digital camera reviews

sylorna

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Ok, so I've been looking for my very first digital camera. In honour of my sometimes obessive personality (which neeever arrises when buying cat toys, I swear
) I have done more reading regarding the subject then most people should unless they're writing their dissertation. Problem is I'm still comming up empty handed. Perhaps I want the impossible.
What I'm looking for is a good, very compact digital camera at about 5mega pixels...incase I want to do some cropping or enlarging, but I know I wont use more than that. I want something that will take good, clear pictures in pretty much any light, if I use it properly. It needs to be easy to use in terms of all of those menu's and to fit in my pocket. I'd also like it to take more than 50 photos on a battery. That's all I'm looking for.
It seems every camera has it's faults, granted...but there seems to be reviews for each of the cameras that I've looked at which tell me under no circumstances to buy it.
I was wondering if some of you more experienced persons might be able to help me. I don't want professional photos, but I do want something that will fit in a purse/pocket and take good pictures.
Thanks so much
Jess
 

mikenealis

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Canon Digital Elphs. The wedding photographer I work for uses one when he's out with his fiancee and wants to take pictures. Fits in the inside breast pocket of a suit coat quite well, so fitting in a purse probably won't be a problem. Powershot S500 is a 5.0MP camera. Not 100% sure of battery life, but I'm sure you'll have no problem getting 50+ pictures out of a battery. It's a point and shoot, so you won't have to worry about f-stops, EV, shutter speeds, or anything else you don't wnat to worry about. IIRC, though, there are settings on the camera that let you mess with some of the exposure... uh... stuff.

Hope that helps ya'.
 

me-n-my guys

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I recently got a Nikon CoolPix 5900, & love it! Minus the bulges, it's about the size of a box pack of cigarettes, has the rechargeable battery & decent features-it's a 5 megapixel, but you can also set it for lower quality pictures that take up less memory, too. it's been easy to learn, & I am getting better with it the more I use it. It cost about 317.00 with tax.
Here are my closest shots I've taken- I had to downsize these to about 640x480 megapixels & had to run them through Photobucket to post them.
 

captiva

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If you are considering a Pentax Optio - PM me first! I have opinions.
 
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sylorna

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I was leaning more towards a Canon, but don't know much if anything at all about Nikons. Some of the Sony's don't look bad, but the price you pay may not be equal to the quality. I wish there was a good one out there where I could read the reviews and have a "yes this is a good camera" review from a professional. Something tells me though, that they're looking at these point and shoots with too much experience under their belts. Obviously a point and shoot wont perform in the same manner as a SLR....but then I don't want to learn how to use manual controls particularly.
*shrugs* That page did help me out, at least it's more positive then the others I've read. Eventually I'll get it right
 

rapunzel47

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You might want to take a look around Epinions.com It's all consumer reviews, and can be exceedingly helpful. By the time I had poked around there for a half hour or so, I knew pretty much what camera I was buying -- only had to check prices. And I have not been disappointed.

FWIW, what I bought (this was last fall) was the HP Photosmart 735. It's only 3.34 megapixels, but produces good stuff, and is easy to use. I can fill a 64 MB card (about 40 pics at hi res) and not have to worry about the batteries dying, though it complains of low battery long before you actually need to do anything about it.

Here are a few random shots...













OK, enough...whether you're interested in this one or not, a look around Epinions would probably be worthwhile. Good Luck!
 

jcat

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I recently bought another digicam, and checked out German camera magazines/websites beforehand. I then bought the camera that was considered to have the best price/performance ratio: a Samsung Digimax A6 (6 megapixels) with a 3x optical zoom and a 4x digital zoom function. I have it on a medium setting, since I send a lot of photos by email, etc., and got 106 photos on one set of rechargeable batteries (included, along with the charger). It was "listed" at $360, but reduced 33%, because it's soon being replaced by something with more megapixels. It takes an SD card.
I'm a rotten photographer, but my advice would be to definitely get a camera that has an optical zoom, not just a digital one. My old/spare Fujipix only has a digital zoom, and I never liked it for that reason. It also takes an XD card, which a lot of card readers don't "accept".
The pictures in my siggy (greatly reduced in size) were taken with it. Also this (posted in fur pictures)
 

spotz

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Most of the mid to high end Canon / Nikon compact cameras are great cameras.

I personally have had the most success with the Canon product line, and normally heavily reccomend them.

Feel free to PM me if you want any more info/advise...


Spotz
 

wellingtoncats

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Originally Posted by Me-n-my guys

I recently got a Nikon CoolPix 5900, & love it! Minus the bulges, it's about the size of a box pack of cigarettes, has the rechargeable battery & decent features-it's a 5 megapixel, but you can also set it for lower quality pictures that take up less memory, too. it's been easy to learn, & I am getting better with it the more I use it. It cost about 317.00 with tax.
Here are my closest shots I've taken- I had to downsize these to about 640x480 megapixels & had to run them through Photobucket to post them.
This is the camera I want!


I have a Kodak Easyshare and can't complain about it.
 

starlie

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Since I worked in a photo lab for 2 years, I knew 35mm cameras inside and out. Unfortunately that type of knowledge didn't help me when I started looking for a digital camera. For about 2 months, I researched every brand and read over 3,000 reviews, talked to a few friends of mine (they're professional photographers) and finally decided on a Pentax Optio 555 (the link for the specifications are below). When I got it back on December 2003, it had only been out on the market for 2 months but it had really good reviews. To make a long story short, I LOVE my camera. If you want something small I'd get the Pentax Optio S 5i. My boss has this camera and she loves it too. Some of the features are different, but the zoom and megapixels are the same. The camera can fit in an altoid can and it's about the size of a credit card. I'll post a link to the specs for this model below. I also wanted to mention that their customer service is the best I've experienced.


Pentax Optio 555 Specs


Pentax Optio S 5i Specs


Some of the photos taken with the 550 model...









 
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