Digital camera recommendation

[Phishnoob]

Since the succubus stole my digital camera which was an awesome Canon elura that I won in the FedEx shipping challenge on her way out it is time for a new digital camera. It is about time that you guys get to see pics here in the valley from Rigby which is the birthplace of television, former US champ as the highest teen pregnancy rate and has four bars with two being sort of friendly.

With trips to Glacier Nat'l park and others planned I would like to get a compact digital camera. The video portion of the old camera was never used except for my 130 mph flyby of the Hungry Bear during a rare winter thaw which will not be repeated.

What is the best bang for the buck as far as Megapixels and quality. I do not need a digital SLR huge thing..just something to stick in a pocket and take pics for the morning thread and emails and the like. That Canon took amazing photos and something that could do just that without the video would be just fine.

Got a few bucks coming in a week so there is time to make a decision on this. Also, can I sacrifice a bit of technology and get something in the 100 dollar range or is it worth spending a little more and waiting a couple of weeks for quality?

[Rick O]

Originally Posted by Phishnoob

It is about time that you guys get to see pics here in the valley from Rigby which is the birthplace of television, former US champ as the highest teen pregnancy rate and has four bars with two being sort of friendly.

How do they get all of that on the license plates?

This stuff changes so quickly. Here's a site I found helpful when I was looking.
http://www.steves-digicams.com/

And here's a site that has the best prices on cameras.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/

[Phishnoob]

Originally Posted by Rick O

How do they get all of that on the license plates?

Guess you gotta live in Idaho. They start at the lower right corner of the state and the first letter and number of the plate are by county. My mountain was 2F which stands for Fremont county. That pretty much means empties and a cracked windshield and some sort of firearm. 8B is Bingham county with Idaho Falls which goes nuts with gloves and boots and hats with an inch of snow.

Rigby happens to be 1J which is Jackson county which in addition to it's other fine qualities has the worst drivers in the state. I didn't know all this and guess IJ plates on a BMW is sort of an oxymoron. The folks next door with BYU Idaho have 1M plates and there is some sort of rivalry for worst drivers but guess the city folk give us all a LOT of room.

Weird set up but interesting.

Thanks for the links...man technology moves fast. Looks like a 5 Megapixel with a 512 meg card is about 200 bucks and I like the Canon and the Olympus.

[Petunia]

Phishnoob you can borrow my camera... if you come to Wisconsin to get it from me.

[Loverotties]

For a cheep one I like Sony,but for a good one I like Nikon!

[Rick O]

I have owned my Nikon for a few years and since have found that there are features other than megapixels that are more important. At the time I bought mine 3 megapixels was pretty decent. It can take amazingly sharp high contrast pics of some very tiny objects. I think any camera would be good for taking tank shots or still shots in good lighting. One thing I have found that I don't like about mine is the poor results when taking action shots, especially when using the flash. The shutter lag is painfully long when using a flash. Sometimes 2 seconds, which is too long for a sports shot.

Cameras have come a long way in just a few years. If you think you may want to take action shots look for features like image stabilization and cameras with short shutter lag. Cannon seems to be one of the leaders in this field plus their optics are always very good.

[whatevva]

My wife has an Olympus that's VERY nice, but the memory cards are tiny. They're about the size of a finger nail. I have 2 Nikons. One is an SLR and the other is a Coolpix "Point and Shoot". Both are excellent cameras and they use Compact Flash cards (Something I can hold on to)

The July issue of Consumer Reports does ALL the digitals cameras.

[Phishnoob]

I'll pick that rag up Butch. They suck carwise and always tell you to buy the Camry instead of the Beemer but on everything else the nerds seems to do their research.

[fchidsey]

Are you Going to Dive with the Cam?

[whatevva]

I'll pick that rag up Butch. They suck carwise and always tell you to buy the Camry instead of the Beemer but on everything else the nerds seems to do their research.

I've somewhat lost my faith in them ever since the Suzuki Scandal. But they're a good place to start. I used to subscribe faithfully until that Suzuki thing. Now I just wait for the "Get the first issue and just write cancel on the bill" Then I get about 8 issues before their computers catch up

[tims]

perry check this site out.. it is good for reviews on all dig. cameras i have been crusing for one now for a while.. i might get the DS-50......

[ShirleyM]

Ditto the site Tims recommended.

My picks, not in any particular order:

Olympus
Fuji FinePix
Canon
Nikon

[FishDaddy]

Perry, when it comes to choosing a digicam, it's a jungle out there!! You can't believe all the manufacturer's claims as some of them are real dogs, while some are highly under-rated. Price and desired features would narrow the search down some. $100 isn't going to get you much of a camera.

I'm partial to Olympus digicams and have owned many. While my main serious camera is a Nikon DSLR, it's a bit bulky for everyday use. One of my favorites as a pocket cam is an Olympus C-7000Z. It's gone out of production but can still be found new or as a factory refurb. Mine's a refurb and indistinguishable from a new camera. It takes super photos; fits in a shirt pocket; sturdy metal body; has an optical viewfinder as well as the LCD; takes sound movies; 5x zoom; fast start-up time; faster shutter lag than most digicams; and the battery lasts forever!



Here's the full review: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/olympusc7000/

One vendor has new ones for $319 but you can buy refurbs directly from Olympus from their eBay auction store for around $200-225, depending your luck in the auction. I've bought several refurbs from Olympus and they all have been as new cameras but saved a bundle of $$$. http://search.ebay.com/search/search...olympus+c-7000

Here's a couple samples and link to galleries of photos I've taken with that camera:





http://www.pbase.com/richardr/olympusc7000

Good luck with the camera search!

Dick