Need help choosing Digital Camera

[Double_A]

ftumch33-

Not sure where your Mavica problem lies but ours at work is terrific. Our rather old batteries last several floppies worth and hold their charge well. We go several weeks before uses they always seem to be go to go. The floppy as a recording medium works well for us because we can simply hand over a floppy disk to give files to another group or agency. Maybe we have luck because as a work camera we don't use it but a couple times a month?

I wouldn't buy it for myself, it's far to large and clunky but for a work setting I think it's fine.

B-T-W the Canon A-70 and A-80 both can take optional lenses.

GregR

 

[CNC Dan]

[ QUOTE ]
TOB9595 said:
Charles, I'd advise to get a multi card reader as you never know what other cards you may end up with /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Well I've kinda settled on a Canon A80.
Now I want one also.

Tom

[/ QUOTE ]

Me too. found this site web page

has the A80 for as low as $325

I wanted the Elph S400, but I wanted it to take AA batteries.

Does anyone know of a camera that is like the Canon S400 but takes AAs?

I mostly want:
3X optical zoom(or better)
Macro mode.
AA battries
Common memory meda.
not too big.

 

[Double_A]

CNC Dan

If you order online from a relatively unk company, insist on overnight delivery. This way you will eliminate those companies that will claim the item is "in-stock" and then continue to send you emails saying your order has been delayed (while they themselves order one gray market)

That was the advice from a Digital Photo Magazine to eliminate scam companies.

I looked at the S400 also. It is a great camera but I rejected it for two reasons, no AA batteries and auto only, no manual expoure. One article recommended if you needed/wanted manual exp get the A70 (now A80).


GregR

 

[keithhr]

check out the below site, they have a lot of store ratings with actual buying experiences from many people.
http://www.resellerratings.com/index.pl

 

[CNC Dan]

Through them I found the A80 for $300.00, but the seller had no ratings yet.(new seller) They do have an address in NYC, and I could call and ask in they have one that I can pick up, but I just saw it in the Best Buy flyer for $400.00. I think if you sign up for a Best Buy card, you can get a discount on your first purcahse. I am giong to the mall today to see the new materx movie, so I will check it out them. I am willing to pay a little more to have a local brick and morter store that I can go to if there are any problems. Pluss I can start taking pics right away. Sux to wait weeks for a new toy.

 

[Double_A]

Well I took the plunge and got the Canon A80 today.

I picked it up at one of my area's camera shops. Every price I've seen has been pretty consistant..$399..this shop tossed in a charger and 4 NiMH batts rated at 2000 mAh. I'm gonna look around and get a multi-memory card reader and a 256mb CF card.

B-T-W this is a little gem of a camera!

GregR

 

[nekomane]

I agree that the Canon A80 is a nice camera, but another improvement over the A70 not mentioned here is that they now use a 1/1.8 inch CCD as compared to a 2.7 inch the A70 uses. Put simply, this means that the CCD is much BIGGER which means each pixel in the CCD can recieve more light and you will get less noise, especially in the dark areas of the image. Catalogues and salespeople tend to focus on resolution only, but the size of the CCD is also a major factor in image quality.

Tob9595, you seem to have made the right choice with the help of posters here, congratulations. One other thing if someone else is looking at this thread for digital camera advice.

If you plan to take beamshots of your beloved lights, be sure to get a camera that has MANUAL WHITE BALANCE. You can use the WB you set with your whitest prettiest beam for a standard setting, then use this to compare how the other beam colors match up. For beam output comparisons, MANUAL EXPOSURE mode is neccessary, too.

Hope this helps /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[CNC Dan]

I got the A80 too. I love the macro ability.
You will want to get a CF card reader, much better than the USB camera hookup. I like the flip-out LCD display too.
I got a 256Mb card for it too, and would have got bigger if the store had one. I haven't tried having a photo store make prints from the CF card, but that's great that you can do that.
I plan on traveling this winter and will not have a computer with me.

Oh, and stay away from the Kodak multi card reader if you have win98, winME. It will only works through their crappy software, not with windows explorer. For win2K or winXP, the drivers are built into the OS and you just plug it in.

 

[raggie33]

my dream is a digital slr there so sweet, cause u can changes lens

 

[geepondy]

I played around with a Canon Rebel 300D, a digital SLR, at CompUSA. Focus was lightning quick. Shot to shot times were a half a second if that long and this was in single shot mode. Nice big CMOS 6 meg sensor in that it is hard to tell ISO 400 shots, even ISO 800, from ISO 100. And now less then a thousand dollars including a lens. But so big and bulky, although actually smaller then many SLRs. I think of all the places, I bring my camera with me. Hiking, biking, naturewalks and other outdoor activities. I would never haul this thing around when doing these activities. I remember in the 80s hiking with a knapsack on the back and the SLR camera bag on the side and how cumbersome that was. But still the camera blows away the smaller consumer digicams in speed of use and picture quality, particularly in less then ideal conditions such as shooting in low light where many consumer digicams will struggle to focus or won't focus at all. Not to mention the bigger sensor brings greater ability to produce depth of field shots where the small sensors/lens of the consumer digicam are very limited in this regard.

It appears that the speed of operation and focusing is improving on the newer consumer digicams and those just on the horizon but due to the smaller sensor size and packing yet more and more pixels into this smaller sensor, they can't overcome the noise factor in low light situations or using an ISO setting at all but the lowest settings.

 

[torment]

Just ordered an Olympus C-5060Z a few days ago. I'll let you know how it is when I get it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[raggie33]

i have a pentax k1000 a camera that was in prudction like 20 years or so,it a course is not digital but the pics it takes is amazeing.and its very simple to use and a course the shuters speeds are very fast but some 35 mm slrs are faster i thinks it has a 1/1000 shutter.which can stop most things in very very fast motion. but i realy want the advantage of digital,that Canon Rebel 300D you mentioned is a great camera.i can only imagine what will be avalble ina year or 2 ..very interesting link sony has some stuff up there sleeve dig camera tech

 

[geepondy]

Here is a picture of the Canon A80 taken with the Canon 300D DSLR at the local CompUSA using the stock lens that comes with the camera. It was a quick hand held shot so I think would be sharper still if I had rested the camera on something. I've resized it way down as the original size is 3072x2048 but changed nothing else. The ISO setting is 400. Try using that setting with your consumer digicam and observe the noise.

 

[raggie33]

[ QUOTE ]
geepondy said:
Here is a picture of the Canon A80 taken with the Canon 300D DSLR at the local CompUSA using the stock lens that comes with the camera. It was a quick hand held shot so I think would be sharper still if I had rested the camera on something. I've resized it way down as the original size is 3072x2048 but changed nothing else. The ISO setting is 400. Try using that setting with your consumer digicam and observe the noise.

[/ QUOTE ]thats a aweume picture.i hope the cam drops even more in price

 

[eluminator]

Enough already with your expensive cameras. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
I got a free HP photosmart 320 with a software purchase. You can buy it for $100, but you'll probably want a memory card too. It's simple and easy and takes good pictures. Built-in flash, uses 4 AA cells. I get hundreds of pictures with NiMH before recharging.

 

[Double_A]

geepondy-

I have absolutely no doubt your camera leaves everyone elses in the dust! But this was at the top of what my current budget allowed.

B-T-W, I've always had a philosphy of having two cameras. A small easy to carry one and a larger SLR. What I had before was an Olympus XA and a manual Pentax MX, yep thirty year old cameras. I carried that Tiny XA ten times more often than my Pentax.

raggie, your K1000 was the absolute workhorse when I bought my MX.


GregR

 

[kakster]

Just got hold of a Canon digital IXUS 2, very pleased with it. Its my first step up from the webcam types, and it's just made me realize how little i know about photography. I think once ive got the gist of things and decide to upgrade, the IXUS will still serve very well as a small, compact camera i can keep on me whenever.
Another EDC item....gotta find trousers with more/bigger pockets...

 

[geepondy]

Oh no, it's not my camera (the Canon Rebel D300). I said I played with it at CompUSA. If I had actually bought it then I would have been a little more subdued with my comments. Seeing as how people were talking about different digicams, mainly consumer ones, I only wanted to point out the advantages and disadvantages of a digital SLR. For my main digital camera, I'm still sporting a 3 1/2 year old Nikon CP990. 3 megapixels and $900 at the time of purchase which shows you how far the industry has come in such a short time. It still takes pictures that rival other 3 meg pixel cameras but it's terribly slow for what I want so come tax time I hopefully will finally upgrade. It will be a difficult choice on what to get at that time.

 

[Samoan]

If anyone out there is interested in a hi-res, point-and-shoot take a real good look at the Kodak DX4530. 5MP and currently sub-$300 at most major retailers. The main knock against this piece is that your options are limited (no shutter/aperture control, etc.), but the camera does its thing well.

-Fernando

 

[TOB9595]

The A80 really Rocks!
BUT
I have a question about the quality of photo a 3 meg bare bones camera takes.

I can use the A80 from work almost any time. There are times that It will be in use so I can't take it away for a week at a time.
I've seen 3.2 meg cameras for really low prices. <$100 for some.
I do know all the bells and whistles that the $400 is capable of and know that the <$100 cameras are woefully devoid of bell and whistles.
But most of the shots I'd use the cheaper camera for is the point and click.
Really most of the A80 shots are point and c.

So in general, is the pic quality of a 3 Megapixel camera with decent glass on a par with the 4 meg Killer Kameras?

I know that the focal length is limited and the presettings may be all there is.
But If I can save >$250 by buying the cheapie for the few occasions when the A80 isn't available for me.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
I'm just interested if the less expensive cameras fuji, vivitar, kodak have the same pic quality.
Would I really notice the difference. Not for printing shots just computer viewing.
Essentially a backup camera.
Target has a vivitar 3.2 for $88

Tom