Need to buy a camera. any advice?

[suerob]

I plan on buying a new camera soon but don't know the first thing about them. I've always used a 35mm and it takes really nice pictures, but unfortunately doesn't always work. So it's time for a new one. Do I want a digital camera and if so, why? I like just taking my film and getting pictures back in an hour. It seems like digital cameras are more work. If it takes better pictures then I guess it's worth it. Can anyone tell me what to look for in a camera. I want one that will take good action and nighttime pictures, not real expensive, but not cheap either. Any advice will be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[pumpkinboy]

You might think of buying a few of the disposable camaras. Maybe one with a panorama option, and a couple of other regular ones with flash. The big advantages are, they're inexpensive, you don't worry about them getting stolen (our last "normal" camara disappeared from our stroller while we were on Kilimanjaro Safaris last year), they take good pictures and with some you get a digital picture CD ROM for free with development (plus you can always pay to have them developed on both prints and disc). And if the one you are using stops working in the middle of the park, you just go to the film stand and buy another one.

Just my 2¢ on this one. Using the disposables gives you time to do all the research for the digital one you might eventually buy.

 

[ibleedblue]

I think if you try a nice digital camera, you will become one of the converts! Digitals can be just as easy as a point and shoot 35mm or they can be just as 'difficult' as a pro-level 35mm. As far as printing, you can still do the 1 hour photo. All you have to do is take the memory card (instead of 14 rolls of film) with you to your favorite photo printing shop, insert it in the machine and tell it which photos to print. Some cameras allow you to mark photos for printing beforehand, so then the print machine knows which to print without you telling it. Pretty much any 3 MP camera will get you 35mm quality 4x6 prints. The higher you go in resolution (4 MP, 5 MP, etc) the bigger the picture you can print and it still look like a normal photo.

As far as good night time shots, you'll have to probably get a camera that allows for some manual control and have a steady hand or tripod unless you plan on being close enough to the action that your flash works. Most cameras have a dial that you can set to 'sports' that you can use for action shots. Personally, I have an Olympus C-750UZ that I love. It's a 4MP camera with some manual controls and it takes excellent pictures. There are plenty of great review sites on the internet where you can do a ton of research. www.steves-digicams.com, www.dcresource.com and www.digitalcamera-hq.com are a few. There are so many variables that it's hard to recommend something without knowing what you're looking for. Personally, I look for optical zoom, picture quality and a camera that's quick from the time you press the button till the time it takes the picture. My camera does well in all these areas. I've owned two Samsungs in the past that had a horrible delay between when the button was pressed and when the camera decided to take the picture. The wife could never adapt to it, and we wound up with mostly blurred shots or shots of feet and legs and she'd be putting the camera down as it took the picture!

Also, don't wait till just before your trip to buy. You'll want some time to practice with the camera before you leave. Hope this didn't confuse more than help!

Greg

 

[Tooneric]

I've had a Sony digital for about 2 1/2 years and love it. 3 megapixel is enough for 8x10s. Here's what I think of digital:
Advantages:
1. You can see the pic as soon as you take it. If the pic of me and Minnie didn't come out, I can make DW retake it.
2. You can delete the ones that didn't come out.
3. You don't buy film
4. I've become hooked on printing my own. I can crop the pic and zoom on the part I want, so what was just an average pic of my kids with a trash can next to them becomes a great shot. I love making my own photo album now with collages of pics and Disney clipart (I scanned a bunch of Dis stickers). It's also great therapy for Disney withdrawals.
5. I think the quality at 3 megapixel is fine, although 4 and 5 mp has come down in price. I end up with a lot of 8x10s in my album now because I print them. Remember, the higher the pixel, the better the resolution, but the fewer pics on your memory stick. I get almost 100 pics on a 128 megabyte memory stick.
6. Email! It's so cool to be able to email pics.
Disadvantages:
1. Still more pricey (I think) to have pics printed for you than 35mm, but not much more considering you have to buy more film. I think it's still coming down in price as well.
2. My camera has a slight delay from the time I press to the time the picture takes (maybe 1 second). I think the newer ones may be quicker.
3. Printing your own requires a learning how to use software like Microsoft Picture It. Haven't used many others, but Picture It does a lot and it's fairly easy to learn. You also need a good printer like an HP photosmart. The ink cartridges aren't cheap, but the quality and life expency of the pics is vastly improved. HP claimes the photosmart pics will last longer than traditional prints.

Overall, as you can tell, I love digital. FYI, I just went to a professional photographer for a pic of me for a brochure, and he used digital. It seems the way to go to me these days. Good luck with whatever you choose!

Eric

 

[DisneyPete]

We had teh same issue with lugging around a 35mm camera around the park. Our solution was the Canon Elph. It is a 35mm with a 3 time zoom and built in flash but it is about the size of a deck of card and the body is all steel. Takes great pictures and is so easy to load and use, we are very happy. (about $100)

The digital vs. film question is hard to answer. Film takes great pictures, has a long and reliable history, and the cameras are cheaper. The quality of digital cameras is most correlated to their megapixel #. If you really want a nice picture I would recommend at least a 4 megapixel camera, 5 is even better. But, at this time, these cameras tend to be rather expensive. While you don't need film, you do need a memory card to store the pictures on. These also cost more than film but they are reusable. And, of course, there is no film developing cost. Digital pictures are very easy to email and store on PCs.

If your are comfortable with things that are new, and have some money for the upfront costs I would say try out the digital. The best part is being able to take as many pictures as you want and only keeping the ones that turn out good. A good 5 megapixel camera though is going to run about $400.

Hope that helps.

 

[stevec999]

To start, a digital camera will not take a better picture than a 35mm camera. They can take very good pictures and give you the flexibility to fix problems with your picture using a computer and image editing software. With the point and shoot digitals you will have a delay from when you push the button to take the picture to when it actually takes it. If you are trying to catch action this can be annoying at times. Also most point and shoot digital cameras do not do as well in low light as film so take that into consideration. Depending on your budget you can get a Digital SLR which looks like and has the same controls as a 35mm SLR. You get much better low light performance and do not have the shutter delay. The lowest cost model on the market right now is the Canon Digital Rebel. On line it can be had with a lens for around $899. http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=139&modelid=9430

If you just want to take pictures and don’t want to mess with editing and such there are some nice point and shoot 35mm cameras on the market. If you decide to go digital check out http://www.dpreview.com . It is a great site with a lot of reviews.

Steve

 

[ibleedblue]

Originally posted by stevec999
To start, a digital camera will not take a better picture than a 35mm camera.

That's all relative. A film camera will give you a true representation of the light that was allowed into the lens and exposed the film. A digital camera gives you a bit pattern representation of the light coming into the lens when the shutter is exposed. On a high enough resolution digital camera (3MP or higher) unless you have a super sharp eye, break out the magnifying glass or have a poor print, 99% of people can't tell the difference between a print from a film camera and a digital camera. It's just like a circle. In theory a circle is nothing more than a bunch of tiny straight lines put together at an angle, but unless you're zoomed way in you can't see the straight lines. The tiny straight lines create the image of a circle. The more lines you have, the 'cleaner' the circle, but it's still not a truely round object. Same principal applies to a digital photograph. The more bits you have the better the image, but it's still not a true representation of the light that would hit the film. However, again, 99% of the population can not tell the difference between digital photos and film photos when a camera of acceptable resolution is used. In many cases digital prints look better. I've recently looked at some film shots beside some digital shots and the digital shots were much sharper and clearer and had no modification to the image quality. I agree on the low light situation. Film cameras do a much more respectable job in low light.

About the price. You can upload photos to Kodak's website and purchase then for $.28 each. I don't know how much film costs to develop now, but $.28 is pretty standard for a digital 4x6.

 

[chyam]

I just purchased the Sony digital camera, the picture in my signature was the first photo I took with it and nothing has been done to it. I just figured that digital is the future and soon other cameras will fall by the wayside like 8 tracks! Maybe I am wrong about that but it seems to be the future. I also like the fact that if I am not good with a home program to do editing and I want prints I can take the memory stick to Walgreens etc and get prints. My printer is not the best and when it is time to upgrade I will get one that does. The thing I like about digital is you can erase it right then and there if you do not like the picture. Mine has many features that I haven't quite figured out yet........but I still have problems with the vcr!

 

[ColoradoDis]

I also have the Olympus 750 and love it. The only downside is action shots at my DDs' volleyball games. They don't come out as well because of the delay.

We took this camera to WDW in May and took over 1000 pictures. The best part is knowing if they came out or not and being able to store them electronically. I use Adobe Photoshop Album to put them into categories (names of people in them, locations, topics, etc). You can put multiple labels on each picture.

I also like not needing to print each picture. I download them to my laptop each night. I got rechargeable batteries (15 minutes to fully charge).

I agree with the previous poster, buy whatever camera you choose with plenty of time to practice before your vacation.

Enjoy

 

[roserae]

Originally posted by Tooneric
1. Still more pricey (I think) to have pics printed for you than 35mm, but not much more considering you have to buy more film. I think it's still coming down in price as well.

Just wanted to add something to this. Someone mentioned that it cost about $.28 to get prints done, which is true ($.29 at Wal-mart and they will ship it to your local store so you don't have to pay shipping) and if you get them at SAM's it is only $.18. But the other thing I wanted to add is with digital prints you know every print you get you want, where with film, you may have a whole roll of garbage with only one or two good shots. So if you take that into consideration, you probably save money with a digital camera, printing only the good shots.

 

[Kala]

I have had a series of cameras that I really loved, but my new camera (DH bought it for my birthday) is wonderful. I had a Canon Elph that used APS film, and it took great pics. Then I decided (for many of the above mentioned reasons) that I needed to move into the digital age, so I got a Canon Power Shot digital. It took great pics and was really easy to use, but was really big and heavy to carry around the parks in my fanny pack. I then noticed the Sony Cybershot at the store and was tempted, but it was $500, and I just couldn't justify it. I started looking and doing alot of research and reading owner reviews and decided on the Pentax Optio S4i. I can say that it's the very best camera I have owned. I was really just looking for something small, light and easy to use with good quality photos, and it really meets all those requirements (it fits inside an Altoids can!). What has really surprised to learn is all the high tech things that I can do with it, if I choose to. It is easy as "point and shoot" as the default, and does all the thinking for me, but it is also very user friendly if I choose to use all the many options available. The price was significantly less than the Sony, and the storage media (SD) is much more universal.

Good luck shopping!

 

[SlightlyGoofy]

I have been thinking about treating myself to a digital camera for Christmas. The reviews I read keep coming up with a Nikkon Coolpic for about $250 as the best choice for me. Does anyone here have an experience with it?

SG/Linda

 

[Rob_b]

I just got a the Minolta x50 on Tuesday from www.BHphoto.com. It was $349 and will be my point and shoot camera.

So far this camera is awesome. So small and quick. Build quality is excellent. The picture quality is good for the camera size.

I will never miss a shot again. Start up time is .06 seconds. It was recently reviewed at http://www.steves-digicams.com

 

[forgetyourtroubles!]

Amazon, Steve's digicams, DCresource are wonderful sites comparing cams. I've had several digicams and my 3 favorite are:
Canon Digital Elph s410 or 500-about the size of deck of cards, very portable, great pictures, many adjustable controls or full automatic, GREAT color, quick and responsive- you don't miss your shot

Panasonic Digic FZ20K Super Zoom with image stabilizer- very user friendly, whopping zoom, quick and snappy, 5 megapixel, GREAT color, excellent for artistic pics

Canon Digital Rebel -REALLY good artistic pictures, full controls

 

[stevec999]

Digital cameras are great but film still has advantages. So if you are more comfortable with the way film works go that way. I have switched to digital but have a film camera around for certian conditions.

Digitals can take great pictures.

 

[crow11ad]

We have the Sony CD-MCVA 350 digital camera. Now what is so cool about this camera is that it records right on to a mini cd. This will hold more than the typical memory card. On 1 cd as we were messing around with it, I got 350 - 450 shots on 1 cd and with room to spare. The thing is get what makes you happy.

 

[Lisa S]

I've had my share of bad luck with rolls of film. I had a blurry lens once and didn't know it until months later when I got a few rolls of film developed. Can you imagine if that happened at Disney? Most people are more careful than I am, so that probably won't happen to you, but it can't happen with digital. Plus, I am impatient and love to see the results right away!! Another plus is my kids are getting more exposure to taking pictures. If they want to 20 pictures of a bird on the ground, it doesn't really matter....I never have to print them, in fact delete, deleter, delete.

I bought the Kodak Easyshare 4.0 and love it!!