Digital Camera

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Sava




Yeah, I bought my sister a larger memory card because the one that came with the Powershot A520 only held 16 pics. The one I got for her holds like 256.

I wernt even further and bought the 1 gig card-- I don't regret it-- We can rake a few lengthy movies without problem and for a camera it takes a pretty darn good movie

Oh and did I mention that 12X zoom rocks-- It was the one feature I really wanted and Mrs Flubber didn't see the point . . . that is unitl I started showing her the closeup candids I was getting of baby flubber from 200 feet away

[CerberusIV]

I'd agree with most of what has been said already here. For casual use a compact with 3x optical zoom and 4 or 5M pixel quality should be fine. That will produce prints up to A4 quite nicely.

I can't comment on Canon as I've never used one but I'm quite happy with my Fuji. I'm doing some evening classes on digital photography and the tutor (who is a professional) mostly uses Fuji cameras, including compacts.

Buy something that takes AA size batteries and get 2 sets of rechargeables. If you are doing a lot of flash photography that can use up the batteries pretty fast. One of the nice touches about some Fuji's (not sure if it is on all of them, or many other cameras) is that they have a function to fully discharge the batteries. This is a good thing for battery life and the amount of charge they can hold. Otherwise consider a charger that does this.

Get a decent size memory card, at least a 128. The built in memory or tiny cards that come with the camera are almost useless.

And don't worry too much about B&W, sepia, digital zoom or any similar stuff on the camera. You are usually better off taking a basic colour image and adding effects with editing software afterwards (that way you still have the original image to do something different with another time). Picture quality and optical zoom are what really count.

[Barinthus]

Originally posted by Drogue
Really? I thought the A510 and 520 had an older chip, the one used in the A75, 85 and 95?

And yes, I believe it does

According to dashi's website, A520 (which was one of models I was considering) do not have DIGIC. Maybe I read the review wrong?

[Barinthus]

Just finished reading up on all postings. Thus armed with information scribed down on a scroll, this squire will set out in perhaps an hour on the Quest of the Holy Camera. Hope I don't run into a rabbit or two!

[mrmitchell]

Good luck Barinthus!

One of the nice touches about some Fuji's (not sure if it is on all of them, or many other cameras) is that they have a function to fully discharge the batteries. This is a good thing for battery life and the amount of charge they can hold. Otherwise consider a charger that does this.

Canon cameras (at least mine) don't have that feature, but mine came with its own small Li-Ion battery and a charger (the charger was only about as big as the camera itself). The battery takes about two hours to charge and if I remember right, the camera can take ~400? pictures on a charge. I dunno, I've never taken 400 pictures in one sitting, but as a sightseer or just an ordinary photographer, you ought to get a day's use out of a charge.

edit:

Power Source: Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery (Canon NB-3L)

Battery life:
180 shots with LCD on
480 shots with LCD off
Replay time is 150 minutes


Optional AC Adapter Kit ACK900

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2003_reviews/sd100.html

Which is about what I guessed.

[Drogue]

Originally posted by Barinthus
According to dashi's website, A520 (which was one of models I was considering) do not have DIGIC. Maybe I read the review wrong?

Exactly. The 520 and 610 are the same other than the chip - the 610 has a DIGIC II, the 520 doesn't. They're both 5MP cameras, but the 610 is a much better quaklity one. If you can afford the extra, I'd go for it, but both are great cameras, and the 520 should do what you need.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Datajack Franit
did I mention that I am backing my camera because it's kickass for taking shots of sports events?

I love my digital camera excpet for sporting events. There's about a 5 second lag between the push of the button and the snap of the picture...and five seconds is a looooong time in sports. However, I've had my camera for about 3 years, so they've undoubtedly gotten better.

[Drogue]

Yeh,and Datajack's isn't cheap! I'd love an EOS, but they're way out of my price range. If I started blowing mine up to poster size, or started entering competitions or something, I'd be tempted to fork out for it, but atm, the A620 does everything I want it to

[Barinthus]

Ah the young squire returns. Battered and bruised from battling the crowds of howling demon-possessed hordes of gift-returners, 'whatever' high school girls, and A&F models, he carries a sack full of loot but alas no camera!

But, have no fear! There are more merchant's dungeons out there and there's always the mysterious kingdom of Inter'Net.

[Dinner]

Last I heard Cannon made the best digital point and shoots. The Digital SLRs are still ungodly expensive for a good one but once they get up to 16.5 megapixels (the level of detail on 35mm film) then I'll buy a Nikon digital SLR to replace my Nikon 35mm SLR. I've invested to much on lenses to switch now.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Datajack Franit
Note: when buying a professional digital camera you should always pick either Canon or Kodak.

Canon EOS 350 D

Kodak? You must be joking. Like all cameras the picture is taken with the lens so quality of lens matters and Kodak doesn't make their own lenses. The best digital matrix winner switches every couple months and the best makers, Cannon & Nikon, regularly adjust which digital matrix they put in their cameras. I agree that Cannon has been making some great digital matrixes but several low end Cannons use nonCannon electronics.

[Timexwatch]

I want to echo the comments on the A620. I took my new A620 to Japan and got some awesome shots. It's got enough manual controls build in to allow amateurs and those with a bit of experience to tune the quality of photos that they take. I didn't dig the transition to SD (I had CF cards), but SD cards of 1 gig+ can be had for about $60 or so.

The video function is great, but 620x480 @ 30fps really really eats up the card.

The main gripe that I have is that it eats up batteries when you flash. I usually got around that buy setting up a mini tripod and dialing up the time for shots that need less that 1/60th of a second. Other than that, I'm a very satisfied Canon customer.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Barinthus
Also is 5 MP too low? I recall reading that it's recommended that people buiy 4 or 5 MP, any less and pictures would not turn out that well and any higher it's wasted unless you plan to make posters and so on hence the need for finer pixels

Not sure if this is too late.

Don't worry about the resolution. You can make prints as large as 12R with 4 megapixels, so that's not a problem.

A digital camera is the same as a regular camera except the CCD replaces the film. So what's important for a regular camera is also important for a digital camera - namely, the lens.

Check out the Panasonic Lumix lines. They have excellent lenses, esp the models with the 12x optical zoom.

[Barinthus]

UR to rescue! Nope not too late.