Looking to buy digital camera, help!

[Fall1]

DH and I are expecting twins in 2 months and I know I'll be taking lots of pictures. We have a digital camera that is about 5 years old, it has a tiny LCD screen on the back and the time it takes to take a picture is sooooooooo slow.
Can anyone recommend a good camera for a novice that will improve in those areas. I always miss the shot I am going for.
Thanks

 

[Master Mason]

Take a look at the Canon S3 IS. Many folks here have it and seem to enjoy it.

 

[jakoky]

hi there, i have the sony H5...i really love it...the best part is that it has a huge 3 inch screen which is probably the best out of all my cameras i have owned(canon, a75, canon a610, fuji e550)...it takes really great pictures and does a good job at video...right now i am trying to decide if i want to upgrade to the sony H9(due out in the next month)...the H5 has 12 times zoom which is also great and image stabilization....i wavered between the canon S31s and the H5...i think the canon takes better video, pictures are about the same(H5 may win slightly here),fairly fast(i think the canon wins out on speed), but for me the deciding factor was the lcd size, it completely sold me...have fun with your new little one
sharon

 

[jann1033]

there are some reviews of these 2 in this thread
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1413733
and congrats on the babies!

 

[Groucho]

If you're looking for baby photos, I wouldn't go for a long-zoom camera, I'd go for a 3-4x zoom one. You can also get a bigger sensor in a Fuji or Canon A6xx series or some others, which will help the quality.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Congratulations from another Mom of twins!

My recommendation is to keep things VERY SIMPLE whatever you get - ie small, large LCD screen, easy settings, etc. You are going to be carrying around so much "stuff", adding a large, complex camera to the mix will just make it that much more difficult. I would search for something I could literally keep in my pocket, or a small pocket in your pocketbook, diaper bag, or whatever it is you'll be carrying (I actually stopped carrying a large pocketbook after my twins were born until I no longer needed the enormous diaper bag; I just stuck my wallet and a few essentials in there along with everything but the kitchen sink, LOL.) Something you can pull out very quickly to get those great shots at the most difficult times. Buy it soon so you can get used to it before the babies come.

Groucho makes a good point and which could help simplify your choices. You'll mainly be taking pics of the kids, not landscapes for a while, so you probably don't need to worry about a huge optical zoom. There are lots of nice point and shoots which have a smaller optical zoom whereas the ones with larger zooms are more difficult to find. I agree with looking at the Canons and Fujis.

It's nice today there are such cameras available. My twins will be 10yo this year (where did the time go?) I had an auto 35mm film camera, and although I got plenty of great shots, I'm sure I could have gotten more - while paying less - had I had a digital camera. Here's one of my early favorites, the babies were about 5 weeks old and this was our XMas card. (Ignore the red eye on the dogs.)

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

Another vote for the Canon S3 IS ... it's a fantastic camera! I think it's becoming the DIS standard!

Personally, I think the 12x optical/48x digital zoom is awesome; those babies are going to be on the move in a little while, and being able to zoom in on them when they're doing something cute without disturbing them is a great feature.

It's got all of the features you could ever want short of a full-blown DSLR camera. It's got enough automatic features to be easy to use, but it's also fully customizable enough to satisfy a photographic junkie.

Take a look at some of the pictures from this site: Digital Camera Resource Page (Some S3 Pics).

Or, right here on the DIS: Canon S3 IS-POST YOUR FIRST SHOTS! (UPDATED 4/10/07 - MORE PICS)

It also takes video as well as most digital camcorders (except for the 1G limit to video size).

You will be impressed with what you can do with it!

 

[YEKCIM]

If you are considering something along the lines of the S3-IS, you may want to give the Fuji S6000fd a look. It is a little bulkier and heavier, and lacks IS, but has decent high-ISO performance, a much more useful zoom range (will go much wider than the Canon), and has Fuji's "face detection" technology, which I understand works very well. I do *not* have this camera, but do have a Fuji S5200, which has served me very well, and based on reviews, I would have no hesitation buying one for personal use.

~YEKCIM