Which digital camera?

[Ailing Bob]

I know this topic comes up frequently but the technolgy moves so fast its not worth looking back at the archives, I know theres lots of sites that cover this but I value the opinions of the members here, so...
I want Santa to bring me a digital camera, what do you suggest? what spec should it be? what features should it have etc?
Which one do you have, and are you happy with it?
What should I avoid? Thanks in advance

[innuendo]

See www.dpreview.net you will find as much as you need there and then some.

[wub]

BIG question...what's your budget? What kind of pics do you like to take? Do you travel away from base much?

I use a Minolta Dimage 7i (5 megapixel) it's great, it has a 28 - 200mm SLR equivalent lens, works on AA batteries at a push but uses rechargables at £8 for a set of 4. It takes a 1 Gb IBM microdrive so I can store hundres of pics when I travel (up to about 1,500 pics in fact) and it has a load of manual adjustments and handles like an SLR. The thing is, it costs about £700, can Santa run to this?

If not get an Olympus C-4000Z, it too runs on AAs and takes Smartmedia memory which is cheap.

Avoid a camera that uses proprietary memory and batteries (i.e. Sony) because when you are in the wild and your batteries go flat you can't just buy AAs to carry on shooting. The Sony memory stick only goes up to 128mb capacity so you'd need many for a long trip

[greatorex]

I have a Sony DSC-P31 (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Sony/sony_dscp31.asp) and it is utterly fantastic and only about £190!!!!

It comes with rechargeable batteries, but does take standard AA batteries. It's 'only' 2.0 mega pixel but to my mind the photos are pretty incredible. As wub said, the memory sticks only go up to 128mb, but that will give you about 150 photos on the highest quality mode, but bear in mind that that's the equivalent of over 6, 24 shot rolls of film. . . .

Top Camera, go for it!
;) :D ;) :D

[mainfrog2]

Being the impatient individual that I am I couldn't wait for santa (I'd have been waiting a long time, what with me being really bad this year) so I bought a Canon powershot a40.

Bit heavier than the competition but feels very solid.

Only 2 meg ccd but at top res is good enough for 7x5 prints and you've got some manual control over the settings and a good x3 zoom. All in all quite happy with the results for just over £200.

Mind you if you've got windows 98 the drivers on the disc don't work (half the files are missing) so you have to download them from Canon's web site. XP worked out of the box though.

[DB6]

2 megapixel - Magpix M2100, £100 - point and shoot.
5 megapixel - Casio QV5700, £500 - les ballons du chien. Both from Amazon.
Compact flash memory probably best - cheaper. Wouldn't bother too much about docking stations etc. as they all have USB ports anyway so transfer to computer etc. is dead easy.

[PPRuNe Towers]

As a former pro snapper I'm the sort of sad git who does a lot of research and testing before shelling out on a camera.

I've just bought one which meets my requirements. Flightbag or pocket friendly - 4 megapixel for the odd time you need that resolution and, bearing that in mind, a very good £ - resolution ratio.

Went for the Konica Digital Revio KD 400Z - not enough manual control for the creative photographer but a camera you never have an excuse not to carry with you. Rest of my shortlist available if of any help but really you need to be thinking what your requirements are rather than just garnering the opinions of others who lead a different life and do, quite naturally, like to justify their own choices.

Regards from the Towers
Rob

[Cornish Jack]

Same like wub, Minolta Dimage 7 (the previous model). A bit over the top for my photographic abilities but gives me room to improve. :)
I also have the previous Minolta Dimage 1500 - slightly odd design which allows the lens and CCD block to be detached and connected to the body by 1 metre cable for shooting in restricted areas.
Whatever you get, don't take any notice of advertised DIGITAL zoom values - the only zoom relevance is the OPTICAL variety.

[Grotehaasje]

I have a Kyocera Finecam S3. It has 3.3 mega pixel resolution and a reasonable optical and 2x digital zoom. I chose it because it was far and away the smallest of the 3.3s.

The drawback is that becasue of its size it cant take a microdrive and it uses a proprietary battery which doesnt last for hours becasue it is so small.

A colleague has a Canon G2 which is a lovely bit of kit but is about 3 times the size of my Kyocera.

Guess it comes down to what you want, portability or features, and then price.

[fobotcso]

Bob, technology doesn't move that quickly! Try my thread here where the last post was only three months ago.

Digital Still Cameras (again) (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=63876&highlight=Digital+Camera)

It's marketing (and prices) that catch the eye and give the impression that there is a new camera every 10 mins.

I have become a firm believer in lots of pixels and a big lens to let lots of light in. These two factors give you scope for cropping and editing whilst still keeping a good final resolution.

But for that be prepared to shell out for some good software such as Photoshop Elements £60? or JASC Paint Shop Pro.

So the hobby becomes a money sink; but aren't they all?

The option of taking short MPEG movies to put on the Web Page is fun. I wish could do that with time lapse to get speeded-up sequences of flowers blooming etc.

Ah well, maybe next Christmas!:)

[FJJP]

I asked exactly the same question at the beginning of the year. I ended up with the Canon Powershot G2 - it is magnificent, and I am still only scratching the surface of its capabilities. Expensive, but worthwhile. Look at the thread I started - http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33140 - the American review is what clinched it...

[innuendo]

Have a look in http://www.dpreview.net/forums/forum.asp?forum=1010 . This is the Canon forum in DPReview. Lots of info on the G3 from new owners. Seems most who have gone from G2 to G3 are pleased although some G2 owners are still happy with what they have.

For ASFKAP try this for the comparison between the Canon G3 and the S45. http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_post.asp

The G3 looks to have a fair bit more features than the S45 but there is a difference in portability in the S45's favour if that is a factor. There are so many very capable cameras available, each with their faithful/rabid proponents. Some of the DPReview forums become very partisan. :rolleyes:

[Stan Sted]

I went for the Canon PowerShot A40 - only 2 megapixels, but it has a high quality lens and plenty of useful features including full manual operations, optional extra lenses (wide angle, telephone and close up) 30 sec video clip facility and there is an optional waterproof case.

I have created some good quality prints up to 8 x 6 ins, it is easy to use and best of all, reasonably priced.

InternetComputersDirect of Huddersfield UK do some good deals on the camera with various compactflash cards. I paid £235 for the camera and a 64MB card in June when Jessops were asking around £295 but the price has dropped to around the £210 mark or less at some stores advertising on the net.

The only thing I don't like about the camera is the flash delay. You might have to wait up to 2 secs for the flash to fire, so it is pretty hopeless for action photography in low light conditions. The shutter action is normal in daylight.

[Binoculars]

I am most definitely NOT an expert or anything resembling it, but I did the rounds of the review sites for a camera for my daughter's 21st birthday, and without getting into details, it appears to me that just like computers, the value for the average person is to be found in superseded models.

New models are being released on to the scene in confusing numbers, but unless you need or particularly want the higher ranges of technology, a 2 Megapixel camera released twelve months or even more ago does exactly the same job as the latest ones and a bit of judicious shopping around can save you hundreds of moolas. Stan Sted's Canon is a good example.

The big advantage is that digital cameras produced twelve months ago are still out there as produced because they can't be modified on the floor and have their price increased, as opposed to computers.

Shop around!

[FJJP]

Try http://www.steves-digicams.com for extensive camera reviews. (They also review photo quality printers, too).