Shopping for the perfect camera!

[disneyyprincess]

Hey fellow disers!

We will be leaving for the world in a little over a month and are hoping to purchase the perfect camera for our trip. We are definitely beginners in the photography field and are looking for something that we can most certainly grow with, but won't make us burst into tears when we first start using it .

Any suggestions?

 

[Master Mason]

Hey fellow disers!

We will be leaving for the world in a little over a month and are hoping to purchase the perfect camera for our trip. We are definitely beginners in the photography field and are looking for something that we can most certainly grow with, but won't make us burst into tears when we first start using it .

Any suggestions?

What features are important to you, size, cost, ease of use etc?

 

[Shutterbug]

Perfect for you may not be perfect to someone else.

Like the previous poster mentioned,,,we need more info

 

[zackiedawg]

Add me to the more info list. You can have plenty of room to grow with P&S cameras, ultrazooms, bridge cameras, mirrorless interchangeable lens cams, and DSLRs. Depends on how far you want to grow, how 'into' photography you think you'll be, and how much you're willing to spend.

Think about a few things to tell us that will help: does size matter, what type of photography do you want to shoot, do you care about manual control features, do you want a one-piece camera or one with interchangeable lenses, any key features you feel you really must have like wide angle or telephoto or stabilization, will you be viewing on computer mostly or printing, are you big into post processing and manipulating your photos or just want to use them straight from the camera, and what's your price tolerance?

 

[Mosca]

Depends on what you mean by "grow"; do you mean, one that you can learn more photography with, or that won't be obsolete next year?

Most point and shoot cameras over $200 are really good. They won't be good for all situations, but they will be fine for family pictures, baby pictures, vacation pictures. You won't have a problem with any of those until you want to get pictures of the baseball game, or indoors without flash; things with motion or that need a fast shutter or high frame rate. I still use a Nikon P&S that I bought 3 years ago; I feel safe in saying that they don't go obsolete as fast as they used to (which was basically every year).

If you want to grow into photography, either an advanced P&S like the Canon G series or the Panasonic Lumix, or others, will be OK for a while. The entry level DSLRs are all good, you can't go wrong with a starter Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, etc. The new format, micro 4/3, straddles the difference, giving near DSLR quality and flexibility with cameras the size of the larger P&S.

You can set any of these cameras, from the $200 P&S through almost any DSLR, to "green box" and get good shots right out of the box.

That's not a recommendation, but it might help you frame your thoughts a little better.