I'm looking to buy a digital camera soon (have to post those pictures!) and am curious as to what some of you folks may recommend, what do I need to look for and will I need to get any associated gear. Thanks in advance!

Rick, let me get the ball rolling right here right now. First question comes to mind is are you looking for a point and shoot or an slr? Besides taking photos of yourself and your gear, what else do you intend to use it for? Family snapshots? Landscape? etc...

In reply to:

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Besides taking photos of yourself and your gear, what else do you intend to use it for? Family snapshots? Landscape? etc...

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It will be for general use Michael, no pictures of me but I'm sure it will be used for the gear , the family and etc.

Last Camera I owned was a trusty old Minolta SRT-201(?) that I used for years and years, it was dropped awhile back and thus this camera's life was ended right there and then . I'm looking for an updated replacement.

I'm no expert but I have an Olympus D-580 and love it. Does everything I need and more.

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/d580.html

I've got an old Olympus D-490 Zoom, that's now 5 years old and is pretty much bulletproof. I use it a lot in the rain and it's never failed me yet.

My newest camera (two weeks old) is a Canon S2 with a 12x optical zoom, 5 megapixel, with image stablization, a must for a 12x zoom. Cameras are a lot like speakers, everyone has their favourites and I don't think there are any really "bad" cameras made today. For what it's worth here are a few of my thoughts.

Don't get sucked in on the "more megapixels are best" bandwagon. My Olympus is only 2 meg and will give me stunning 4"x6" photos. It's only if you want prints at 8"x10" or larger that it's worth going over 3 or 4 meg IMHO.

If you only want photos to view on your pc or email then any old low resolution will do.

Forget "digital zoom" it's nothing more than an advertising gimmick, optical zoom is the feature that that's important. 3x is standard these days and is perfect for a point and shoot camera.

Also consider size, a large camera may have a lot of appeal when showing it off to everyone but one that can actually fit in your pocket is going to be used a lot more.

Batteries - try to avoid cameras with proprietary batteries. Other than $$$ for the manufacturer there is no reason to get a camera that uses anything but AA batteries. I've shot thousands of photos in the last 5 years and have used only 3 sets of 4 AA NiCad batteries. You can buy them anywhere at 1/2 to 1/4 the cost of some manufactures batteries.

I'd go with Canon or Olympus mainly because of the lens, ease of operation and the fact that between work and home use they have never let me down.

Oh yes, if possible buy from an established camera store rather than a big box electronics store. In the long run you'll get better advice and support. If thats not a requirement then by all means go with the cheapest.

What will you need? Well obvously a camera.
Then a memory card, the one that comes with the camera is far too small to be of any use to anyone. Once you have made a camera selection a good store can advise you on the size required, or I can.

You'll need a card reader so that you can easily transfer the images to your pc. You can also transfer using the camera but I prefer a card reader.

Software to edit the pictures.

Batteries and a battery charger, did I mention AA batteries ?? .

Sorry for rambling, I hope some of it makes sense. Digital photography is a fascinating hobby, I'm sure you are going to enjoy it.

I have a cheap Nikon 3 megapixel with the lens assembly that rotates back into the camera housing. Works just fine, with all the resolution I need. My only beef is that the low light performance is almost non-existent, so I end up having to use flash in situations where I'm sure I could have shot w/o flash using Kodachrome 25.

Digital cameras don't seem to be able to handle wide brightness ranges as well as 35mm film, so make sure you understand and can use the exposure control. In my camera you just have a bunch of modes and have to think "I want to open up 1.5 f-stops, let's put it in back-light mode" ;(

Hey Rick,

I’m no pro picture taker, but I work with two if you want their opinion. I gotta tell ya though……I’ve seen their gear and I won’t lug it around.

I’ve wasted literally thousands of dollars on gadgets, including cameras thinking I’d actually use them. On the "wasted money list" is 5 grand worth of Nikon gear collecting dust that I’ll probably sell. My biggest complaint with cameras, is If it’s too big, it stays at home.

So I’d recommend you forgo all the bells and whistles and get something that you can drop in a pocket or hang around your neck. You’ll take it with you wherever you go and take a gazillion pictures if it’s handy and easy to use. At lest that’s what I do. My little camera goes everywhere I go and I actually use it. But don’t get too carried away with size. Too small is not a good thing either. If they’re too small, believe it or not, it’s difficult to take a picture with them. They get so small that it’s difficult to keep the little buggers steady while taking a shot. Plus, the friggin buttons are too small for fat fingers. The ultra compacts fall in the too small category for me. Compacts are about right.

Besides the actual size, second to me is zoom. I’d get no less than a 5X optical zoom.

After that, look at battery life. Don’t matter to me what type or if they are proprietary, so long as it lasts a long time.

Them comes video capability. It’s pretty cool to take a 30 second video from time to time. Like when your son is catching some air on that thumper…..

Lastly, look at picture speed. Nothing more irritating than missing a shot because the stupid thing is still storing the last image. Some cameras take shots as fast as you push the button, others think, and think, and think, and you miss the shot.

I’ve got a pentax optio 555 – a 5X, 5 mega pixel, and I bought my girlfriend one of those little weather resistant Olympus stylus units (410 I think) – a 3X, 4 mega pixel. If the Olympus was a 5X, it’d be about perfect for me. The pentax is just a tad too big and way too slow. Both take wonderful pictures, but her Olympus is the one we grab whenever we go somewhere.

I’ve also bought close to twenty of the little buggers for my department at work. Nothing better than a picture to tell a story with an email, so I encourage my team to use them. I also let them pick out their own. That being said, I haven’t seen any that I like better than the Olympus, or Pentax.

There’s a couple pretty good review sights that you ought to spend some time looking over.

Dave’s sight is one that my two pro buddies like. This sight seems to be the most impartial without the BS. http://www.imaging-resource.com/

Another good one is…
http://www.dpreview.com/

hope that's some help. .........mike

Hey Rick,
Wayne (FordPerfect) and Mike (mdrew) make very valid points. Don't get sucked into the "big megapixel" unless you do very large prints. I have a Fuji S7000, which I am very happy with, and rarely set it above 3MP. The other biggie is that if you aren't going to buy a true SLR with interchangable lenses, buy one with the largest optical zoom you can find.

Since you had a fully manual 35mm, I think you will be disappointed with EVERY point & shoot digital you try. Even the "Prosumer" cameras such as mine, have more control, but may still disappoint. Also, shutter lag may be an issue for you.

Good luck, dpreview that Mike suggested is an excellent resource.

Shawn

I agree w/ the idea getting camera that you'd actually use day to day versus looking at it from a spec standpoint.

I used to use an Olympus 2020 that had almost NO shutter lag and it was great at 2 Meg. However, I slowly stopped using it because it was too big to carry. I wanted a camera that I didn't have to think about bringing. So I went w/ a Canon S410. Good camera, relatively cheap compact flash cards that can be read on my PC for faster downloads. Not too concerned about the proprietary battery, I just bought a 2nd one so I'd always have a charged one. No issues there. The biggest problem is the shutter lag, it's pretty bad. I have to prepare myself if I want to take impromptu pix.

Canon's are fine, but if you do research, I'd recommend trying to find the smallest shutter lag. Sony's can be small but the Memory Stick is $$. The Casio Exoslims are very small and have great screens. And Kodak will be coming out w/ an EasyShare camera w/ built in wifi. Why is that good? Because you can print directly from the camera, wireless.

One man's "too big" is another man's "just right."

I recently bought a Canon 20D and love it. Absolutely love it. Of course I was using film SLRs for the previous 5 years so I'm used to the size and basically think SLR when I think 'camera.' The image quality is simply outstanding.

That said, unless you plan on making large prints (bigger than 8x10), then there are plenty of digital p&s cameras that will more than fit the bill, including quite a few that will give you much of the flexibility (except for changing lenses) that used to be SLR only - ability to control aperture and shutter speeds, fully manual mode, etc. But if image quality is tops in your book, then SLRs are the way to go (or you could go for digital medium format, but then you're taking $20k entry price )

Wow, what a chock full of information. Thanks guys for the imput, now I'll review and go shopping.