'll also need to work on getting used to the delay between when you hit the button and the actual recording. It is not instantaneous! You'll also need rechargeable batteries and a 32mb memory card.

One of the neat features on the DSC-P50 is the email mode. It will record two versions of each picture, one in a photoquality 2.1 megapixel mode, and the other in a 640x480 low resolution mode for email/web use. It is really fun!

I've noticed that my pictures are noticeably better with the digital camera. I delete most pictures, but the good ones are GREAT after cropping! In short, I love my digital camera.

 

[renessa]

I have been very impressed with the quality of our Sony Mavica. I don't like trying to print the pictures at home, as we have not spent the $ for a better printer.

 

[bobsfamily]

We bought a HP 2.2 pixel camera in Nov. 99 and other than toss camera's that we use for underwater and that our girls want to use it is the best investment we have made. (for a camera that is)

I have two 16 mb cards (so that one will survive the trip rather than losing all pics if it gets lost or damaged) and find that is enough for us. I regularly either blow up the pic, or crop and save with various programs and have always been happy with the highest resolution shots. The lower end (have three to choose from) are only good for 3x5 or 4x6 simple shots.

The viewscreen on the back lets you "see" what the the pics look like before you take them, and you can erase ones you dont want.

It was about $295, but we bought the computer, printer, scanner and other things at the same time and got different deals so I believe (after 2 years) we had a $35 mail in coupon on the camera.

PS - I bought a external card reader for about $45 that paid for itself almost right away as you do not need the camera (or its batteries) to load the pics onto you computer.

 

[allyn]

one thing to budget for is the extra accessories you'll need with every digital camera. you'll need to buy a larger flash card (cameras always come with the tiniest of cards) and rechargeable batteries. a few cameras come with a rechargeable battery but most do not. a minimal flash card is $30-50 and rechargeable batteries can be $30-100.
for long trips you'll want a lot more flash card space, figure $100-200.

depending on which camera you get you may also want to buy an external card reader, a small box with a card slot that connects to your computer's usb port or parallel port. this is used to upload the photos without connecting the camera to the pc. this is often faster and more convenient. if you get a camera without usb you will definitely want to buy one of these. a reader is $30-50.

if you like doing a lot of research on cameras before you buy you will want to visit the following web sites. these web sites have very very detailed reviews of most cameras along with sample images taken with each camera.

http://www.imaging-resource.com/
http://www.dpreview.com/
http://www.steves-digicams.com/

 

[Viking]

Do not go for "pixels" only. A 1.3 Megapixel-Cam with a great zoom-lens (Olympus for example) may produce better pix than a 3.3 with a lousy lens. Buy a magazine with some tests.
And the higher the resolutions gets the more money has to be invested into memory chips. Also get lots of batteries or two to three sets of rechargables. The additional cost for memory and power cells will sum up to a couple of hundreds.

 

[gracie]

Gotta throw my 2 cents in. Never had a digital camera before, went on cnet.com and researched for awhile. Ended up with a Fuji that cost $208. It has 2.3 pixels (if I remember right!) and it has been amazing! Very easy to use and takes great pics! I've had it since June and have taken so many pics it has different settings for low memory which takes high end pics, or high memory which takes great web pics.

Good luck!