Please Help me pick out a digital camera

[PelagicMagic]

I want to buy a camera so I can take great pics of my tank. My current cameras are not doing a good job. I have a sony digital mavica which I got in the late 90's and a ricoh rdx400 from 1994.

I have picked out a samsung S500 5.1 mega pixel 3x optical/5x digital zoom camera w/ 20 mb internal memory and a sd port for memory cards.
I do not know what all those numbers and terms mean, I am just repeating what I have written down.

The other camera is a polaroid 5 mega pixel with 3x optical/4x digital zoom and 32 mb of internal memory and has the sd card slot too.

Both cameras have a 2.5" LCD view screen. The samsung is 179.00 and much thinner than the polaroid. The polaroid is 148.00

Which is a better buy and are there any other cameras that I should look at that are in the same price range?

Thanks

Steve

[PelagicMagic]

Will 5 mega pixels take good shots of my reef?

[UseSkaForEvil]

from what i know, yea sure 5 could be fine. but focusing is the hardest part of getting a good picture. and my 2 digital cams (one is a 5MP) cannot focus on anythign closer than .5meters. i used a freinds to try to take better pictures but it didnt work out either, and his was an 8MP (although cheap) . until i have the $ for an digital slr im going back to film i think. also the digital zoom pretty much doesent mean anything worthwhile but the optical does. most digital cameras arent really designed to take pictures close up without some sort of help like a different lens. im sure someone else will have better/more advice.

[PelagicMagic]

i went to everystore today that sells digital cameras. And I have found two that I like.

The first is the Canon PowerShot A620 digital camera, 7.1 mp 4x optical and 4x digital This camera took good macros its 279.00

the other is the sony cybershot DSC-W50 its much smaller and its 6mp with a 3x optical. It takes very good macros and its 237.00

I cannot make up my mind

[PelagicMagic]

repeat post

[dobejazz]

I like sony camera's I've had good luck with my Mavica and My brother has a cybershot and enjoys it as well (sorry can't help with technical stuff)

[Tim224DT]

I use a Sony Cybershot 3.2mp. I get some pretty nice pics from it!


Tim

[Fly Guy]

Originally Posted by PelagicMagic

Will 5 mega pixels take good shots of my reef?

Yes. I actually have a 6 year old 3.3 megapixel olympus,i have had it since 3.3 megapixels wasw the latest thing. I just a couple of weeks ago ALMOST bought a nikon that was about $900. I then did a novel thing.....i READ the manual. I figured out how the camera actually works AND spent $130 on a macro lens for it and it now is a macro picture taking machine. I seriously cant tell the difference in clarity between the pics i take and any of the better pics I see. If you look at my pics from the link in my signature....NONE of those were taken since i got my macro lens(i just got it yesterday), but they all were taken after i READ the manual. After this little experience i had im going to say that knowing how your camera works is more important than which camera you choose.

[forenpa1]

I have a cannon powershot A85 and 4 megapixels which seems to be more than enough, especially for pictures you want to display on a pc, I am not an expert, but I think that the more megapixels the better clarity if you want to print the pictures, especially for 8x10 and up.

I agre with Fly Guy, knowing how to use the camera is the most important part !!!

I certainly don't know how to use the camera but here are some 4 megpix pictures

[PelagicMagic]

well its come down to the cannon A620 which is 7.1 mp and has a 4x optical lens and the fuji S5200 which is 5mp and has a 10x optical lens

I was told if I only want to use the camera for macro shots that higher MP will be better than having a higher optical lens/zoom because I will not be using the zoom when taking macros. The Higher mp rating will be more useful when zooming in on the computer to crop and edit

[kwjones]

Higher megapixels is going to give you more "noise" in your pictures. If you look at Dick's (Fishdaddy) pictures you can tell when he's using his DSLR. Look at the really dark areas on a digital picture , if they look really dark he's using his DSLR (or he's been playing with photoshop), if they look grainy or fuzzy, he's using a different camera.

Digital zoom really doesn't mean a whole lot, if you want to see what it does, open any picture on your PC and zoom in until the everything looks like it's made out of blocks. Digital zoom is basically the same thing, but it's done in the camera instead of on the computer.

Optical zoom is the key number. You can be further away and zoom in. When you get the pic up on the computer screen, you'll have a better quality image to work with than if you started out with a poorer quality image and started zooming into it, which makes it worse. Starting out with a good picture and just croping instead of croping and resizing is much easier and usually looks nicer.

Get a tripod...trust me on this if you're taking tank pictures.

Of the two you have listed, I'd say go for the Fuji. 5mp is enough to make poster size prints.

[Fly Guy]

Heres a shot without a tripod from a olympus 3.3 c-3000 zoom. The camera was one of the best.......many, many years ago.7 i think but not positive.. I just picked up a macro lens for it for $90 off of ebay.

[Loverotties]

My 1st and back up to my Nikon 8Mp is a Sony 3.3 Cyber shot and it takes nice pics!

[PelagicMagic]

I went with the cannon A620 now I got to learn how to use it