Please suggest a digital camera for WDW!!

[aristocatz]

Ok, I've been going back and forth for months about finding a perfect digital camera to surprise my DF with next week when we head to WDW!!

Please help!!

What would you suggest for a great digital camera to take on Disney trips (fireworks pictures, parade photos, night time castle shots, still shots, etc..) & for nature shots for when we do short day trips at home.

I would like to spend less than $300 if possible.

Thank you in advance!

 

[JerseyJanice]

I don't know if this is what you want, but I will tell you that I bought my son a Flip Ultra digital camcorder that can also produce amazing photographs.

It comes with software that lets you slow the video down to 30 frames per second and turns your footage into wonderful photos. We got fantastic results doing that for our recent WDW trip.

If you have a Costco membership, they'll be offering $30 off this camera during Thanksgiving weekend. I'm not certain what their regular price, but I paid $150 for this camera/digital recorder in August so it would be that amount or less minus $30. It's really an incredible product IMO.

 

[Rose&Mike]

In September we bought a Canon powershot sd1200 (around 200$) for our October trip. We have been really pleased with it. We bought a small flexible tripod and DH used it for castle shots and night shots and fireworks. The tripod looks like spider legs and fits easily in a string backpack. The camera is tiny and fits in a pocket.

Parade and shows at night did not turn out as well, but he did not use the tripod. Next time we'll bring the tripod, and see how it goes. We did a lot of research, and basically what we learned is it's hard to get moving shots at night without a tripod.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[Golf4food]

Small, inexpensive cameras cannot and will not take "great" night or low light photos. Adequate at times, maybe, but very rarely good. The sensors and apetures are too small. You can have small and convenient or you can have good night shots (mostly with the help of a decent tripod and subjects that are not moving) but not usually both. You might be able to find something decent on sale for Black Friday that would work well enough to fit your needs, though you will never get the high quality night/low light shots without a pricier DSLR.

I'd suggest checking out the Photo board here - there's one of these threads every week.

 

[Duchie]

Have you tried asking on the Photography board? I've read over there a few times and those folks are quite knowledgeable. They may have some great advice for you as well.

 

[golfgal]

I just bought DD a Sony at Best Buy. I liked it because it had a large viewer, 5x's optical zoom AND a video mode so you can make movies (not just the 30 second deal that you can get with other cameras). It is a Christmas present for her so I haven't used it yet, I mean she hasn't used it yet.

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665775608

This is what I got her. It has some nice features like auto smile detector/auto mode so it automatically knows if you are taking a close up, night shot, etc.

It has a rechargeable battery that is removable so I got a second battery so she will have a back up too.

 

[geffric]

I just bought a Panasonic Lumix at costco.. great camera at a great price