Originally posted by Jodi1980
Im down to the following choices:
Kodak EasyShare DX 6490; 4 MegaPixel; Zoom 10x; Manual controls ; Has charger; No AA batteries; $400
Kodak EasyShare CX 7430; 4 MegaPixel; Zoom 3x; No Manual controls; No charger; AA batteries; $250
HP R707; 5 MegaPixel; Zoom 3x; Manual controls; Has charger; No AA batteries; $300
Kodak DX 7630; 6 MegaPixel; Zoom 3x; Manual controls; Has charger; No AA batteries; $400
How important is the manual controls, whether it has a charger or not, or it can take AA batteries?
I dont plan on doing anything fancy, just take family and vacation pictures.
Thank you!
For what you plan to shoot, megapixels are not all that important, so don't get caught up in that. I would steer clear of AA batteries as digitals tend to go though them very quickly. Nothing more frustrating than being out and having your batteries go dead and not have extra batteries. Buy one with a charger and get an extra battery and keep it charged. That way you never have to worry.
For the point and shoots you are looking at t doesn't matter if it has a no-name lens or a fancy one; the image quality is pretty much the same around any given price point. There is little real difference even between the top of the range and the middle, although of course people trying to sell you an expensive camera, or people who want to justify a recent purchase, will try to get you to think so.
The thing I remind people most to consider when buy a point and shoot digital is the speed. As anyone who has used one of these digital cameras know they take way too long to do anything. Even the new $1,000 8MP models and the $1,850 Leica Digilux 2 still take too long to do anything, and often lock up after every shot by design.
Their internal electronics just aren't fast enough as of 2004 to respond as fast as we'd like. Some cameras are much better than others, but overall these cameras are frustrating for photographing anything other than landscapes or buildings
You have to wait for them to turn on, and then you have to wait after you press the button for something to happen. Even zipping through the annoying menus takes time; time you usually don't have to get that great shot. With these long delays you have to hope your subject doesn't lose interest or fall asleep while you're trying to get a photo. You can't just leave them on all the time as because the batteries will run down
Most of them have some sort of rapid fire mode which you can ignore. Even if they can pound off 5 frames per second the only frame you care about is the first, and it takes them too long to crank off that first frame.
My advice is to actually use the camera in the store, and don't simply take shots of stationary things. Try to take picuters of people and things that you would be doing after your purchase. That allows you get see which camera responds the fastest to your shooting.
As for the zoom, most of these tend to be motorized. So, instead of just turning a zoom ring like a real camera you have to twiddle with a switch that runs a motor that turns the internal ring for you. These often work way too slowly, and you rarely if ever can control the zoom speed. Some cameras can't be set to every possible zoom setting; many only have several steps between which the zoom lens can set itself, making exact framing impossible.
Probably more info than you wanted.
Given your list, there really isn't a lot of differences. Play with the ones you are deciding on as much as possible and go with the one you are most comfortable with. And PLEASE, go to a real camera store as they tend to be the most knowledgable and helpful. The part time high school student working at
Best Buy or Circuit City really doesn't know his stuff. Just my opinion.
